Speaking A Most Uncomfortable Truth To Power...

The left just loves to think that they "speak truth to power".

The Urban Dictionary tells the real story:

A vacuous phrase used by some on the political Left, especially the denizens of the Democratic Underground website. Ostensibly, it means to verbally confront or challenge conservative politicians and conservative ideals using the overwhelmingly logical and moral arguments of liberalism. Doing so would, naturally of course, devastate the target individual, leaving them a stuttering, stammering bowl of defeated jelly. That or cause them to experience an epiphany that would have such a profound, worldview-changing effect that they would immediately go out and buy a Che t-shirt and start reading Noam Chomsky. Unfortunately, the individuals who would use this phrase have little or no understanding of either liberalism or conservatism, and the "truth" that they speak consists mainly of epithets and talking points, memorized by rote, which they learned from other, equally vapid liberals. As such "speak truth to power" joins other feel-good but ultimately meaningless gems from Leftist history such as "right on", "up against the wall". "question everything" and the ever-popular "fuck you, pig".

The phrase comes from the Quaker movement, which you can see here.

Here is an example of actually speaking truth to power: not of vacuous nonsense, but of speaking the truth in the face of power. For the English see this translated here.

The title of the article seems harsh: Não doe para o Haiti, or Do Not Donate To Haiti.

It is harsh, but not for the reasons one might think. Donate to Haiti, and you will perpetrate the continued subjugation of Haiti by ultra-liberal NGOs who waste the monies donated for their own pet projects against the best advice and explicit wishes of the Haitians themselves.


Go read the whole thing.

But the real uncomfortable truth for those in power - especially in this case, NGO Power - is the source of that article: a Brazilian newspaper.

The center of the world is shifting: whereas 30 years ago, you had the clear delineation between advanced economies with well-functioning governments (aka "The West") and pretty much everyone else, this is no longer quite so clear. Many advanced economies, pursuing some woolly-headed idea of "post-industrial" economics, have almost ruined their economies by driving industry off-shore and burdening what is left with parasitical entities that leave increasingly little left over for their troubles. Today we are one the cusp of an industrial shift that will be devastating to the West, one of their own making and one that few, if any, in the West are prepared for, let alone understand the importance and impact of what is happening.

Within 10 years, there will be more manufacturing outside of The West than inside; countries like Brazil, China, India, South Korea, even Malaysia and Indonesia, will be the manufacturing countries of the world, not the industrialized West.

The reasons for this shift are too numerous to go into detail here, but suffice to say: the losers will be those in the West whose jobs can be easily moved elsewhere and who fail to understand basic economics. It's not so much that jobs will move to the developing countries as much more that the centers of growth will shift as the developing countries pull themselves out of poverty and misery.

That is the uncomfortable truth: in 30 years there will be a shift from The West to the newly industrialized, countries with economies that are no longer dependent on commodities trade, cheap unskilled labor and tax breaks/bribery. With economic growth comes economic power, and with economic power comes political power. The uncomfortable truth is that the "advanced" economies of the industrialized West have saddled themselves, in the name of "social justice" and the welfare state, with so much debt, coupled with very large numbers of people who are either neither gainfully employed or, even worse, employed but failing to add real, actual value-added to the economy, that they will not be able to continue to dominate the world economy. The US may - may! - be an exception because of its exceptionalism, but the Obama Administration is doing its level best to destroy that exceptionalism and ensure a long, slow decline.

With this decline there will come a seismic shift in political power: the developing countries, for all their radical rhetoric, as they mature and advance, are learning from the mistakes of the West - the clever ones are, at least - and will increasingly listen to the Gods of the Copybook Headings.

As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man---
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began:---
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her mire,
And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;
And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!

The uncomfortable truth being spoken to power here is that NGOs are not the answer to Haitian problems: they are part of the problem. They want social progress to be given to the Haitians.

Social progress can only be obtained by one way: hard work, saving, personal responsibility, prudence and humility.

Not because NGOs spend other people's monies to achieve things that make no sense - go read that article already! - and do nothing.  Of course, the NGO supporters aren't going to listen to me.

That's why it takes a Brazilian paper to speak truth to power. A most uncomfortable truth at that...