The War On Compassion

     There have been quite a few “war on” initiatives popularized by the statists of our formerly free nation. I’m sure you can name a few names without straining: “War on Drugs,” “War on Poverty,” and “War on Terror” practically leap to mind. Note that in each of those cases, “war” is being declared against something which no sane man would expect to meet on a battlefield. That’s characteristic of the contemporary statist rhetorician. “War” metaphors are galvanizing. They’re useful for rallying the citizenry to declare its hostility to something they needn’t actually take up arms to “fight.”

     I’m reminded once again of a fictional passage:

     “The meeting was held on a spring night, twelve years ago. The six thousand of us were crowded on bleachers built way up to the rafters of the plant’s largest hangar. We had just voted for the new plan and we were in an edgy sort of mood, making too much noise, cheering the people’s victory, threatening some kind of unknown enemies and spoiling for a fight, like bullies with an uneasy conscience. There were white arclights beating down on us and we felt kind of touchy and raw, and we were an ugly, dangerous mob in that moment.”

     [Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged]

     That was, of course, the itinerant Jeff Allen describing to Dagny Taggart the scene at the Twentieth Century Motor Company, on the night the workforce voted to collectivize itself under the mantra From each according to his ability; to each according to his need. “Spoiling for a fight?” Possibly. But it would be more appropriate, and possibly more accurate, to say that those workers anticipated “fighting for a spoil.”

     That’s what looters do. They seek targets to loot. If they succeed in destroying one, they then fight over who will claim what share of the corpse.

     And with that as the tonal backdrop, let’s talk about crisis pregnancy centers.

     The idea that pregnancy could be a “crisis” is relatively new. Of course, there have always been women who discovered that they were unwillingly pregnant. However, before the Abortion Era, while it wasn’t quite “just one of those things,” at least it was a chance the mother-to-be knew she’d taken by having unprotected sexual intercourse. It wasn’t a crisis; it and its sequel, motherhood, were things with which she’d just have to cope. They were ordinary human conditions.

     The “crisis” is of recent vintage. It occurs entirely in the mind of the unwillingly pregnant woman. And it is to a large extent fatuous, for never before in history has unwed motherhood been so generously treated. Never before has social tolerance for illegitimacy been the norm, as it is today. Never before has the unwed mother had access to so many supports for her plight.

     Be that as it may, the notion of “crisis pregnancy” is with us. It’s given rise to the “crisis pregnancy center:” a resource for the unhappily pregnant woman who seeks aid and counsel. There are several thousand such centers in these United States. Most of them are nondenominationally Christian in orientation. Few impose any monetary cost on the mother-to-be. They’re largely supported by donations from well-wishers and pro-life groups.

     Could any extension of human kindness be more generous or loving? It’s a perfect example of a corporal work of mercy. It extends arms of benevolence and beneficence toward the mother-to-be. It assures her that all will be, if not strictly “well,” at least bearable – and that there will be help. The crisis pregnancy center is a pure instantiation of true and selfless compassion.

     So naturally, the Left hates them and wants to destroy them:

     Let’s get one thing straight: The Left doesn’t care about women with unplanned pregnancies. They only care about murdering babies and keeping Planned Parenthood’s taxpayer-funded grift going. You know how we know? Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Eichmann) is trying to shut down crisis pregnancy centers that have helped untold millions of women — and saved the lives of more than 800,000 babies, just since 2016 — by providing prenatal care and ultrasounds, parenting classes, counseling, diapers, other baby supplies including formula and furniture, and access to social services. But that’s not good enough for Liz Warren because those centers refuse to shed innocent blood.

     On Wednesday Warren said, “Here in Massachusetts, these so-called crisis pregnancy centers outnumber genuine abortion clinics three to one.”

     She accused crisis pregnancy centers of tricking women into visiting the clinics thinking they’ll be able to get an abortion and then pulling a bait-and-switch in order to harm them. “That needs to stop. We need to put a stop to that in Massachusetts right now,” she declared.

     Reflect on that for a moment while I fetch more coffee.

     Elizabeth Warren is one of the poster-girls for evil in our time. (Enumerate them at your leisure. Perhaps you might make a gallery of them. Darts aficionadi, take note.) Her lies, her naked power-lust, and her inability – or unwillingness – to disguise her hatred are giveaways to her character, and more. They are signposts to evil’s program for our country.

     The Left’s description of itself as “compassionate” is, like all the rest of its statements, a lie. It’s window-dressing for its true aim: total control of all persons and all things. But the lie has served the Left more than adequately for decades. As Leftists are finding that their shibboleths are being stripped away from them, they’re more determined than ever to keep hold of the ones that still retain some effect. “Compassion” is among them.

     That makes the destruction of examples of true compassion a high-priority entry on their agenda, for their deceit cannot withstand a comparison with the real thing. Feel free to apply this model to the Left’s various other campaigns against charitable actions and institutions that remain free of its grip.

     I could go on for thousands of words more, but the point should be clear. The Left’s preferred conceptual model – that “the personal is political” — requires the conquest or destruction of any private alternative to its offerings. The case of abortion is particularly significant, for a lesser Leftist mantra is that abortion is health care — a “safe medical procedure” – and that anyone who might seek to deflect an unhappily pregnant woman from the abortion “choice” is therefore interfering with her “private medical decisions.”

     Consider how that argument would sound were it applied to another example of Leftist “compassion:” euthanasia. Perhaps it has been already. And do have a nice day.