“They saw their injured country's woe;
The flaming town, the wasted field;
Then rushed to meet the insulting foe;
They took the spear, - but left the shield.”
―Philip Freneau
.
And by a prudent flight and cunning save A life which valour could not, from the grave. A better buckler I can soon regain, But who can get another life again?
Archilochus
Monday, December 10, 2018
Banned Thoughts at the Zenith of Cultural Capitalism
In a world where assholes run the show, one has no choice but to act like an asshole, oneself, IF one hopes to survive.
If one doesn't Play the Game that way, and tries, instead to institute a Rule of Courage, Wisdom, Decency, Cordiality and Merriment, one winds up getting CRUCIFIED.
Extremely effeminate spineless girly men like Donald Trump don't have what it takes to be an asshole. Maybe it's all the decades he spent as a post-1964 Democrat, but when he's not blustering, he's blubbering, always the victim. The biggest campaign promise Trump has consistently broken is that he was going to be a dick. We haven't had a bigger pussy as President.
When this massive schism on the pro-communist America hating far-left between Trump supporters and Democrats that remained Democrats is over, I hope sanity returns in their wake.
I don't care what anybody else has to say, Cultural CAPITALISM beats Cutlral MARXISM any day –– crass commercialism, intrusve, idiotic, manipulative advertising campaigns and all.
An educated CONSUMER really DOES have the power to RESIST ad campaigns, and the power NOT to purchase various products.
A BRAINWASHED victim of Cutural MARXISM on the other hand is dlivers himself into submissiin to TOTALITARIANISM from which there is no escape except through VIOLENT OVERtHROW of the INVARIABLY oppessive regime.
Dn't beliee me?
Just look at BRITAIN today. The GOVERNMENT has taken it upn itself to DENY the will of the British people who vote for BREXIT two years ago. Not a FLAT OUT denial, of curse, but one of endless FINAGLING by the elitists most regrettaby in charge.
Defects HERE are now poised to do exactly the same thing regarding "The Wall" and other major issues afffecting the security and the DEMOGRAPHY of the USA.
To be honest, I think the Government is keener on Brexit than the People. The Government has simply lacked the courage to admit that its aims are impossible: maintain open borders between both Ireland (an EU member) and N. Ireland, and between N. Ireland and the rest of Britain, while closing borders between Britain and the EU. It simply can't be done -- no amount of political will can overcome this logical barrier. What's happening now is the inevitable result of two years of denial.
If that's true, Jez, WHY did the British People vote FOR the Brexit?
I am aware that Brexit was passed by a narrow margin, but it WAS passed, –– yet what is it? –– two YEARS later –– and NOTHING has been accomplished toward that end.
I seem to remember that you favor ANOTHER referendum, because you doubt Brexit WOULD pass now?
By that seem to be saying, "I don't favor the implemenation of ANY election results, UNLESS they support the parties, and policies that I, personally, favor."
I rarely quote Ducky, but he frequently uses a derisive term that this issue like a glove:
"PITCH TILL YOU WIN"
Is that it? If not, please explain why staging ANOTHER referendum would be either advisabe or justifiable?
ALSO: I believe Britain suffers from the same situation we have here in the US. The party and the policy favored depends a great deal on the particular REGION you inhabit, does it not?
Here, our (mostly blighted, and degenerating) urban areas grealty favor increaing Centralized Power enforcing the dictates of a Santa Claus-style Welfare State, while our rural areas in the main think very differently –– or so it seems.
Do you believe that the areas containing the largest concentration of people should always DOMINATE gvernmental policies? That would in effect be "Direct Democracy" –– something OUR Founders did everything in their power to prevent, because simple majority rule would be the moral equivalent of two wolves and a lamb deciding what's to be eaten for dinner I'm sure you've heard that before, haven't you? ;-)
It's just ginger peachy and hunky dory if you happen to be a WOLF, but it's decidedly unfair to the LAMB, –– or don't you agree?
I certainly agree about the danger of wolves voting to eat lambs. I expect you're familiar with Edmund Burke, the eminently quotable 18th century Whig usually acknowledged as the father of our modern Conservative party, who said "Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays instead of serving you if he sacrifices it to your opinion."
We both live in representative democracies, so I demand representatives that do not slavishly follow the capricious and unconsidered opinions of the mass population. There's nothing to stop the People from voting for a bad policy, whether it be cripplingly expensive, internally inconsistent, ethically disastrous or just counter-productive. If I understand you correctly, you would say the same thing.
I think "direct democracy" is usually used to mean voting on issues (such as our EU referendum) instead of voting for representatives; you're talking about the degree to which representation is proportional. I think proportional representation is an interesting idea with lots of pros and lots of cons. I believe it tends to break the kind of 2-party adverarial politics that I have grown sick of, and towards more coalitions of smaller parties. I don't know if that's any better. I recognise that minority groups such as rural regions might require representation above and beyond their proportional share -- I am not outraged by eg. the electoral college.
