UNDERSTANDING HATE FOR UNIONS AND TENURE

A person, who hides behind the name Greyguy, as part of a running dialogue, posted something I found very interesting. The entire conversation can be found published under the Personal Liberty Digest article, Would privatized police be better police? At the end of his tirade about how bad unions and teacher tenure are, Greyguy wrote, “First, pick one, tenure or unions, try neither [sic] or all you get is the weak being protected.” He wrote this as if there is something wrong with protecting the weak.

My point is that the entire system of government, not just teacher tenure and workers unions, is designed to protect the weak—that is its purpose. It is what distinguishes us from being ignorant beasts, which is what moves us away from elementary “might is right”. Political scientists refer to this as the “watchman” function of government and recognize it as the first function of all governments. It is so fundamental that I could not believe a person who is intelligent enough to know how to write would say such a thing. However, after considering it for a while, I finally concluded there is only one way such a statement could make sense to him and people like him.

I read Bob Livingston’s Personal Liberty digest for the same reason I listen to Morning Joe on MSNBC, which I do to get my daily dose of Libertarians and the right-wing poison. By reading and listening to them, I find what the current thing they hate is; there is always an underlying theme of hate in both but one never knows from day to day what will be the specific object of their hate nor knows its intensity. Unlike Fox News, that does not tell the truth so I ignore it, these other outlets twist and distort the facts to fit their agenda, which makes it interesting. I comment from time to time on articles in Personal Liberty Digest and invariable receive responses to what I write. Greyguy, apparently a Libertarian and an avid reader of that paper, only sees the world through his eyes, which means like all Libertarians he sees himself as living in a world of seven billion people as if  he is the only one who counts; in his mind, he is the epitome of righteousness and strength. Tenure and unions, in fact, government of any kind, prevents him from being the dominant force in their lives; therefore, they are wrong. As ridiculous as it  is, it is only with that understanding does what the authors of articles published in Personal Liberty Digest make sense.     

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