The American Spectator

Why Do ‘Liberals’ Lie? and Reader Mail’s Misery and Missoula : /p>

I have found it useful to adopt the perspective of the political scientist Hans Morgenthau, who in Politics Among Nations, stated that people could be categorized as realists, or idealists. He then explained that, whilst both types wish to improve our lot in this vale of tears, the realist accepts the reality that exists, and understands that, given human nature, which has never changed, and never will, improvements, changes, can be accomplished incrementally, and require both persuasion and compromise. The idealist, on the other hand, believes that man is “perfectible,” that “education” is the answer to all problems, that we can attain “paradise” here on earth, and, most important, having envisioned the world as he thinks it should be, proceeds to act as if it already conformed to that vision.

p>”Liberals,” and I place that term in quotation marks, because my experience is that those who style themselves “liberal” are virulently narrow-minded and intolerant of any dissent from their viewpoints, lie, Sir, because they are compelled to lie. These are people who attempt to deal with the world as if it were the way that they believe it should be, rather than the way that it is. Every time they are faced with what is to them an unpleasant fact, they deny the reality of that fact, which means that they lie. They lie, they quibble, they fantasize, and they condemn any and all of us who try to deal with the world as it actually is. They lie, because reality simply does not suit them. br> — W. B. Heffernan, Jr. /p> p> In reference to Mr. Croke’s comment that “[a memoir] is not Art, therefore it should tell the truth,” I would refer him to Florence King’s Lump It Or Leave It , and her response to critics of Confessions of a Failed Southern Lady. To summarize, a memoir is an art form (though whether deserving of capitalization is another question), and therefore strict attention to factual matters can be a hindrance.