My friend Pascal
Thinks of Bloggers as the New Fourth Estate.
Would that this were true. It was to a certain extent during the Bush presidency/candidacy, before the Left got their claws into it, but the number of people that read conservative blogs hoping to change from mindless liberal drones to free thinking libertarian/conservatives is… well, small.
I don’t write to change people’s minds. Conservative blogging will always be an echo chamber, and that’s not going to change. The average liberal idiot is not swayed by facts, or he would not be a liberal in the first place. I write to vent and- hopefully- to make people giggle. More than that I cannot hope for.
So I have to repeat here what I’ve blasted at poor Pascal so many times in IM:
You will never reach enough people to make a difference.
Even if you could you can never change their minds, for they have none, for all practical purposes.
All the time you spend blogging, your enemies and the enemies of freedom are working diligently to encase you in a coccoon of burocracy
You have been allowed blogging and ownership of weapons to give you a false sense of security. Once the rest of the net is in place, and it’s being spun as I type, those pale comforts will be removed too, and with hardly a whimper.
But, don’t pay any attention to me. Keep ‘believing” you can change the world with your words.
35 comments Og | Uncategorized
I’d like an extra shot of pessimism with my coffee this morning.
Ahhh, thanks.
No pessimism here. Only the reminder that yapping will not fix anything. There ARE ways to fix this. I will not discuss them here.
If more people continue to believe that it is only due to mistakes that our govt causes the death of people, then I fear you are right.
Unthinking people — lacking minds as you said — marching to their destruction, as the Eloi — revealed H.G. Wells “Progressive” aim for an easily eliminated hoi polloi.
Yet even an invertebrate amoeba has instinct to survive. Raise the alarm in just the right way, and by enough of us, and just maybe we awaken more as your kind awakened me.
Last night I wrote about the Agency of Lies and the Sarah Brady bunch trying, respectively, to coverup and excuse operation Fast and Furious. I reacted to a phrase repeated too many times to not see it was planted in the minds of bleating sheep. “AG Holder probably did not deliberately intend to kill Americans.†That is a flat out lie in light of the reports of several agents. All along the chain of command the orders were reinforced with Stalin’s cynical words “you have to break a few eggs to make an omelet.â€
Imagine Og: BATF agents, possibly the lowest form of humanity as repeatedly reported in the gun community, recognized that “just following orders” was wrong.
If even THEY would risk their careers (if not even their lives) to swear in testimony about what proves they can actually use the gray matter placed in their skulls by God, how can you write this pessimistically of the rest of America?
Surely their action proves that where there’s life there’s hope. At least enough to think your words can have more meaning than even a guy with a sad outlook on the jerks he sees all around every day. Keep on writing, but try to be more optimistic.
Here let me start you off: given your bias towards those who do not hear today,at least you cannot possibly be disappointed. :D
“I don’t write to change people’s minds.”
I know that you believe this, but that doesn’t stop your (& others) ideas from influencing people.
I assumed, from listening to the media in general, that we were doomed, & basically resigned myself to the fact.
I got connectivity here in the abode in 1/04; date sound familiar to you?
I began to read some blogs, & discovered there are a bunch more people who think along the same lines I do, & maintain their Faith BESIDES.
They offered optimism from the simple fact that there are others. Optimism alone won’t fix this mess, but you gotta start somewhere.
We know you’re out there.
We see you.
“Optimism alone won’t fix this mess, but you gotta start somewhere.”
Why not start by painting frogs blue? it will have as much effect.
Look around you. Optimism is doing nothing. Realism is the way to go.
After one Eloi (whose script we hear today) says that the others, gone to their fate, never return, the time traveler raises his voice frustration: “You can try. You can try. Won’t even, won’t even one of you try?”
4:00-8:15 of this clip from the 1960 Rod Taylor version. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RXXojCJjM0
Being a man, he naturally says “Well, I’ll try.”
Ah, 1960; before the rot had taken hold of my brother.
Reading comprehension fail.
pascal: Please copy paste where I said “Do not try”.
Oh, wait, you can’t, for I did not.
being a MAN and not a MORON, I said- and I quote: “There ARE ways to fix this.”
I’ll spell it out, so anyone can understand: MEN do not sit around at their computers doing ineffective things. MEN do things that WORK.
George didn’t waste any time trying to explain to the Eloi what they should be doing. He got off his halfmoons and did things with his own hands that changed their situation. Keep explaining to the Eloi what they should be doing; I’ll be the sweaty guy with dirty hands.
