Unable To Cope
Scandals related to the Obama regime are popping up almost faster than Fox can cover them (the other parts of the MSM evidently not caring). The evidence that we are being constantly and systematically lied to – thus being manipulated — is overwhelming. Yet, the Obamanation enjoys a positive job approval rating over 50%. Sane people wonder how could this possibly be?
I think I now partly understand and, that partial understanding leads to a conclusion I simply have no idea how to cope with.
We were driving to Ft Worth yesterday to keep an appointment – a drive of 1 ½ hours or so, depending on conditions. So, as is my usual habit, I had the radio tuned to a local talk show. The topic under discussion is quite beside the point. The gist of the story is that a woman called in to make a comment on the topic of the moment. The host reacted to the comment she had made by citing several known, openly available facts showing that what she was claiming was totally incorrect. Her reaction was, in my interpretation, that she did not care what the facts were, she had decided what she wanted to believe and she would continue to believe it no matter what. In other words, her position was based on what she wanted to be true, not on reality.
I admit that I have no idea how such attitudes can be dealt with. And, if as I suspect, this is a widespread thing, the situation seems quite hopeless.
Since my retirement, much of the focus of my life has been on attempts to inform, to educate and to challenge others to think, mostly by trying to restate complex notions in the simplest and most logical way possible in an attempt to make them more understandable. My thinking being that many of our citizens, for any number of reasons, simply do not fully understand what is happening around them. The notion that large numbers of them knowingly and intentionally reject reality is so alien to my world view as to leave me feeling totally helpless and unable to cope.
In my world, the essence of our humanity is our ability to reason. When we intentionally reject that, haven’t we become something less than human?
What disturbs me most of all (about myself and my reaction to this realization) is that suddenly the actions of the likes of Hitler, Mao, Stalin, etc., actually start to make a sort of perverted sense. Yet, the rational being inside me knows that this cannot be the answer because, if it is, then what point is there to anything?
I seek better understanding should any of you have the insight I obviously lack. Truly, if ignorance is bliss then tis folly to seek wisdom. In the meantime I find that there is much joy in simply sitting in my Japanese garden in the evenings, enjoying the plants, the birds, and the critters (especially my friend Mr. Squirrel who is quite the entertainer), partaking of a good cigar and a glass of fine Scots whisky and letting the world do as it will. If this seems overly selfish – weel, I dinna give a hoot!
Troy L Robinson
Troy around 47% of Americans don’t have to cope. Others are doing it for them. They are happy doing nothing while “others” take care of their needs. They don’t want anything to happen to their “King”. Otherwise they might have to work.
Jerry, you hit the nail on the head. I live in a college town, the Peoples Republic of Bellingham, and ignorance IS bliss! They don’t care about anything except nature and what they can get for “Free” from the government. The students carry around voter initiatives because they get paid a buck a signature, then vote in the initiative for higher taxes, when in fact they don’t actually live here. We should all do drugs. It would make more sense!
On my Facebook group, I have been posting and watching articles from BOTH Fox and MSNBC. These are a few of my likes and dislikes (oh, and apologies for my absence: I kinda burned out and dropped everything everywhere. But I am back! Forgive me if I don’t respond as much as I used to, though. I was doing too much of everything everywhere, as I said O.o):
(Remember, as usual, I am responding to the part of the questions I know best, and can comment on the most.)
Before I begin, I’d like to say that I agree that, of the three main scandals being put forth by the media currently, the IRS and the AP–particularly the AP–are the biggest ones. The abrupt seizure of phone records by the Obama administration does, in fact, cross Constitutional lines. There is such a thing as prosecuting someone for leaking information and using one phone call from THEIR line (in the Obama administration) to get someone jail time, for sure, but not the other way around. To make matters worse, when Eric Holder found about it, rather than saying that it didn’t sound right, he recused himself. On top of that, a Fox Reporter was named a criminal and a “flight risk,” for something (though admittedly, I did see it on Fox >.>) that does not seem to be a criminal activity on the surface of it. Of all of the scandals, the AP one frightens me. This is not because I think that Obama is Hitler (you clearly did not state that above), but that this is a Hitler-esque (As you did say above) records grab. I do not necessarily think that Obama is going to become a dictator; but I do see a future President could take this–were it found Constitutional–and limit the information that we, as the American public can see and get our hands on. I also think that, should suit NOT be brought, that Obama could abuse it as well.
