Taking Mankind to the Stars

Being a confirmed leftist, I feel sure that the issues addressed by Colin Shindler in his recent article How the Left turned on Israel will be examined from many perspectives. Not sure that I agree or disagree with all of what the writer has written but I feel that it is in many ways, not relevant to many left leaning persons.

Most ‘lefties’, most but not all, see the US as the reason for most of the turbulence in the world today. Not all but most. They cannot contemplate any US actions without relating to oil. It is an imprinted path in their mind and they find great difficulty even considering any other path to explain the reasons for the US actions. Similar to their attitude to any foreign actions by the UK with the EU. You find the commenters of CI(F) always returning to the mantra of ‘the US seeking to control oil supplies.’ They cannot quite accept that the US acted in Bosnia and Kosovo without any relationship to oil. Such is their narrow minded view of the world.
The Afghan situation, is in their eyes, the result of the US wanting to control oil and gas pipelines in the area. For some, 9/11 was a questionable event and there are continual concerted conspiracy attempts to ‘tar’ 9/11 as a ‘public’ reason for the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq.
Since 1967 – 1973, Israel has moved to align itself very much with the US view of the world. The US view is very complex and does indeed seek to secure its supplies of raw materials including energy supplies but, there are times when even this is discarded to the dogs when supporting democracy. I believe that the deep US friendship with Israel is based on the friendship between two democracies. The US could perhaps be much more secure in its oil supplies if Israel was discarded but I see no possibility of this happening. The ‘Hate Israel’ crowd on CI(F) have identified that the flourishing Israeli democracy, while not perfect, is one of the strong pillars for the close bond between Israel and the US (and the UK and EU for that matter). As we have seen by a succession of wannabe writers, CI(F) tries to drag the Israeli Democracy through the mud at any offered opportunity. And sadly, there are opportunities.
The extreme leftist view of any democracy is narrowly focused simply on whether ‘their views’ are current policy. Tony Blair was definitely not an extreme lefty and they hated him when they saw how popular his centrist policies had become. The Iraq war provided them with an excellent opportunity to bring about his downfall praying mainly on his aligning with the ‘hated United States of America’. Sadly, too many UK citizens have not realized their precarious position in the world today. Even in 1982 when Margaret Thatcher’s fleet sailed to ‘liberate’ the Falklands’ from the wicked ‘Argos’, the US had to provide satellite intelligence to enable the UK ‘fleet’ to assemble next to the Falklands and eventually ‘liberate’ it.
It seems to me that the modern ‘extreme lefty’, (loony leftie), doesn’t relate to the history of the Soviet Union more than a passing thought that the USSR was an attempt to bring true socialism to the masses and it’s failure was a direct result of US policies designed to bring about the fall of communism. That is as far as the interest of ‘current extreme lefties’ goes. Even accusing them of wanting to ‘get’ the ‘Soviet killer’ is becoming obsolete. For the modern day loony leftist, the US is preventing the world’s masses accepting true socialist principles by flashing shiny cars and personal airplanes in front of the uneducated masses. The US is also trying to spread its ‘malign influence’ by forcing democracy upon other countries.
Their interest in the Middle East is mainly concerned with opposing the United States of America. Does anyone seriously deny that if the Russians supported the ‘evil Zionist entity’ and the United States was actively involved in bringing about the destruction of this ‘upstart foreign entity’, the loonies would be in the opposite position that they are now. Even if nothing was changed relating to the Palestinians. They would be condemning the Unites States position and demonstrating wildly in London against the evil Terrorist Muslim States.
I point out the immorality of the loonies. Many, many lefties do not see the world through this extremely distorted lens. Many are truly horrified by the current bonds between the loony lefties and Militant Islamists. Many are horrified by the inability of the extreme left to see that ‘base socialist principles’ are unworkable and lead to negative distortions of the ability of a country to make it a desirable place to live for all its citizens.
In the words of Nick Cohen, Capitalism beat Socialism ‘hands down’.
As a leftie, this is what guides me.
Within this framework, the United States is a benevolent master. Of all the possible ‘masters’ available, none come even close to the United States in trying to build a just and prosperous society for all of its citizens. It is constantly adjusting itself to accommodate a changing world situation. It also tries to keep religion at arms length. A very important feature for an ‘evil and wicked aethist’ like myself.
However, after all that has been said, the US is the country that will lead in taking mankind to the stars.
Not China. Not Russia. Not Brazil and certainly not the Caliphate.