Want To Be Miserable? Compare To The Ideal.

In personal life, no matter how much money you have, someone has more. You aren’t married? Compare yourself to those with terrific spouses, not with abusive husbands, contested divorces and child custody disputes. You have no kids? Compare yourself with ideal families, not with troubled or ill children.

In political life, compare America to some utopia that never had slavery, because all societies did. Compare it to some mythical place that evolved without strife, not to mention civil wars or persecutions. But by all means, do not compare America to actual countries, all of which lack constitutions and bills of rights. No First Amendment to assure free expression. No Fifth Amendment to restrain the police. And surely no Second Amendment to guarantee all the others.

No, if you want to be personally miserable, compare yourself to someone who is rich, happily married, and with trouble-free children – if you can find one. And if you want to be politically miserable – that is, a Democrat – compare America not to actual countries, but to a mythical socialist paradise that never existed and never will exist.

Yes, Fidel got rid of Batista, but he brought in communist tyranny. Lenin got rid of the czar, but he brought in Stalin and communist tyranny. Mao got rid of Chiang-Kai-Shek, but he brought in communist tyranny. And John Gotti got rid of Paul Castellano. So what? He was still a murderous criminal.

Pursuit of the ideal is praiseworthy, so long as we recognize that it is an ideal and not an actual place or person. Otherwise, it becomes a source of constant envy and unhappiness, and the cause of much personal and political violence. The Ten Commandments instruct us not to covet. That covers a great deal of the leftist agenda. Maybe all of it.