Hegelian Dialectic

I don't drink Mountain Dew, but if I were stranded in the desert and needed something to survive and I stumbled upon a case of it, I'd crack it open without hesitation.

I also don't normally steal loaves of bread from the local grocery store, but if I had to to make sure my family could eat, I would steal it in a heartbeat. (And probably find a way to pay them back later).

And finally, I'm not a jaywalker, but if a child is in the middle of the street, all the jaywalking laws in the world are out the window.

The truth is, in extreme situations we agree to do things we normally would not do otherwise. It's just human nature. If it involves Mountain Dew, a loaf of bread, or jaywalking, it's usually not a big deal.

But there's a tenet to advancing Marxism that is downright sinister, called the Hegelian Dialectic. There's a wordy political definition of this term, but I'll spare you that. In a nutshell, it's this: Political leaders will create crises that change perceptions, allowing them to implement policy solutions the masses would not condone otherwise. In most (if not all) cases the people surrender their power to the political leadership.

These political leaders understand basic human nature, that extreme situations will push us to cross into a realm that was once not acceptable.

Labor unions use a smaller version of the Hegelian Dialectic all the time. They work their membership into a frenzy, causing them to believe that they are overworked and underpaid in unacceptable conditions in order to galvanize workers into demanding more and more from the employer. After all, if workers are happy with their pay, their work, and their working conditions, why would a labor union be needed? There must be discontent in order for the union to survive. If the discontent does not naturally exist, then it must be created.

A few short years ago, the banking system was bullied into giving loans to people who could not afford them, under the guise of providing opportunity to the disadvantaged. Dollars were flowing so freely the banks didn't seem to care. We're now harvesting the fruits of this terrible policy. I used to think that the liberals were simply being shortsighted. Now I'm not so sure. Look what they have gained. A ruined economy has opened the door for them to implement this massive spending that not only purports to save the banking and financial sector, as well as homeowners facing foreclosure, but it also has provisions for universal health care and other big government programs.

While we could spend our time speculating whether this was calculated from the beginning, I'm not sure it really matters. The truth is that crises happen, and as Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said, "Never let a serious crisis go to waste. What I mean by that is it's an opportunity to do things you couldn't do before." He may as well have said, "We're employing the Hegelian Dialectic to achieve our policy goals."

I hear a whole lot of people grumbling about how the stimulus isn't going to work. Those who understand the Hegelian Dialectic realize that it's not supposed to work. It's simply supposed to create another crisis that only our political leaders can fix, opening the door to more regulation and leftist policy solutions.

"Well let's just throw them out!" That sounds like a nice idea, but notice they don't take the blame for the problem, nor does the media hold them accountable. And sadly, people aren't analyzing the situation enough to realize the process that is underway.

Remember "Hegelian Dialectic". We're seeing it at work, globally, before our eyes.