But the probable results of this pragmatism were entirely predictable long before the negative results could be observed...I've been saying the same thing for years myself. Some people don't like to hear it, do they?
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
What HE Said
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6 comments:
Your blog is a regular part of my daily crawl, Dave, and I really love it. But you should rethink any attachment to or hope for the political conservatives in general or the Republican party in particular. Just because they promise (falsely) to reduce us to serfdom a bit more slowly than the Democrats doesn't make them an acceptable alternative, and I would have thought the past eight years would demonstrate that sufficiently.
I'm not sure who came up with the line "Boot On Your Neck Party," but it's apt. Left wing, right wing ... bah! Same stinking carrion bird in between. There's no hope to be found in any of them.
Thanks Joel.
Please don't interpret criticism for attachment. I'm painfully aware of what you're saying, but do still find it useful to regularly point our where and when practices fall short of stated ideals--if for no other reason than it may finally sink in for some.
David
No, David. Some don't like to hear it. I know, because every time I tell them they accuse me of being divisive and rigid and ineffective.
Yet it is their willingness to compromise principle in greater number that makes us ineffective, it is their refusal to be rigid in maintaining principle that causes the division.
Somehow in their minds, because there are more kneewalkers than upstanding men, we should all knee to show solidarity. Solidarity? What the Hell is so solid about telegraphing your intention of surrender before cost?
The only people we unite when we do that are the enemies of our liberty. For they know we will take a step back so they have no incentive not to take a step forward toward their goal.
A friend of mine said something I will repeat here, I found it so succinctly correct that I asked if I might use it. He agreed. This man and I have argued opposite sides of many many issues, yet he is honest and principled, while I often think he is wrong, I would trust him at my back in any situation. Here goes; "How can any man who has been a father or even a dog owner tell me that rewarding bad behavior results in good behavior?"
Yet, when we try to illuminate the paradox of rewarding bad behavior to achieve good behavior, we are vilified. Of course, they must then attack us, because they can't successfully attack the logic.
should be kneel not knee. Prufe reeding is my fiend.
SA,
They're all Blue Button Lovers.
Not all, but a substantial portion. I once heard a psychiatrist explain how their behavior is typical of mild paranoia.
People who believe the performer on stage has singled them out and is directing their performance to them alone, or people who believe if they say the accepted thing to everyone they can, those who can reward them for it will hear and welcome them as part of the group.
These people are usually harmless and the only effect of their belief that they are being watched favorably usually results only in mental enjoyment for themselves. No harm, no foul, kind of thing.
But, yeah, you knew there would be one. But when fear of censure or punishment becomes so pervasive that a majority of people start acting out or speaking out in acquiesence of what is fundamentally wrong they become dangerous.
Our Blue Button Warriors are just the sharp end of the stick. They have been co-opted by their own aversion to possible and unpleasant repercussions. The stick has always been there, made up people who usually know just a little less than nothing about, whichever issue it is, being debated. Only now, we have people who should know better forming the point end and that makes the stick much more dangerous.
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