From another letter to Steyn
I’VE GIVEN UP ARGUING
I thought your comment about the reaction to yet another 9/11 was dead-on. I've often thought that the first reaction to another attack would be some variation of "It's Bush's fault." Even if it's after he leaves office, it will be, "Well if we never had Bush, this would never have happened."
I wonder though, if you would expand on your closing comment, that being the comment that the divide in the country is real. I thought that was equally accurate yet even more ominous. I used to welcome a chance to argue. Now even I have tired of it - that the Left is so hardened to their positions that there is no room for discussion. They almost immediately escalate any argument to a shouting match or a tu quoque gotcha fight. In truth, I don't think even the Left knows what they want. Take a look at most of the 200 + comments on any Kos post and you can discern 50 or
more separate positions that even they can't agree on. (It's going to be interesting to watch them eat their own by the way, as they "cleanse" the party in Kos' words)
Where do you think we go from here with such a divide? The inability of a people to unite in the face of an external threat is a death sentence...... I'd like to believe my kids will grow up in a better country than what we have right now.
John Macnamara
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4 comments:
I used to welcome a chance to argue. Now even I have tired of it - that the Left is so hardened to their positions that there is no room for discussion.
So hardened, and so willing to use the brute force that they condone to achieve their own political ends.
Every now and then I'll argue with someone on the political level, but shortly afterward I feel ashamed. Ashamed because it's as though I sound like one of those parrots at the College Republican meetings I tried attending as an undergrad at U of Minnesota. These young boys were vulgar to the hilt, and ready to shout anyone down that disagreed with them (a popular word in their vocabulary was "Faggot"). This worked perfectly, because the Left (in greater numbers, mind you) was just as willing to shout down the College Republicans. Each side felt "victimized" on campus. Then some Bible Thumpers tricked me into attending one of their meetings. Holy shit. Or, rather, I'm unprepared to speak of metaphysics, especially without having studied the Bible intently, or at all, the way they did. Eventually I decided to abandon them all and go get an education (perhaps the best Humanities course I enrolled in was a Chekhov elective).
Today the Right screams about those accosting George W. Bush. Yesterday the Left screamed about those accosting Bill Clinton. There are valid arguments (meaning that Clinton was a waste of the American peoples' time; and the directionless W seriously screwed up too). But I don't see an end in sight. It's not just political. Rather, it has just as much to do with a feeling of Self Righteousness, and Power. Or, The Strut: you're an idiot, I'm right, follow me.
These types are the same mob that beat down a friend of mine this last Saturday for jokingly using that "c" word (aka, "cunt"). He dislikes violence. Very much not a Might is Right kind of guy. But I learned he was shoved down hard after saying that most offensive word. The force of this shove knocked his head on the concrete, which in turn knocked him out. Good thing he woke up. And there were a couple doctors around so as to make sure he was alright. Once the mob learned he was okay, they went back to wanting to kick his ass. So much for the First Amendment. This happens often in Dakota. More often in the rural areas.
Militant Jihad also wants to kill those that use the offensive words. This was symbolized in the Danish cartoons, and still very few understood the irony in burning newspapers that supplanted sanctity of religion for the sanctity of discourse. I digress. Back to work.
A question: who did the artwork?
Salvador Dali. This particular painting was his meditation on the Spanish Civil War he was then trying to live through.
Is that the artist in the lower left corner of the painting?
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