I am greatly troubled by a trend that is happening and no one seems to be noticing. It is like the parable about the frog that is put in a pot of cool water and then the temperature is slowly raised until the frog boils to death. If you had plopped the frog into hot water to begin with, he would have immediately jumped out. While I have never known anyone who has actually tested that hypothesis by boiling a frog, it does illustrate the point that if dangerous change happens gradually, we often fail to notice until it is too late.
In a similar vein, there is a very popular negotiation technique where you go all out to get everything you possibly can, even the most outrageous of demands, because what the other side will ultimately agree to will be far more favorable to your side than if you had acted reasonably in the initial phases of negotiation. You plant in the other party’s mind the thought that they are glad to have lost only what they lost since you raised the stakes so high that they could have lost a lot more. It can be a very effective negotiation tool when you either a) do not care whether you ever do business with the other party again (since they will hate you), or b) you rely on the absolute stupidity of people who will fall for that ploy time and time again. It reminds me of the reason that so many spammers from Nigeria continue to spam us. There are enough stupid people falling into their ploy that simply by overwhelming the system they will net a few gullible people. And a few gullible people are all you need to make the tactic work.
What is happening in politics in America is quite frightening. The pent up socialist ultra liberal agenda has burst like a dam. By flooding the system with every conceivable radical idea some portion of them will actually get passed and implemented. This will move the country closer to a socialist temperament and the losers will be glad that they didn’t lose more. Wow, we beat the public option, and only got “triggers”. Wow, we beat abortion on demand for any reason whatsoever, and only let them get away with abortion on most every demand as a birth control method. Wow, we didn’t get a true ultra liberal on the Supreme Court; we only got a racist who admits to making policy outside of the legislative process. Wow, we didn’t let unemployment go to 14%, we were able to keep it just at 10%.
Go back and read the “but only” portions of those statements. The fact that we are accepting them as minimal losses is just frightening. They are dooming America. And when people finally do wake up and find themselves in boiling water, their reaction will be interpreted as excessively reactionary since, after all, we’ve now been doing things this way for YEARS!!!! The radical agenda becomes the norm until the next great crash and burn negotiation ploy wends its way through our political system.
The critics of Rush and Beck and Hannity say that we should not listen to them because they are speaking in hyperbole, i.e. extreme examples such as saying to your child “I’ve told you a MILLION TIME” not to do that.” Clearly you have not said it a million times. You speak in extremes for effect. What is actually happening, as many of us fall asleep at the wheel, is that the hyperbole is in the radical policies being implemented, not with those who are calling these socialist politicians on what they are doing. They are practicing an age-old, discredited philosophical argument called ad hominem. Literally “against the man.” When you can’t fight the logic, you attack the messenger. These advocates of socialism (going back to the Alinsky mode of agitation and “community organizing”) have no soundness to their arguments, so they attack their detractors.
In my view the only way to prevent this is to know clearly what you believe and why you believe it. Beneath every public policy is a linkage to a philosophy. If you have ever donated to charity you believe in some level of socialism, but at that level we call it charity. And the distinguishing mark is that it is voluntary – not a forced tax. And helping your neighbor IS a good thing to do. But should it be mandated by the government under the threat of prison? And should it be given to just anyone, whether or not they are working to improve their situation? And should it be given to support causes that you simply do not believe are appropriate? And should it be given to support the religion of humanism when our government is not supposed to dictate any particular religion?
Spend some time today thinking about what it is exactly that you believe and why you believe it. What is your underlying philosophy for that belief? Where is your moral center? Where is your anchor against which you calibrate right and wrong? I assure you that there is an ongoing assault against your beliefs with the intent of legislating what you should believe. The ultimate endgame is thought police. You will ultimately be told what to think. Do you believe that this is hyperbole? I only wish that were true. There is a conspiracy out there and it has nothing to do with Hanger 51, a second shooter on the grassy knoll, or whether or not we actually put men on the moon. It has a lot to do with shaking your underlying beliefs and slowly boiling them out of you. The temperature is rising and you are accepting things today that years previously you would have rejected out of hand. If you think seriously about this, you will see it is true. The parallels to history are real. And rather disturbing.
Just because you are NOT paranoid does not mean that they are not out to get you. And even the paranoid have real enemies. The threats to our belief structures are very real. Step one is always to get God removed as a factor. While it only succeeds for a little while, living in those times is a terrible fate.
