Speaking of Stupid

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Ok. I finally, eventually, get around to reading something about the US. Unfortunately, the first thing that hit me from the “internets” was this piece of undiluted ignorance posturing as intellectualism from someone, in my far off youth, I considered smart.

So why is America’s “win the future” administration so fixated on railroads, a technology that was the future two centuries ago? Because progressivism’s aim is the modification of (other people’s) behavior.

Forever seeking Archimedean levers for prying the world in directions they prefer, progressives say they embrace high-speed rail for many reasons—to improve the climate, increase competitiveness, enhance national security, reduce congestion, and rationalize land use. The length of the list of reasons, and the flimsiness of each, points to this conclusion: the real reason for progressives’ passion for trains is their goal of diminishing Americans’ individualism in order to make them more amenable to collectivism.

To progressives, the best thing about railroads is that people riding them are not in automobiles, which are subversive of the deference on which progressivism depends. Automobiles go hither and yon, wherever and whenever the driver desires, without timetables. Automobiles encourage people to think they—unsupervised, untutored, and unscripted—are masters of their fates. The automobile encourages people in delusions of adequacy, which make them resistant to government by experts who know what choices people should make.

When did George Will become so stupid? Trains are much more efficient than planes or cars over certain distances and destinations. Go to Japan, or China, or Europe. Or maybe he hates the idea because VERY IMPORTANT PEOPLE like him really don’t want to sit with the rest of us. And to try and stretch his dislike of those he considers beneath him, he assigns the desire to make transport better and more efficient for the user to some sort of plot by Progressives to control other peoples’ lives.

George, go back to writing about baseball.