Saturday, February 18, 2017
REALITY DERANGEMENT SYNDROME AND THE MIRACULOUS ENCHANTMENTS OF THE UNDERWISE
It's not really about Donald Trump...but, he is the messenger.
I once read -- I think it was among one of Eric Hoffer's brilliant observations -- that mass protests and "revolutions" don't occur when a given group is fully under the thumb of oppression. Turmoil, resistance, rebellion, and general baseless complaining, occur when a given group feels that it's demands are actually within reach. When a special interest group is on the verge of claiming a prize, it demands the prize. This sometimes occurs in instances where the "prize" is a justly deserved application of fairness, as in numerous civil rights movements. Unfortunately, this is also true in the case of ridiculous temper tantrums, like those of feminist college-educated middle class control freaks decrying the horrors of living among people who disagree with them regarding the role of the state in people's lives. Sariah law -- no problem. A guy in the White House who once bragged that his fame draws willing sex play -- Nazi Germany.
So just what is the big prize that so many pampered Jacobin brats are (were?) on the verge of getting. How is it that newly elected policies of defending American citizens against the risk of attack and reining in the growth of the punitive mega-state has brought such passionate and often violent opposition?
Too bad there isn't a Bastille around for this group to play in.
How did the sentiments of Soviet authoritarianism become a bogus and stealth "mainstream" so quickly? One need only imagine the U.S. as it was before Obama. To be sure, leftism had tipped the scales in their own direction for some time, but it was Obama who successfully normalized the leftist vision and placed it well within positions of absolute permanent power. "America First?" That's now seen as a type of fascism. Unleashing the productivity and dynamism of independent businesses, large and small? That would be selfish and "uncaring capitalist oppression." Stand up to enemies who seek to destroy us and harm our citizens? -- philistine over-simplification. Obama and a leftist industrial complex of intellectuals, "educators," entertainers, and faux journalists have dutifully imposed their dystopian vision on common citizens who simply want to be left alone and kept safe.
When appraising the new president specifically, it's clear that he's not just another establishment figure from the sleeping status quo. But, his goals are not particularly excessive either. Trump's blunt personality aside, the policies he has sought to implement are on par with those of any American president of several decades past -- including Democrats. Can anyone really believe that Harry Truman or JFK would be arguing for the "need" to import as many people as possible from areas of the world awash in violence and authoritarian beliefs? Trump, Republicans, and conservative pundits are not the radicals here. What they call for is a reintroduction of sanity into the body politik. The left, feeling the oats of a mere few decades, now wants to steam-roll its way to absolute power. Their argument isn't that they offer a better plan to consider but that everyone else must be silenced and a one-party state established to centralize punitive authority over the wayward lives of America's citizens.
Among the left, those I've interacted with have either been naive and idealistic or bitter, vengeful and authoritarian. When we see marches and protests across the country one can be sure that they are being led by the veangful and authoritarian and followed by the the former. (The Soros funding helps). There's not a lot of room for simple pragmatism when one's ultimate goal is to turn the world upside down.
So what are the appalling attributes of a Trump administration? Strong on defense. Wishes to enforce current laws regarding immigration. Wishes to promote economic growth through deregulation and lower taxation. These are the things that people are marching in the streets against? Really? This is the new dark night of fascism? What utter nonsense. To restate my thesis; the insane fever pitch of leftist rage and the successful marshaling of easily duped fellow travelers is primarily a result of the left's success up to now -- up till now, they had literally almost succeeded in taking over the United States. One last push (Hillary) would have given them the prize but, unexpectedly, along comes the heartland's choice to stop the "revolution." The ultimate "counter-revolutionary enemy of the people."
Unlike Obama, Trump is not a polished speaker. It may seem like an odd comparison, but one could accurately note that Trump sometimes communicates like Forrest Gump. In making such an observation though, one might miss the fact that Forrest Gump could see the obvious and, in a sense, was the only one who really knew what was going on. All the sophisticates of the intelligencia see Trump's statements as stupid, simplistic and childish, lacking leftland's refined self-aggrandizing and nuanced "insight." But where has the "insight" of our ruling classes gotten us? To quote Trump, "These are some really bad people..." (referring to our terrorist enemies). No one amongst the establishment would speak in such bare terms but, when you get right down to a strait-forward appraisal of our circumstance, that is probably one of the most blatantly honest and factual appraisals one could make. It takes insight and honesty over erudite sophistry to state things in such plain but accurate terms and his largely working-class followers get it.
Like so many countries around the world, the U.S. has, in recent decades, nurtured the growth of a massive self-serving bureaucracy. We can vote for different presidents and different legislators but the office of Do-What-I-Tell-You-To-Do is a lifetime position. Bureaucrats come and go but the bureaucracy is the poison barnacle of state, forever affixed to the backs of citizens dumb enough to allow its initial grip. The state's bureaucracy is always reliably for...the state. In the U.S., that makes it decidedly "progressive" (leftist authoritarian). Something like a brash billionaire president or a shift in political winds isn't about to take down the tower of enforced compliance. And, if such opposition does emerge...they're not going to go easy.
To coincide with the left's ascendancy in recent decades has been a transformation in what they are and what they really stand for. Not a real transformation. They've always been a clique' of elitist control freaks. The transformation has largely been one of their public persona. Where they once sought power by playing the role of champions for "the little guy" and working people, they now unabashedly wear their credentials as bonafide social planners who actually hold the middle class in disdain. Of course they've always despised the materialistic "bourgeoisie" but, of late, will pay the required lip-service to concern for "the middle class." The left has always been, first and foremost, a movement of striving philosopher kings convinced of their destiny to mold and shape humanity to what they have decided is best for them all.
The leftist industrial complex -- public "education" in particular -- has successfully established the myth that anything to the right of European style socialism is a degree of fascism. Of course this is nuts. Belief in smaller decentralized government, low taxation, and respect for open debate and the rule of law are not only NOT fascism but are decidedly fascism's opposite. It is in this atmosphere of perpetual left-wing propaganda, that classrooms, entertainment, advertising, and ...ordering a coffee, have come to shower the public in the ridiculous belief that that somehow half the political spectrum is literally invalid as a choice in how we choose to govern ourselves.
Another factor that intrudes upon the wish fulfillment of the Jacobin hordes is the explosive growth of alternative media. Millions of people now have access to the other side. Decades ago, ABC, CBS, NBC, and the New York Times called the shots on everything. If anyone deviated from the left's talking points they were ignored or branded insane. Now, people are on to their nonsense. The left simply can't make any headway if it is honest about what it wants. They can only lie, pretend to be relatively moderate, or paint decent constitutionalists as boogeymen of fascism. The left's organs of propaganda are imploding and along with them the entire worldview of coercion that they represent
Donald Trump is merely the messenger. Will they get the message?