I favour another referendum because the "leave" option in the last one was not adequately specified and entirely uncosted. I don't believe any vote should be considered a blank cheque. You wouldn't dream of buying eg. a car on that basis. I don't know what the outcome would be (maybe a Remain outcome is slightly more likely, but the margin would still be small so the outcome is effectively the same -- I don't agree that a vote so close to 50% indicated that the People will the hardest brexit imaginable, and by the same token a similarly narrow Remain win should not be construed as an enthusiastic embrace of the EU; in my opinion a mature government that cared about protecting sheep from wolves would have been persuing a Norway-style Brexit that keeps us within the EEA), I think a second referendum is warranted nevertheless. Look at it this way, why shouldn't we get to vote on the actual deal? I'm actually impressed that the Leavers have managed to spin this as an anti-democratic idea. If the People have changed their mind, why don't you want to know? Especially now we can see what a real Brexit would look like.
The Irish border must remain open, or the troubles will probably resume; NI must keep an open border with Britain, or the Tories loose the support of the DUP triggering a general election. Simple solutions are easy when you don't care about the details; but these are not details. These are the f-ing basics.
The UK is a nation of people with conflicting aims, and reconciling those aims is not easy so I don't blame you for not trying.
Belfast still hasn't put away its barbed wire from the era prior to these recent decades of comparative peace. Is that peace not worth some effort to preserve?
“But instead of this world unification ushering in an age of prosperity and peace, as most globalists believe it will, it will be a time of unimaginable human suffering as recorded in God's Word. The Anti-christ will tightly regulate who may buy and sell.”
34 comments:
M.O.B. rule
Isn't THAT Democracy?
I've been thrown out of bars for "manifest observable behavior."
Of course, they called it "being an asshole" at the time
Assholery is a time honoured occupation that is very under-rated by your average Shmo.
Aye, dickhead.
<3
To borrow a bit from R.D. Laing:
In a world where assholes run the show, one has no choice but to act like an asshole, oneself, IF one hopes to survive.
If one doesn't Play the Game that way, and tries, instead to institute a Rule of Courage, Wisdom, Decency, Cordiality and Merriment, one winds up getting CRUCIFIED.
"No good deed goes unpunished."
STAND UP to be COUNTED, and get CUT DOWN by the MOB.
Look hat they did to Jesus!
Excuse me, please. I should have said:
Stand UP to be COUNTED and get STRUNG UP by the MOB.
Extremely effeminate spineless girly men like Donald Trump don't have what it takes to be an asshole. Maybe it's all the decades he spent as a post-1964 Democrat, but when he's not blustering, he's blubbering, always the victim. The biggest campaign promise Trump has consistently broken is that he was going to be a dick. We haven't had a bigger pussy as President.
When this massive schism on the pro-communist America hating far-left between Trump supporters and Democrats that remained Democrats is over, I hope sanity returns in their wake.
Oh dear!
Time to Say GOOD BYE.
MERRY CHRISTMA!
"Look what they did to Jesus."
Jesus took His ass whoopin' like a man, and got up from it.
I don't care what anybody else has to say, Cultural CAPITALISM beats Cutlral MARXISM any day –– crass commercialism, intrusve, idiotic, manipulative advertising campaigns and all.
An educated CONSUMER really DOES have the power to RESIST ad campaigns, and the power NOT to purchase various products.
A BRAINWASHED victim of Cutural MARXISM on the other hand is dlivers himself into submissiin to TOTALITARIANISM from which there is no escape except through VIOLENT OVERtHROW of the INVARIABLY oppessive regime.
Dn't beliee me?
Just look at BRITAIN today. The GOVERNMENT has taken it upn itself to DENY the will of the British people who vote for BREXIT two years ago. Not a FLAT OUT denial, of curse, but one of endless FINAGLING by the elitists most regrettaby in charge.
Defects HERE are now poised to do exactly the same thing regarding "The Wall" and other major issues afffecting the security and the DEMOGRAPHY of the USA.
To be honest, I think the Government is keener on Brexit than the People. The Government has simply lacked the courage to admit that its aims are impossible: maintain open borders between both Ireland (an EU member) and N. Ireland, and between N. Ireland and the rest of Britain, while closing borders between Britain and the EU. It simply can't be done -- no amount of political will can overcome this logical barrier. What's happening now is the inevitable result of two years of denial.
If that's true, Jez, WHY did the British People vote FOR the Brexit?
I am aware that Brexit was passed by a narrow margin, but it WAS passed, –– yet what is it? –– two YEARS later –– and NOTHING has been accomplished toward that end.
I seem to remember that you favor ANOTHER referendum, because you doubt Brexit WOULD pass now?
By that seem to be saying, "I don't favor the implemenation of ANY election results, UNLESS they support the parties, and policies that I, personally, favor."
I rarely quote Ducky, but he frequently uses a derisive term that this issue like a glove:
"PITCH TILL YOU WIN"
Is that it? If not, please explain why staging ANOTHER referendum would be either advisabe or justifiable?