Words alone are insufficient. However, we just celebrated the anniversary of 56 guys signing their names on a piece of paper with words on it.
We need words to form a plan of action, just like those 56 guys did 235 years ago.
Sure, Dave. But you’d better not put them where others can find them, at least not until the plan is in place.
That’s a good point Og. Don’t get caught, cuz your adversaries aren’t weak muscled Morlocks yet.
Yet being the operative word, indeed.
And the weak willed are not all Eloi yet, as we can see. My point and that of others is they DO still have a sense of survival that the Sus worshipers haven’t completely driven out of them — unlike the Eloi. But I have to agree with you that it IS a close call with far too many.
“And the weak willed are not all Eloi yet, as we can see”
Keep on believing that.
But what of those who ARE too far gone Pascal? You would try to help those who are programmed to be treacherous? They’ll turn on you without blinking an eye. You know this. You’ve convinced me there are a lot of people whose only sense is the new morality. “The fewer the people the better,” right? Listen to Og for once. Give it up Pascal.
Discardes: What kind of ignorance would make you think that there is anything remotely malthusian in what I’m talking about I do not know, but that kind of horseshit doesn’t wash here.
Grown-up: “Oh, little girl, why are you throwing marooned starfish back into the sea? Don;t you know you can’t possibly make a significant difference?”
Child, in process of tossing one of the crtters: “Made a big difference for that one!”
Relatedly, why have Committees of Correspondence or congregate to complain about the King and his taxes? How could we possibly change things? England has ruled the colonies since the late 1500s, nearly 200 years!
“Child, in process of tossing one of the crtters: “Made a big difference for that one!â€
And while the one is saved, the race perishes.
“Relatedly, why have Committees of Correspondence or congregate to complain about the King and his taxes? How could we possibly change things? England has ruled the colonies since the late 1500s, nearly 200 years! ”
yep. the framers of our nation did so solely by yapping.
Sorry. Not so much. They spoke, but they also acted. I only hear yapping, and see no acting.
Starfish, by the way, never sought to eradicate anyone’s freedom.
(Og) “The average liberal idiot is not swayed by facts, or he would not be a liberal in the first place.”
You’ve mentioned before that there is alot of stupid people out there, Og. Ever wonder where they all came from?
Well, I came across this nifty article that sums it up by saying that civilization makes people stupid and that the ‘Return of the Barbarians’ is coming.
http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2011/03/10/the-return-of-the-barbarian/
Instead of an economic bubble, we have a societal bubble that is ready to burst (from the perspective of the article).
Very entertaining.
(Pascal) “Keep on writing, but try to be more optimistic. ”
Never know what causes a sea change within people. Though I voted conservative since 1984, it was difficult to articulate why I voted Republican (lets just say it was a gut intuition that I didn’t quite understand at the time). I was constantly at odds with what the ‘Ministry of Truth’ wrote and I couldn’t say why. Yet another guilt-ridden and silenced citizen.
My awakening came from Meryl Yourish and the finding of my voice ( yourish.com ) for which I am grateful.
She would go through articles on the bias against Israel and point out the pivotal words that would slant the truth of what was actually was happening. After various repetitions of this procedure on various very biased articles, she broke the stranglehold that the ‘Ministry of Truth’ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ministry_of_Truth) (MSM) had on my mind.
I grew up with the very innocent view that the press and our education system. I believed that they only wrote the pure, unrefined truth and took what was written whole cloth (though, ironically, I found that my attempts to read something from a Psychology Book would nearly drive me insane and would wake me in the middle of the night from most disturbing dreams. heh).
Nowadays, my subconscious intuition and conscious mind are much more in accordance and am quite able to articulate the ‘groans’ that well up from with in (inarticulate intuition) as I now internally translate what I read from libtardese to a clearer distillation of what the truth MIGHT be.
This new way of reading really adds to my internal peace even though I have greater doubt of the printed, and supposed, ‘truths’.
As ‘Spock’ would say “most, fascinating”.
So I do agree with Pascal that it is important to ‘awaken people from their dumbness’ (As Tolkiens Elves did of the Ents in his epic novels http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/Ents ). How this would happen would probably be different from person to person, but I do think that Meryls method is very sound: To connect your arguments in an undeniable string of proofs you can lead a person out of their own unenlightened views towards the truth.
—————
As a side note, I would like to add that Bill whittle is also a master of that ‘String-of-Proofs Method’:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=661pi6K-8WQ (Here’s the Maestro in action – heh)
Og, there are a lot of pissed folks out here.