That being said, I am going to talk about the Top 3 likes/dislikes of Fox and MSNBC, two stations I have been following closely.
Top 3 Likes for Fox:
1) Fox has been asking some hard-hitting questions, especially on the IRS, that MSNBC doesn’t even come close to asking.
2) Fox has rightly so, though sometimes to a bit of an odd degree, asking questions about Benghazi. There are few slip-ups. For instance, the question of “Why haven’t the Benghazi perpetrators been brought to justice?” Cue the obvious answer of “They haven’t been caught.” >.< That article that I saw was done very poorly. But for the most part, it is important to know who did/knew what and when, especially if there is evidence of a cover-up. (I don't agree that there is one in this case; rather, I think that the Obama administration is so inept that they literally don't know what their other hand is doing.)
3) In covering the AP scandal, Fox has successfully, and very obviously/creatively, shown the incompetence of Eric Holder shine forth. The basic question of "how did you not know about this" is answered by "I knew about the bare details of it and recused myself from it?" Umm…as the AG, you can stop something that looks (and should have looked!) wrong!
Top 3 likes of MSNBC:
1) They admit that the IRS thing was the wrong thing to have done. Good on them for admitting the Obama administration has done something wrong (more on this later) and actually explained the policy that led to the scandal.
2) They are, like Fox, outraged at the unprecedented search and seizure of AP records.
3) Finally, they have brought to light, through "Meet the Press" of this week (find it on iTunes as a free podcast if you haven't seen it) that Mitch McConnell actually SUPPORTS the seizure of AP records and makes me wonder who else–either Democrat or Republican–supported the seizure of the AP records.
Top 3 dislikes of Fox:
1) As I mentioned in last week's blog entry, Fox and the GOP are collectively spending too much time on "Who knew what, when." If they want to hammer on Obama, they should be finding out the top 10 things that went wrong in Benghazi and bringing those things to light. Were there general communications failures (Which definitely seems evident)? If so, how do we fix this? Then, you see if the Administration is on board. If they are not, they you have something to hammer him over the head with, much like MTP did to the NRA spokesperson over gun control.
2) I dislike the general alarmist attitude they have, as mentioned above, towards Benghazi. Especially when their article is answered with an obvious answer.
3) The most despicable thing they have done is that they have turned APgate into FoxGate. I know that reporter's phones were tapped/hacked/what have you by the Administration. However, I do not like how they have nearly completely dropped the APgate and made it look like JUST Fox has these problems.
Top 3 dislikes of MSNBC:
1) Compared to the 13 or so articles I see on Benghazi on Fox per week, I see, if I am lucky, 1 a week. They, too, should be focused on the failures that led to the event. Just because it's a failure doesn't mean it should be any "less" deserving of attention.
2) Compared to FoxNews, MSNBC sweeps the IRS scandal under the rug. They show the problem, but downplay.
3) MSNBC has barely even touched the AP scandal, even though they know it was wrong.
My thoughts for now, cheers, and sorry for my absence
Greg (Mutanatia)
Greg,
Good to have you back. My reference to Hitler and his fellow tyrants was to the fact that all of them (and a number of others) practiced some form or other of thinning the herd, something that might seem to help our situation.
The problems with that are: First, who among us is truly qualified to determine who should stay and who should go? Second, however much such action may seem necessary, it is inherently immoral. In our current condition, our society is in greater need of INCREASED morality than of reduced population numbers.