ALSO: I believe Britain suffers from the same situation we have here in the US. The party and the policy favored depends a great deal on the particular REGION you inhabit, does it not?
Here, our (mostly blighted, and degenerating) urban areas grealty favor increaing Centralized Power enforcing the dictates of a Santa Claus-style Welfare State, while our rural areas in the main think very differently –– or so it seems.
Do you believe that the areas containing the largest concentration of people should always DOMINATE gvernmental policies? That would in effect be "Direct Democracy" –– something OUR Founders did everything in their power to prevent, because simple majority rule would be the moral equivalent of two wolves and a lamb deciding what's to be eaten for dinner I'm sure you've heard that before, haven't you? ;-)
It's just ginger peachy and hunky dory if you happen to be a WOLF, but it's decidedly unfair to the LAMB, –– or don't you agree?
I certainly agree about the danger of wolves voting to eat lambs. I expect you're familiar with Edmund Burke, the eminently quotable 18th century Whig usually acknowledged as the father of our modern Conservative party, who said "Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays instead of serving you if he sacrifices it to your opinion."
We both live in representative democracies, so I demand representatives that do not slavishly follow the capricious and unconsidered opinions of the mass population. There's nothing to stop the People from voting for a bad policy, whether it be cripplingly expensive, internally inconsistent, ethically disastrous or just counter-productive. If I understand you correctly, you would say the same thing.
I think "direct democracy" is usually used to mean voting on issues (such as our EU referendum) instead of voting for representatives; you're talking about the degree to which representation is proportional. I think proportional representation is an interesting idea with lots of pros and lots of cons. I believe it tends to break the kind of 2-party adverarial politics that I have grown sick of, and towards more coalitions of smaller parties. I don't know if that's any better. I recognise that minority groups such as rural regions might require representation above and beyond their proportional share -- I am not outraged by eg. the electoral college.
I favour another referendum because the "leave" option in the last one was not adequately specified and entirely uncosted. I don't believe any vote should be considered a blank cheque. You wouldn't dream of buying eg. a car on that basis. I don't know what the outcome would be (maybe a Remain outcome is slightly more likely, but the margin would still be small so the outcome is effectively the same -- I don't agree that a vote so close to 50% indicated that the People will the hardest brexit imaginable, and by the same token a similarly narrow Remain win should not be construed as an enthusiastic embrace of the EU; in my opinion a mature government that cared about protecting sheep from wolves would have been persuing a Norway-style Brexit that keeps us within the EEA), I think a second referendum is warranted nevertheless. Look at it this way, why shouldn't we get to vote on the actual deal? I'm actually impressed that the Leavers have managed to spin this as an anti-democratic idea. If the People have changed their mind, why don't you want to know? Especially now we can see what a real Brexit would look like.
Please. 150 miles worth of wall is all that is required to cure the Brexit deal.
If I were British, I'd start rolling out the concertina wire now.
The Irish border must remain open, or the troubles will probably resume; NI must keep an open border with Britain, or the Tories loose the support of the DUP triggering a general election.
Simple solutions are easy when you don't care about the details; but these are not details. These are the f-ing basics.
Sounds like necessary repercussions. Best hurry with that wire.
The UK is either a nation, or an EU puppet. Which is it?
"... And we are here as on a darkling plain
Where ignorant armies clash by night."
~ Matthew Arnold - Dover Beach (1869
The UK is a nation of people with conflicting aims, and reconciling those aims is not easy so I don't blame you for not trying.
Belfast still hasn't put away its barbed wire from the era prior to these recent decades of comparative peace. Is that peace not worth some effort to preserve?
Peace at what cost? Britain's soul?
“But instead of this world unification ushering in an age of prosperity and peace, as most globalists believe it will, it will be a time of unimaginable human suffering as recorded in God's Word. The Anti-christ will tightly regulate who may buy and sell.”
― Russell Kirk
Remember the Arab Spring? It all began as an argument over who could buy and sell...
I asked first: what would you considet an acceptable cost of preserving the peace? And what reward would balance the threat of its disturbance?
I would be more intrigued if you offered me an example of a conflict which was motivated by something other than trade!
Can't sell cocaine, can't sell health insurance across state lines, can't even put machine guns in vending machines.
Ever thought about abolishing the government?
________ Indifference _______
Beautiful bland indifference
___ enveloped me one day
Hurrah! thought I. My tears are dry.
___ How comforting the gray!
I knew no biting agony ––
___ no gnawing sense of loss.
I soon did find I did not mind
___ the ignorant and gross.
Then, Love one day was offered me.
___ I felt I should rejoice.
I rose to shout acceptance,
___ but found I had no voice!
~ FreeThinke
The Trojan War? The US Revolution. The War on Terror.
At least one of those is a myth, isn't it?
They found Troy.
btw - Only merchants fight over markets.
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