Honest operators that have no choice but to work with habitual
liars, quickly learn that the worst problem afflicting those liars, is that
they get to believe their own lies.
When this happens, the liars establish a kind of positive feedback
loop whose property is to progressively add more to the system that created it.
The unhealthy growth continues unabated till the entire construct comes
crashing down under the weight of the lies that have piled up.
Had you, my friend, been watching Clifford D. May's contributions
to the marketplace of ideas over the last few years, you would have observed
his incessant piling-up of self-deceiving falsehoods. And you would know by now
why it is that the monument of quackery he created during that time, has
reached the point where it promises to come crashing down into a pile of
debris.
But if you haven't been watching him, you now have the opportunity
to see his latest contribution as it brings together the elements that promise
to demolish the worldview, which he has meticulously been crafting during all
those years. It is that he is offering a column under the title: “The freedom
fighters of Hong Kong,” which he published on June 25, 2019 in The Washington
Times.
Clifford May begins the discussion by quoting President George W.
Bush who said that the desire to live in freedom has been planted in every
heart. Clifford May disagrees, saying that he believes such desire has been
planted only in some hearts. This being the case, it is crucial that we probe
into these notions because they relate to the question: Was this the work of
nature, or was it the work of nurture?
It is easy to establish that George W. Bush's view, is to the
effect that the desire to be free is written into our genetic code, and that it
is a universal occurrence ... his own statement so indicates. As to Clifford
May, it is not clear whether he believes that some people were born with the
same instruction written into their genes, and that others were not. Or if it
is that some people have lived through circumstances so harsh, they came to
appreciate freedom more readily than others.
Clifford May went on to describe the state of millions of people
who struggled to be free of the tyranny that was imposed on them by the Chinese
government; as well as the people who continue to struggle to this day. He saw
such “freedom fighters” in China itself, in the Tibet, in the Muslim region of
China and in Hong Kong where a quarter of the population came out of their
homes and demonstrated in the streets. They forced the local government to
scrap its declared intention to pass an oppressive law that was requested by
the Chinese government but was disliked by the citizens of Hong Kong.
Clifford May also went on to describe the struggle of people who
fought against the tyrannical domination imposed on them by their own
governments in Iran and Syria. He chided the “leaders of what we used to call
the Free World” for failing to respond to the cries of help from those people,
or for responding only anemically to them.
Motivated by the desire to divide the world into “good guys” and
“bad guys,” Clifford May sought to explain the disinterest of the Western
powers to the plight of others by blaming the neutral stance of the West on two
faulty theories that failed to deliver on their predictions.
One theory was the work of Francis Fukuyama who, in the wake of
the Communist demise, asserted that the world was on its way to democratize all
by itself. Another theory predicted that the trade and commerce, which the
“Free World” was doing with authoritarian governments, will bring prosperity to
those lands, causing the rulers to mind their own business rather than seek to
“conquer other nations”.
The failures of these theories gave Clifford May the excuse to
attack the Western decision to expand trade with China, and to allow it entry
into the World Trade Organization. He also blamed those theories for President
Obama's decision to pursue a lenient policy toward Iran.
That said, the stage was set for Clifford May to unveil––one more
time––his remedy for the ills of the world. Here it is:
“I am arguing that speaking truth to powerful tyrants is
preferable to shutting up for fear of offending them. Failing that, we will
become indifferent to the suffering of unfree peoples. Also, should we not be
seeking to limit our commercial relations with tyrannies? What is the strategic
rationale for America enriching, empowering and legitimizing adversaries who
are major league oppressors?”
It must be that Clifford May is not aware that the center of
economic gravity has shifted too far already in the direction of the Orient to
be halted or slowed down. Sooner or later, moral conduct for the world will
cease to be dictated by the New-York/Tel-Aviv crime syndicate and will come out
instead from a place where sanity will be the rule rather than the exception.
This being the case, Clifford May better start training himself to
write articles containing paragraphs that sound as follows: