Regular protein wisdom readers have been long prepped for what we are now seeing with respect to both Israel and South Korea, fantasy narratives of immediate “history” being written right before our eyes by a motivated and insulated Left that no longer accepts the unhelpful “constraints” of factual “tyranny,” or Western “colonialist” logic, or classical liberal appeals to individual rights — and is no longer even asked to, either by a press overrun with progressive activists , or by an ideological opposition that has accepted the terms of “debate.” Richard Fernandez sums it up thus:
[…] nothing is more paramount either to the establishment nor to the politically correct sections of the media than the maintenance of a lie. For the lie is in the service of the greater good. High reasons of policy will be invoked to explain why the truth should not be so. But the extreme reliance on fantasy by parts of the Western establishment goes well beyond surrounding a kernel of the truth with a “bodyguard of lies.” Instead it is the lie itself which is guarded by even more falsehoods. Gradually and inexorably, an entire political class has staked its existence on continuation of falsehood. The greater good is the fiction. Deception has become a necessity in itself.
The ability to create certain narratives — that is, the cover given to those who spin certain yarns from the texts before them — is tied to a worldview wherein all it takes to create the “truthful” interpretation of events is the manufactured consensus of a motivated interpretive community that is free to describe events in a way “reasonable” people might come to see them.
I won’t bore you by going in to how this happens yet again; nor will I further excoriate those who allow this maneuver by accepting the premises that underwrite it. They are either complicit, or the worse kinds of useful idiots, and as such are the problem personified — emblems of the success of the institutionalization of those (semiotic) premises necessary to the deconstruction of the Englightenment paradigm, which, when it no longer deceives, rewards those who learn its manipulations with the promise of power.
No. Instead, I’ll simply sit back and watch it play out. Because what more can I do, really? What more can any of us do?
— Besides arm ourselves and hope for the best, I mean.
(h/t Geoff and Terry H)
But Jeff, they won’t even let those poor children in Gaza have PENCILS.
Local radio host Paul W. Smith (who has sat in for Rush) allowed himself to be used as a useful idiot this morning interviewing the sister of Hawaida Arraf (whose family lives in the Detroit area) who repeated the Palestinian lies and propaganda in all their glory. 100% humanitarian. Nobel Prize winners on-board, and one Holocaust surviver. They were delivering ‘toys, books, medicine, cement, and (of course) those pencils.’
He cut her off and said he had to go – and he did, the hour was up, but I wonder if he would have allowed her to continue had they had more time.
It was troubling.
Paul W is a conservative, but also of Lebanese decent. Troubling.
Fortunately there is help on the way to the poor people of Gaza.
It is like Exodus (the movie) or the Berlin Airlift or something, only I wish there were more swarthy men without shirts and with beards and body hair. Yummy.
The “peace activists” on that ship were more along the lines of the community agitator types here at home. How come none of the other ships had any problems? They obeyed the Isreli requests specifying where the could dock, and then after being screened for contraband would be transported overland to Gaza. Only this one ship, that was spoiling for a fight like the SEIU thugz at a tea-party rally decided to try and run the blockade; and as such were boarded.
And the IDF tried to go the non-violent way, until, well, the “peace activists” betrayed their Judenhass for all to see. When they responded with lethal force, so did the IDF.
What is important is that places like PW actually talk about the facts, rather than mothing the meta-narrative. I’m sure the Koreans are conforming to the US security council vote outcome simply because they’ve had to so many times. The US Navy need to be up in there locating and tracking the 4 Nork subs.
I mean, you never known when accidents will happen and submarines disappear…
The scary part is that our President probably identifies more with the “peace activists” than the soldiers; if it had happened ten years ago The One might have been on that ship.
My husband has a saying. Bad things happen to stupid people. Applied to the shooting of that little girl here in Detroit (her parents and the other adults being the stupid people in this case), but it works just fine here. Idiots running a blockade deserve what happens to them.
They should be proud of their success. They’re fighting the power.
hmmm…. truly and well fucked are we…
[because what the hell else is there to say?]
Shit happens.
if it had happened ten years ago The One might have been on that ship
Are you kidding? That’d mean he’d have to actually do something. Besides, they didn’t serve waffles on that cruise.
The MV Marmara, huh? And who chose that name?
I seem to recall a Brit submarine raising hell with the Turk in the Sea of Marmara during WWI. Of course, that was back when the Brits had an Empire and weren’t shy about defending same. The sub ended up sunk (it WAS a Turkish bathtub, after all) but gave notice that Britain was not to be trifled with and was quite capable of sending home an attack in supposedly safe waters.
When one lives a life of no consequences, as progressives do, and then suddenly runs smack into some harsh consequences, it is probably quite jarring. I hope it’s jarring enough for some of them that they change their worldview. I won’t be holding my breath on that.
Obama is a pussy. Iran scares the shit out of him, but he doesn’t have the stones to do anything about it. He put Israel in a box because he knows the Israelis will fight. When Israel takes out Tehran, and they will, he can fake righteous indignation and then go play golf. There will be thousands of dead on both sides, but the One could care less. The Jews, once again, will have taken care of a serious political and strategic problem, and the asshole in the White House will not have broken a sweat. He makes me puke.
