Sugar Addicts

Why are so many Americans devout liberals?  Why do so many good people—and make no mistake, lots of liberals are very good people—cling to failed social policies with a death-grip?  There are numerous reasons, but one of them may be surprising.

Liberals are like sugar addicts.  They must get their fix of sweetness and light or they go into a painful withdrawal.  Never mind that an excess of niceness is injuring them and those they hold dear.

Once upon a time, sugar was hard to come by.  When we were hunter-gatherers, our intake generally came from fruits and berries.  Occasionally we got lucky and happened upon a beehive filled with honey.  Nevertheless, extracting this treasure took guts and luck.

Eventually, however, we learned to refine sugar from sugar cane.  And once we did, the immediate impact was a surge in tooth decay.  In time, we also fell victim to an epidemic of diabetes.  Our collective pancreases were overwhelmed by a glut they could not handle.

Yet this did not stop people from craving sugar.  Nowadays it is even added to pre-packaged foods, crammed into ice cream, and disguised as candy.  We simply must have it or we go into paroxysms of distress.

It’s the same way with social niceness.  Once life was hard.  Most people literally earned a living by the sweat of their brows.  Nonetheless, the majority just scraped by.  They did not have the luxury of endlessly agonizing over the troubles of others.

Still, we are rich and so we worry about poverty, justice, and peace.  Happily, those of us who are comfortable also want others to be comfortable.  Liberals, unfortunately, over do.  They are so concerned with being nice that they cause irreparable damage.

Consider poverty.  By the 1950’s the United States had grown so wealthy John Kenneth Galbraith argued that an affluent society should share its bounty with the less well off.  Within a decade, the war on poverty was launched.  This was intended to eliminate destitution once and for all.

Yet what was the upshot?  It was in increase in social dependency.  People who received more than enough to meet their basic needs without having to work decided it was better to procure a government check than seek employment.  On one level this made sense, but on another it deprived them of self-respect.

Or reflect on crime.  Once, in the old West, horse thieves were hanged on the spot.  Settlers who depended on this mode of transportation for survival were in no mood to be understanding when deprived of it.

We, in contrast, and so well-off that when we are robbed, we do not feel existentially threatened.  And so we are merciful.  We allow thugs to rampage through Baltimore on the theory they need to vent.  That this would drive up the homicide rate was recognized only in retrospect.

Or contemplate our desire for peace.  Just as in the old Coke commercial, we want the people of the world to hold hands and sing in perfect harmony.  Except that they don’t.  For one thing, most of them are not as well heeled as we are.  They still have aspirations to fill.

And so when we go to war we impose rules of engagement designed to abolish collateral damage.  No one is supposed to get hurt—not even the bad guys.  After all, why should they die when we are living in such comfort?  This would be unfair.

And so we behave like spoiled children who want to consume all the candy on the table.  We—most often liberals—do not worry about getting a bellyache or, for that matter, contracting diabetes.  So what if more people are trapped in poverty, victimized by crime, or ruined by war.  At least we tried.

Sadly, a smug inability to recognize our limitations precipitates more harm than good.  Virtuous intentions are not enough when an excess of sweetness can be just as lethal as premeditated villainy.

Melvyn L. Fein, Ph.D.

Professor of Sociology

Kennesaw State University