Update on post of 5/15/16:
Here we are again, with the anti-Trumpian faction using the Lawfare tactic of eliminating a political opponent. Trump was indicted, so the question is now: What response shall there be to this?
I pulled up this post because it deals with the ineffectual response that we so often see amongst the conservative tribe. It is this lack of meaningful action with regards to the difficulties of life that is the most concerning.
This is not to suggest a violent response. In fact, true conservatives aren't very likely to pursue such a strategy regardless of the continual slander of the political left to the contrary. Indeed, it is my assertion here that the ineffectual response is the one most likely. That is what needs to change.
I've referred to this under a different name before. I call it the wolf v lamb argument, in which the wolf always wins because force gets the better of an argument. It will happen here as well, unless the so-called conservatives craft a response that will put a stop to this kind of thing. It was one of Aesop's Fables, which seems to me to apt to our situation. A situation that will never improve until we improve our responses to leftist provocations.
Most of those on the so-called right will do nothing. Others may be provoked into self-defeating gestures. The trick is to do EFFECTIVE things. Just talking about this will no longer be sufficient. Actions are needed, but what actions?
If the Republican party actually had any courage of convictions, this would definitely draw a stern response. But it appears that the party is much too divided and weak to be of any effective action.
Forget about trying to use reason on the political left. They've completely lost their minds. Somehow, those who support a more sane approach to life in this country ( or what's left of it), will have to find an effective course of action. Mere talk won't yield any better results than before. The other side won't listen, and the continued failure of such approaches only emboldens the left to get ever more aggressive and outrageous.
This was an idea for a post that may span several posts. As with all the series of posts on this blog, I include a link to the previous post, and the next post, as indicated above.
By the way, this topic may not be as long as I thought. It may be short. Anyway, I keep seeing evidence of a pattern, and I saw something again this morning.
What I saw was a video that briefly discusses the late sixties self help book, I'm Ok, You're Ok. It so happens that I read that book way back then, and I think the narrator oversimplified it a bit. In discussing it here, I think I am likely to do a bit of oversimplification myself. My take on the book is that it a popularized version of Freud. This allows me to swerve back into the Prufrokian discussion that I began. To recap, Prufrock was a fictional guy in the poem by T.S. Eliot. Prufrock always fails because he is afraid. He is afraid because his Superego ( Freud) overwhelms his Id. In short, I identify with Prufrock. I don't seem to get anywhere in life because of my fears- same as Prufrock.
As a result of that insight, I look for it elsewhere. It seems to be all around us. The so-called conservatives don't like Trump because he is so uncivilized. But maybe, like Prufrock, we are already too civilized, and we need to channel our inner Id.
You can cite another movie, The Fight Club, in which the main character overcomes his Superego, but it darn near kills him. When the main character meets his "dark side", he is encouraged to hit him as hard as he can. The dark side lures him into battle, in which he finds his true self. He becomes his dark side alter ego in the process, while retaining his own prior self.
These are dangerous ideas, of course. One might want to suppress such notions, but then you are back to the Superego. Do you really want to be in that place? You may think that you are safe there, but Prufrock drowned.
I think Western Civilization may be a lot like Prufrock and is drowning too.
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