DDT (12)
Member
Posts: 4112
Sometimes ya just gotta go...
Winter Springs, FL - Occasionally...
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« on: September 29, 2020, 03:05:30 AM » |
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Summer Of Love…
Anybody else as confused as this simple wanderer? I never figured burning, looting, drive-by shootings, assaults, and murder would ever be considered ‘peaceful’. It appears, according to some of our bold political thinkers and leaders, though, that those things when done in ‘protest’ are actually quite legitimate forms of expression and are actually wonderful… Assuming, of course, those protests are being done by those more likely to be ‘our’ supporters and most certainly when those bold, visionary leaders themselves are not being protested.
“Good people just exercising their constitutional rights in an effort to improve the human condition…” They do concede a few of those ‘protestors’ are merely expressing outrage for some perceived injustice or other, though… However, they too are justified, nonetheless. ‘What’ is being done is unimportant… only ‘why’ it is being done… and by whom, of course... and, naturally, upon where the ‘bold leaders’ see themselves and their own advantage in the broader calculus. Political 'principle', after all, is determined almost exclusively by perceived payoff potential...
If we don’t like the way things were or are, or if the ‘facts of life’ don’t suit us, then we only need to ‘reimagine’ the historical record to coincide with our ‘right-minded’ preferences. ‘History’ should conform to our narrative, after all, not the other way around… To allow that revision, then, to become the new reality, thereby entitling us to do harm to others because they dare not share our ‘revised’ view of truth. If ‘they’ can’t get on-board, then they deserve to be… targets of ‘peaceful’ persuasion…
If any revisionist believes slavery or the glass ceiling were wrong, for example, then anything negative reimagined about those obvious human societal shortcomings automatically becomes ‘true’… If anyone should dare to point out even the slightest inconsistency in the current ‘correct’ view, they, therefore, betray their obviously racist and/or misogynist beliefs. What is said does not actually have to be ‘accurate’, per se, it only needs to conform to and/or be supportive of the latest ‘truth’ trends…
Politics has become just another ‘team sport’. With athletics, we can no longer simply be a fan of one school’s program or a professional team, we are also expected to ‘hate’ the arch-rival. If we were to favor Michigan State University, for example, then we must also despise ‘Big Blue’, or we cannot lay claim to being a ‘true fan’. Likewise, if we have a (D) after our name, then we must also loath everyone with an (R) after theirs… and vice versa. Outrageous vitriol is but one measure of ‘devotion and fidelity’, and accuracy is determined solely by one’s assessment of ‘is the statement made by one of us or one of them…?’
Now we find ourselves in the midst of another election cycle this time including the office of POTUS, so… All the usual wedge issues are being rolled out to bludgeon opponents. For example, tax-cuts and shrinking government to stimulate the economy vs. tax increases to punish the undeserving greedy corporations plus the awful, selfish wealthy and, of course, that will ‘stimulate’ the economy. “The ‘laws of supply and demand’ are not immutable at all,” we are assured, “and by tinkering around with both supply and demand, we can indeed produce great fortune and true equity for all…,”
“My bold, imaginative plan will make things far better and bring for the first-time true justice and real prosperity for all to our land!”, we are promised. Of course, the reason my wonderful, creative initiatives haven’t worked in the past is only because the ‘other side’ has thwarted the game-plan… “We will change all of that this time, however! This is the most pivotal election in history, and the fate of the universe hangs in the balance…” A hypothetical example of bold political thinking might offer some clarity here…
“We have a long-overdue need to address the grave issue of obesity in our not-so-great nation with a tragic historical record of social and economic failure, and I have a bold plan to end this ‘heavy-weight’ scourge,” it might be claimed by some ‘sincere’, great visionary leader wannabe. “People don’t cause overweightness, forks do! I will introduce sensible fork control legislation, even outright bans if I can gain enough bipartisan support, thereby ending this serious ‘weighty’ problem once and for all! We’ll also include ‘fat pills’ free to all through another generous handout program. The other side clearly favors and supports hypertension, cancer, heart disease, and early death, though, so I’ll need your strong support in this noble crusade…”
The committed team-players with the same parenthetical vowel following their printed name, of course, will readily see the virtue and wisdom of such a proposal… Those with a different vowel, predictably, will see only folly. The ‘news media’ outlets will also make that same clear, fail-safe, fact-driven, vowel-based distinction and come out accordingly with their own slant of the information and opinion presented.
The ‘ordinary’ electorate will, unfortunately, blunder on in its own sad ignorance, typically give up in time, then reluctantly buy-into one position or the other… sometimes by a coin-toss, but far more likely by choosing what is consistent with the vowel following their own name… All the while hoping we won’t fork-up the election by choosing the wrong candidate. We can all, however, take comfort in knowing nearly half of the ‘informed electorate’ will be agreeing with us… Ain’t hearing ‘the voice of the people’ great?
But what do I know…? Like everybody else, I’m shaped and molded by the information I’ve come across and the resultant choices I’ve made. I’m nothing more than the product of my own unique experience, environment, and exposures. I started out with a blank slate, spent my life gathering and adding nearby available data bits, and concluding what I did, all within social circles and societal communities with their own ‘norms’ presenting ‘context’ and parameters of what is acceptable and not. I’m no more likely to be correct than the next person… or wrong either…
Still, because of my own shortcomings and the nearly overpowering tug-of-war between competing external influences, I remain bewildered about this ‘summer of love’… I truly do understand the value of ‘peaceful protest’… Apparently I just haven’t yet learned how to ‘reimagine’ it… Anybody else having any better luck…? Maybe all I really need is another road-trip…
DDT
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