The Grand Illusion
Extreme idealism shouldn’t be enshrined in government or law, and certainly not in a democratic government. Ideals are fine for personal guidance. They’re even acceptable as governmental goals, but they become tyranny when turned into unyielding law.
Take abortion. Any policy that forbids abortion is going to kill a certain and not inconsequential number of mothers, as is already happening in Texas, and any policy that allows even restricted abortion to save the life of the mother will kill a certain number of viable fetuses. It also forces doctors to choose between disobeying the law or seeing women die unnecessarily. Why? Because extremist and absolutist laws can’t take into account all the possible health permutations.
Or take immigration. The current ICE policies, combined with the legal fallacy that immigration is a civil offense, effectively make no distinction in terms of guilt between someone trying to escape being killed by a dictator in their former homeland and someone who’s committed multiple crimes. They also punish infants and children who had no choice about where they were born or where they live. But then, why should one expect any more of the descendants of people who wiped out millions of indigenous peoples and enslaved millions of others for hundreds of years, who also just conveniently forgot that they are the descendants, essentially, of illegal immigrants?
And some of those who support ICE actions and policies even profess to believe in a God, whose professed Savior said, “Suffer the little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me.” And one of those supporters is even a pastor, whose professed savior didn’t say, “just the children whose preferably white parents were born here.”
Then, of course, there’s the problem of selective enforcement of absolutist laws. We’re seeing ICE agents picking up U.S. citizens because they “look different.” Add to that an administration that changes the law, without the approval of Congress, so that immigrants who were here legally became illegal overnight, and not because of anything they did, while ICE unilaterally decides that agents don’t need judicial warrants to break into homes.
But apparently that legal absolutism being applied to pregnant women and once-legal immigrants doesn’t apply to white male sexual abusers or well-connected drug dealers or white politicians convicted of financial fraud.
Fancy that.
“I am special, so you should listen to me. You should listen to me, so I should tell you what to do. I tell you what to do, so that makes you inferior to me. I am superior, which makes me special.”
I’ve never been quite able to get that one, although I’ve certainly encountered it enough over the years.
“All men are created equal” doesn’t define “equal” adequately, and the term “men” can be too limiting. But it’s still a vastly preferable approach to the use of power and who can be using it.
The reality is, these people want to be racists and bigots and horde power and they lie to do it and claim a religion supports them.
It’s true now with people in power claiming the bible says to love your own before others.
It was true when they claimed the bible is against Abortion but Numbers 5 specifically spells out how to perform Abortions and that you should force them on women you suspect of adultery.
It was true when the Crusades happened and holy war against brown people was touted as a cure to too many men with swords and need to control them.
Some people choose to be scummy and they’ll use whatever is convenient to justify it.
Power appears to be the ultimate narcotic. I’m not sure what the answer is. Historically I suppose fear (or ultimately death) could displace the despicably powerful. Of course, as a civilized society we reject those levers.
I’m afraid things look a bit bleak right now. I can only hope that Trump’s eventual passing will partially lance the boil – so to speak. But it’s probably going to take something much more shocking and horrific to change the trajectory we are currently taking.
A contributor to a news show yesterday said it will take a lot of public pushback and the effort is going to be a long term grind. He didn’t believe any sudden swing will occur because the nature of those supporting this trajectory will be digging in before any realization of what they’ve done will occur to them.
Sometimes it doesn’t feel like homo sapiens is very evolved at all.
There are always bad actors. There always has been and always will be. To have a society the bad actors must be curtailed. There are also good people who oppose the bad actors.
The tactics of the bad actors are often more effective in the short term than those of good actors. A team built up over time can be destroyed quickly with a change in leadership.
The tools of the good are stronger. It takes time to convince the people in the middle of the benefits of being a good actor and society forgets. Too many people have forgotten the horrors of the past or naively think it won’t happen to them. Some have become disillusioned and no longer care. The opposite of love is apathy and not hate.
Thanks, Lee, for your insight. As for ICE, it’s. telling that they operate in large groups. A single or pair of officers wouldn’t dare do what they do in a large group.
Rather reflective of gang or bully mentality and practice.
“Ideals are fine for personal guidance. They’re even acceptable as governmental goals, but they become tyranny when turned into unyielding law.” What about government which enacts laws that it then causes to ‘yield’?
Exclusive: Pentagon threatens Anthropic punishment
https://www.axios.com/2026/02/16/anthropic-defense-department-relationship-hegseth
The article includes such statements as …
“Anthropic is prepared to loosen its current terms of use, but wants to ensure its tools aren’t used to spy on Americans en masse, or to develop weapons that fire with no human involvement.”
and (LOL)
“A senior administration official said the Pentagon is confident the other three will agree to the “all lawful use” standard. But a source familiar with those discussions said much is still undecided.”
A government’s duty is to its citizens, and not all humanity.
Race isn’t (or shouldn’t be) an issue, notwithstanding whatever bigots think it should be; appearance of skin or hair has nothing to do with competence, although early malnutrition (or lead exposure, domestically) might; and whose distant ancestors got to this continent millennia earlier is irrelevant; neither I nor my ancestors enslaved or slaughtered anyone, so I don’t care who else’s did what to who, except that not suppressing the ugly parts of history is doubtless more honest).
But if someone is escaping a troubled culture, they’re probably bringing some of that baggage with them. So unless they’re willing to distance themselves from more than just the elements of their background that caused them to leave, come here lawfully, assimilate, learn English or ASL if applicable, and have a needed skill, they’re a liability, and we owe them nothing.
Nobody unwilling to act the part of a law-abiding western capitalist (which is NOT about appearance but about conduct) belongs in the US or arguably in any western country (Europe has its problems with migration too; even Japan would if they allowed more than a tiny bit).
Send help to where the poor or endangered are (privately, not government) if you want to help, and if there’s a way to keep it out of corrupt hands. But we are no longer the ultimate place of refuge, and should take down that sign on the Statue of Liberty; the last thing we need is huddled masses, regardless of what they yearn for.