As patient as you’ve been these past years debunking the left’s collective character disorder, JG, at some point one simply calls the phenomenon what it is. A lie.
Unless SEK opines otherwise and sounds just great doing it.
So, Obama has decided to become a unilateralist now? Booooooosh!
JG-
I have regrets. Going Q.E.D. on PP may have ended the never ending series. If so, a small tragedy. It was frustrating but ever so useful. And entertaining.
Regards.
I am armed….I just have such restrictive ROE.
What does Israel stealing land and strangling Gaza have to do with individual rights?
Hug that fantasy narrative close AJB, it’ll for sure love you back eventually. Won’t it?
About the same as the “Palestinians” who were the lower classes expunged from Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia which those countries bid them move to “Palestine” so as to have an excuse to attack the Jews.
END THE EGYPTIAN BLOCKADE OF GAZA!
…fantasy narratives of immediate “history” being written right before our eyes by a motivated and insulated Left…
Like a moth to the flame, our AJB.
– Besides arm ourselves and hope for the best, I mean.
And ammo. Don’t forget ammo.
You should also have some kind of all-terrain vehicle, otherwise you won’t be able to carry much ammo if you need to skeedaddle.
#22
That is what pickup trucks is for.
kurds freedom in turkey!
I hope it’s jarring enough for some of them that they change their worldview. I won’t be holding my breath on that.
No, they’ll find someone to blame for the catastrophe, as they’ve done in the past. Ask a college Marxist about why the USSR failed and you’ll hear some fascinating answers.
“They didn’t start out with enough wealth to spread around.”
“They killed all the intellectuals.” (Which Stalin saw as a feature, as will all his successors.)
“Uh…”
All perpetual-motion machines eventually grind to a halt, sweeties. Some just take generations to do it.
In South Korea’s defense, pushing the matter would have serious consequences. Korean War veterans are still alive, and they’re not eager to take on a wealthier China, especially not with a feckless U.N. (and U.S. alas) that won’t defend them this time around.
But the lies surrounding “Palestine” and Israel are spectacularly well-supported to the point that you can’t even argue with someone about it because you have zero recognized facts in common.
As Prager says, the greatest evils happen when people believe lies. That’s not reality biting people in the anatomy: that’s holocausts and gulags and killing fields.
In the comments, Wretchard utters something we will all have tattooed on our foreheads someday:
Maybe we can start with t-shirts?
In that same thread, no mo uro explains why the intelligentsia (so called) lean left. We here all know this, but it’s nice to see it expressed elsewhere.
That is what drives me the most crazy, is children arguing with me about shit that I fucking remember clearly. I really have a hard time discussing this with people, I tend to not react well to being called a liar to my face.
Quoting a quote from comment #21 on “The Consolations of Philosophy” thread.
“If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything. – Mark Twain”
That is the greatest weakness of “the lie”. To live them requires a constant battle to keep them straight, for one begets many, many, others to protect the original. The OODA loop is lengthened. Speech, unless written out long before hand and thoroughly vetted to align with all previous lies, will be filled with ummmmms, ahhhhhs, and urrrrs while the mind whirls and spins trying to remember what the narrative is today.
Living the lie is to the mind as a virus is to a computer system. So many cycles consumed to feed the virus’s needs with little left over for the work that is the actual purpose.
Lies demand power. The power to force others to swallow them, believe them, warts and all. For covering the warts is so wearying. Much easier the be able to demand belief than to weave that intricate web to deceive actually.
Hey, Geoff, OT: London called. It’s a possibility.
I was thinking about sending smoke signals in place of emails.
Paul at Powerline turns out a solid commentary on a WaPo editorial labeling the Israeli intercept a “fiasco” (Paul says “in the post-modern sense”).
bh, have you gotten anything from me on the 27th?
No, I haven’t, Geoff.
How about trying “yuiop”?
Tried just now.
Success, and yeah, I need to set up a separate email account.
Huzzah!
What can any of us do about it? Maybe we could start a classically liberal political party. Such a party could peel off half or more from the GOP, and 25% of the Democrats. Add to that the libertarians and three quarters of independents and we’ve got ourselves a very large plurality, if not an outright majority.
And for those who think it can’t be done, Ariel Sharon’s Kadima party went from birth to power in five months.
“Success”
To quote another thread, “Cool”.
It’s hard not to like the idea of a true classically liberal party.
Then Sharon died and Kadima is where now? Buried, it appears.
Re Kadima:
It went from birth to power nearly immediately, as it was founded mid-term by the then Likud leader and Prime Minister siphoning off MP’s from the Likud and Labor parties. It went from birth to power without facing a single election. It was able to do this thanks to Israel’s insane parliamentary and election laws.
Under our current parties classical liberals will only get half of their agenda supported *at best.* The tea party movement demonstrates that our majority is real, waiting to be organized. The Republicans and the Democrats can only corrupt it. We must have a party that puts individual freedom first if we are to continue having it.