See 2010.
We ain’t asleep.
“So I do agree with Pascal that it is important to ‘awaken people from their dumbness’”
When you can show me that by “Awakening” even ONE PERSON which I challenge you to do, you change ANYTHING, I will, for the very first time in my adult life, be surprised.
You cannot. You will not. Sorry, that’s the way it is. Do thing s that work. Stop tilting at windmills.
Well… occasionally things of this nature do happen:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Awakening
No serious external forces occurred except words.
No… it didn’t reach all people, but it was a significant event in the US at that time which affected many.
The power of words, Og. :)
Oh, I see, Cond, I can talk someone into faith now!!
Sorry. Faith comes from the creator, and conversion from stupidity comes from within. Nothing you or I can say will change that, not without herculean effort. Do the cost benefit analysis: years and years of whinging trying to convince a leftist moron to become a rightist moron, or a few minutes of effective labor here or there that ACTUALLY might change something. No contest. But by all means, keep doing that, instead of something. (My new favorite expression, thanks Ms X)
Do something to make it ok? http://make-everything-ok.com/
I’m voting as hard as I can, Og. It’s still illegal to shoot politicianw unless they’re assaulting one, and often not even then.
No talk — even secret talk — equals no effective action. Y’know what they call active activists in action without a plan? A mob.
Voting?
Really?
Nah. I’m not talking faith, Og.
The Great Awakening (or should I say ‘Awakenings’) was similiar to what is happening in our schools and media today – except in reverse.
But it was just words which affected many people.
The liberals don;t do anything but talk – but in key locations (like the schools and the media). You sem to under-estimate the power of words, But then our side has done that for the last 50 years.
Don’t get me wrong, I do plenty of ‘action’ in my life, Og. But people like Bill Whittle and Meryl Yourish all do their part too. I just used them as examples who make an impact in my life by merely using words.
Words that may not inspire ‘Faith’ (as you you say), but actually unlock understanding about themselves and the world around them.
School is a place where it is merely words. Church is a place of merely words. The Media is a place of merely words.
You can’t discount them, can you?
“You can’t discount them, can you? ”
Yes. I can, and have. You’re just not paying attention.
I don’t think anybody would disagree were you to say actions speak louder than words.
Still words are important because they aid us, as RobertaX suggests, in forming our plans of action. They also allow us our thought processing, a process that literally places us above the beasts. You already know you can do all sorts of pleasant things for others, and the recipients who gain from those actions too often take what you do for granted. Words accompanying the deeds is no cure-all, but it does help.
Look, it’s a certainty that our enemy does not want usto think, and certainly not to think critically, hence the destruction of education, but more specifically, of words.
Orwell was very clear on that it is the goal of the despot to put an end to unapproved thought, and so words and their incremental eradication is a means to get there. Here he is how he put it:
Why are you, a careful user of words, as your contrasts of faith and belief demonstrate, taking this position? Because you believe that the time for words are over. “You know what must be done.” Sadly, I fear, too few do. Which, I think is entirely your point.
There are folks like me who will keep trying to awaken more minds. Your position is that it’s a fool’s errand. I think, to be precise, your position is “too few will change and it will be too late.”
I guess this is another area where you are at odds with the hierarchy of your religion. It appears that they want you to try to awaken souls in this life so they will have a part in the next. I don’t know how much demand they place on you to do their job. Individual conscience comes into play at that point, and no earthly authority can force it, only appeal to it. And that takes words.
““You know what must be done.†Sadly, I fear, too few do. Which, I think is entirely your point.” well, not entirely. More to follow in an upcoming post, but probably not until next week.
I’m not paying attention? I’m here quite often, Og.
My reading comprehension is excellent. If I don’t ‘get’ something, I ask – as you know.
Your laconic answers obviously are not enough for me (and others) and you need to expand your views as to why ‘words’ (through education, the church and the media) are pointless.
I look forward to your next expansion of this subject.
Until then, we will disagree.
No, we don’t disagree, you’re just wrong, because you come to the discussion with three demonstrably incorrect assumptions:
1: People can be changed by discussion
2: it’s worth changing them
3: It will make a difference.
Look ot the comment above this one for proof of thes facts.
I do not assume people can or cannot be changed. I don’t care.
I don’t care, either, if it is worth changing them
I can see evidence of it not making a difference everywhere.I can see no evidence to the contrary.
Wow.
Your view is much more clear to me now.
Thanks.
new post with the explanation, Cond.
Yea… I saw. Thanks!