The “good news” (tongue tightly in cheek) is that if we humans continue to make no rational attempt to reduce our numbers while improving the education of those who remain, nature will find a totally arbitrary way of reducing our numbers while the education problem will continue to fester.
IMHO, basic to all this is the need to revisit/rethink the very notion of human “rights”. We all seem to agree with the idea of life, liberty and property being the essential natural rights of all humans (even though we do not always practice what we preach).
In my own terms, I posit that each human has the natural right to do and be whatever they wish, so long as they are doing nothing that would deprive others of this same right. But this has some very subtle implications. For instance, in a free and self-governing society, do people have the “right” to be uninformed, uninvolved and indifferent? One would be inclined to offer an instant “yes” to that question. However, deeper reflection should cause one to realize that the voluntary ignorance and indifference of a growing number of our fellow citizens is causing others to lose (or have curtailed) some of their natural rights. Likewise with those who intentionally plunder the honestly earned products of the efforts of others.
An intellectually honest society must acknowledge that there is no such thing as the “right” to ignorance or to plunder, and they must adjust both their laws and their attitudes to reflect this realization. The other thing, IMHO, that an intellectually honest society must acknowledge that for every “right” there is an offsetting “responsibility” and that the refusal to accept the responsibility should (must?) negate the right.
In summary, my distress is not just with our current situation but, more so with the direction in which we are trending. Since the beginning of the so-called “enlightenment”, humanity has been on a fairly steady trend toward improvement of our overall circumstance. In America, I see than trend now reversing itself such that, for the first time in our history, the coming generations will be in generally worse circumstances than those that preceded them. This is a tragedy.
But then, there is always that possibility that I am simply an old man who is losing the flexibility to change with the times.
Troy
“In the meantime I find that there is much joy in simply sitting in my Japanese garden in the evenings, enjoying the plants, the birds, and the critters (especially my friend Mr. Squirrel who is quite the entertainer), partaking of a good cigar and a glass of fine Scots whisky and letting the world do as it will. If this seems overly selfish – weel, I dinna give a hoot!
Troy L Robinson”
I’m right there with you Troy. Your Japanese garden is my Adirondack tall pines and your Scots Whiskey my Sam Adams properly chilled. The exact same place. Sometimes we have to be there.
P.S. there’s no alternative for a good cigar. It just is.
I am still “lurking†out here and visit Thoughts Aloud periodically to follow the reasoned analysis by you and Dave, and by the others who post comments here. I too frequently encounter and endure the frustrations you mention with a sense of disbelief.
Attempting to mitigate the frustration, I try to understand and reason what I’m observing. Recently I’ve been re-reading Edward Bernays (his seminal work, Propaganda, and other writtings) who pioneered the use of human psychology and other social sciences to design public persuasion campaigns. His methods are once again being masterfully employed by the Progressives…
“If we understand the mechanism and motives of the group mind, is it not possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without their knowing about it? The recent practice of propaganda has proved that it is possible, at least up to a certain point and within certain limits.â€
“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. …We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. …In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons…who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind.â€
I’ve also been reading the “blueprints†for Progressive “fundamental transformation†such as The Vernal Project, implementation of which seems to be well under way. http://www.vernalproject.org/IcD/IcD.html
Why it is the defenders of liberty appear unable to mount a similar campaign??
I too admit, sense I am at present blessed with the resources and liberty, retreat to the serenity of my wooded back yard to take in the antics of the many critters while savoring a home brewed stout/porter and a favorite pipe/cigar. Unfortunately it is only a momentary retreat and not an escape–in the distance and growing closer by the day my consciousness senses the encroachment of tyranny.
Best Regards,
Brian
Col., If I understand you correctly, you seem to be suggesting that, if some number among us insist upon being “herded”, the enlightened among us have the duty to “herd” them in the right direction.
