Who really cares?

Gerald Warner, in his Telegraph Blog today, summarises findings on the relative generosity of what he calls Liberal Secularists with that of Christian conservatives.

It seems that the lefties like to talk, plan, agitate and command others to contribute to good causes, but when it comes to dipping into their own pockets they are not so forthcoming. Warner has evidence of this, especially from the USA, they they give much less personally than comparable people on the right, especially those of religious commitment.

(He also feels that the Liberal Secularists are not so warm-hearted or generous in spirit.)

If he is right on both scores, is there a reason?

Certainly among the chattering classes, the self-appointed guardians of the morality of others, there is often a conceit, in Hayek's term, which thinks that what the intelligentsia feels is somehow superior to other convictions and must therefore be imposed on lesser mortals.

There is a big pride on the part of those who will construct utopia, and who will broke no deviation or dissension. What is required of them, they have decided, is their intellectual superiority, rather than their personal concern with the "untermenschen". much less their contact with them.

You can have a fine game with committed socialists by suggesting that they set the whole business in motion with a little bit of practical socialism which issues in personal giving and living by their convictions. They will tie themselves in knots, as they try to justify living like the capitalists they despise and ignore the poor they pretend to champion.