Thursday, November 08, 2018
Chaos in the Tinderbox
Jordan Peterson references Taoism when he speaks of the significance of chaos and order as the polarities that drive existence. Pronounced degrees of chaos or order are necessary at times but, either side in excess inevitably elicits its opposite. So it is that anarchy is a foundation of totalitarianism and rigid structures breed resentment and the eventual demise of imposed overlords.
(Some) American voters of late have sided with chaos. The current executive branch has tried to maintain the barricades of some degree of order. Not excessive, if one recognizes that nurturing a healthy economy, maintaining national security, and respect for traditional guiding principles of governance are reasonable and stabilizing values.
Chaos is the hallmark of all socialist grievance. To disrupt, subvert, and chisel aways at the organizing principles of a healthy society is the means to establish absolute order over a citizenry. Free peoples feed an organic growth of dynamism and change within a recurring natural order that bridges the gap between creation and destruction.
In the mundane politics of our time, American Democrats have scored a significant foothold on power. They were able to do so because their underlying beliefs have been nurtured and disseminated by all aspects of culture. In any society, most people do not hold an active interest in politics and if they do, most do not arrive at their opinions after reasoned inquiry. They form a caricature view of hope and the villains who would deprive them of that hope. To many Democrats — and I dare note, many younger voters — a world of peace, equality, and progress is within our reach but something ominous stands in the way, mean selfish racist and greedy “fascists” who hate babies and small birds. This caricature has existed for at least decades in American politics and it has always been promoted to some degree by media giants and statist-sympathetic institutions. For those with short memories, the “racist” and “fascist” label was liberally (no pun intended) applied to Ronald Reagan, George Bush, and even Mr. Boys Scout, Mitt Romney.
The general consensus is probably accurate, that the Democrat majority in the House of Representatives will devote considerable attention to inflicting as much harm as possible on the president. After all, he’s guilty of “high crimes and misdemeanors” — the resurrection of the American economy, massive availability of jobs for all demographic groups, a sound and secure foreign policy that recognizes prime consideration of our own country “first.” Then there’s all that other horrible stuff like calling immigrants “animals” (something he never said), or proclaiming himself a “white nationalist,” also never said but widely reported on mainstream media platforms. Then there is, of course, the “divisive rhetoric” — defending himself from unfair and dishonest attack through the horrid act of name-calling. Calling fake news, “fake news” is now grounds for impeachment.
In the end, the degree of venom and violent vitriol directed at Trump will remain one of modern history’s greatest puzzles. Suffice it to say that “Trump derangement syndrome” has less to do with Trump and more to do with derangement. How realistic is it to scream, berate, and break windows because....the president wants to enforce current laws that allow immigrating people to enter through legal channels?
The very fact that so many candidates in the last election (some of them winners) are hardcore leftists should be troubling. The young viewers of Colbert and Trevor Noah et al. actually think such candidates represent an imaginary Scandinavian “socialism” (neglecting to acknowledge that Sweden and Denmark are capitalist countries). Welfare programs are not “socialism” per se. Bitter hatred for a free market economy and its high level if individual freedom is the socialism touted by the likes of Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - both steeped in the “teachings” of Marx and fond sympathies for the dictatorships in Cuba and Venezuela.
As far as the election goes, there were some positive points in it for those of us who favor the constitutional system established by the country’s founders. Of course, the Senate remains in the hands of those who will inevitably approve federal Justices. Also, the president cannot be removed from office on the mere whim of House Democrats. Trump, more than most, knows how to make lemonade when lemons are dumped in his lap. The Jacobin spectacle that the Democrats’ house will soon embark upon will reveal the absurdity of ever having voted such fools into positions of power. When Democrats pursue what they really want (when they’re not running for office) they look like total idiots. That, and a few more high profile reports (only on FOX NEWS) of rape, murder, and drunk driving accidents by people in the country illegally, should remind most citizens that there are saner approaches to “immigration.”
If Trump’s party had a clean sweep win, there would be massive upheaval and rioting in the streets by those who don’t like free elections and the choices of fellow citizens (conservatives, you will note, don’t do that). With the Democomms having won the house, there will still be massive upheaval and rioting by the left’s mobs of Soros-fueled chaos.
Atifa and other fifth-column rabble will continue their violent support for chaos and their mission will be aided by a branch of government now heavily weighted with sympathy and support. Maxine Waters and CNN are not going to be renouncing such groups as communist agitators. In the end, the left wing of the Democrats’ party (now the dominant voice) and thugs like Antifa are on the same page. They both want chaos and the collapse of “the old order” — a two-century old constitutional republic — in the belief that they will then be able to establish a new order...under themselves of course.
Andrew Breibart famously noted that politics is downstream from culture. As long as America’s culture remains in the hands of statist fools, elections will continue on the slow (but quickening) path toward punitive statism. The orchestrated mobs in the street will be in kindred sympathy with the buffoons in committee chambers, and the tinderbox of governance will burn on an altar of chaos.
Monday, November 05, 2018
The struggle to Merely be Left Alone
(...is it really too much to ask?)
For those so refined, the prime struggle of existence is between those who wish to be left alone with knowledge, peace, and beauty,...and those who wish to deprive them of these simple things.