Might I be so bold as to suggest that the elitist/progressive movement think that is exactly what they are doing. And, they are far more effective at it than the more libertarian among us because our basic principles leave us disinclined to “herd” people. We rightly stand for individual liberty and self determination which would discourage any urge to “herd”.
This leaves us with the age old question of what to do with those who either will not or cannot accept the responsibility that comes with liberty.
I should be sorry (but am not) to say that I favor leaving them to the outcomes produced by their own actions (or in-actions, as the case may be). While this seems quite harsh, particularly to any children involved, I honestly think that it would cause less total suffering in the long run. Some of the unfit would surely perish (and cease reproducing) while others, I think the majority of them, would fairly quickly wise up and change their ways.
There is an emotional “cancer” that affects humanity and, sadly, it is encouraged by many who should know better. The “cancer” in question is commonly call “altruism”. The best insights into the evils of altruism (that I am aware of) are found in the writings of Ayn Rand.
Troy
Troy,
You are correct on where I was leading with my question… those that embrace individual liberty wish neither to be controlled or controllers and are thus not inclined to employ the methods described by Edward Bernays to sway the “group mind†like the Progressives certainly do.
But in attempting to remain “neutral†and leaving the “herd†to their own demise, are we not ignoring the reality of human nature and consigning ourselves to an outnumbered extinction? Do you think these “sheep†are inclined to leave us alone? Such is the dilemma of liberty. One of the movies I enjoy and recently re-watched is Shenandoah with Jimmy Stewart because it explores this delimma–Mel Gibson’s character in The Patriot attempts a similar “neutral†view.
Best Regards,
Brian
@The Lieutenant Colonel. Good observations. You posed the question “Why it is the defenders of liberty appear unable to mount a similar campaign??” I suggest the answer to your question is within the question. “Defenders of liberty” although having the ability to influence or control others don’t have the desire or moral bearing that would compel them to do so. To attempt it would be everything they reject. Even if the attempt were made it couldn’t succeed with their heart not in it.
Excellent post, Troy; if for no other reason than you have coaxed some old friends, and a couple of new ones, out of lurker mode, to let us know they are still around. Your lament has obviously struck a chord.
For my own part, so many things came to mind while reading it that I could write a few essays trying to reply. Reserving some of them for later discussion, I’ll break it into chunks and mention a couple.
Taking your last paragraph first, your foreboding, despair, and disengagement tactic, obviously shared by our friends, brought to mind a reply I made only yesterday, to a post elsewhere. The subject was the rapidly intensifying civil war with the Progressives, ending in the suggestion it was time to withdraw our support for the increasingly illegitimate Federal government. I replied:
That said, I will take your sundowner technique under advisement. I smoke like a chimney already; but I used to enjoy a pipe and an occasional cigar. I have not tried either for years; but I will buy some on my next trip to the tobacco store. I generally eschew alcohol; because of my aversion to losing control of my mind. On the other hand, perhaps that is precisely what I need to shut the alarming thing up occasionally. Perhaps I will purchase some of that too, although it would certainly feel odd to drink it alone, here in my hermitage. 😉 â—„Daveâ–º
Dave, “Smoking like a stove” is NOT a good thing unless you have a death wish. Far better, and more relaxing, to “puff” (as in not inhale) the occasional pipe or cigar.
As for secession, I once held out hope that my state of Texas would lead the way but lately I wonder about us. Evidently our relatively robust economy is attracting a steady inflow of liberals from California (and elsewhere) such that, like New Hampshire, we are slowly turning “blue”.
This illustrates a human flaw that leaves me flabbergasted — people flee a failing place for a successful one only to bring along the failures of the prior place with them!
Troy
As I said, Troy, we are decidedly losing the demographics battle. It could not be otherwise. Texas is a microcosm for what is inexorably happening to America, and there is nothing we could do, which we would permit ourselves to do, to prevent it. Such remnants as there might be of our posterity, will eventually be on their knees facing Mecca five times a day, praying to Allah – in Spanish! 🙁 â—„Daveâ–º