"Extremism in the defense of Liberty is NO VICE... moderation in the pursuit of justice is NO VIRTUE."
Saturday, October 20, 2007
I PLEDGE ALWAYS
To remember radical centrism and salute the fair ideals and correlated principals for which I stand. I may salute or I may ignore the charms and chaos of the crowd I can no longer hope to fathom. I cannot bow before these bold "true believers" trapped in some mosh pit of competing shadows and elbows, clinging to pure idealism while denying the obvious. We are born alone. We eat and we drink alone. Execute our talents alone. And just as fate has decreed, we die alone. From cradle to grave we rock and we roll. Dust to dust, we burn out or we rust. Mismanaging the dream with great fear. But listen my friends, take heed dear foes, despite these longings for sound joy and satisfaction, despite my own terrific hunger to share and be shared, I have no stomach for group therapy.
All I want now is my forty acres of canvas and the next intrepid word from the poet...
Admitting it's time to paint quietly the love I seem to have swapped for the shifting voices of fatigue, I fall mute.
Soon all will be swept away. Suddenly—the world we knew—an unbelievable world of comfort, freedom and dignity will crumble beyond repair.
And those who have kept us blind...
Ah, those who have kept us blind. Their infamy will be relentless. As they parrot "pretty sounding nothings" they can never imagine how little their "good intentions" and their "compassion" will matter against their lies, evasions and cowardice in subtle alignment with declared enemies who would slice our thin throats and steal our thick histories.
When times seem throttled by events we do not comprehend, many of us tend to bury ourselves in other pursuits or distractions, going merrily upon our accustomed way. This is no way to be preparing our nation for the greatest threats our nation has ever faced. With technological advancements and merging global economies contributing to a matrix of diabolical consequences should one or several key dominoes begin to fail, the West must look clearly into the mist, and critically sort out the real from the imagined. This is no time for childhood or beauty queen fantasies.
The Left is adept at pretending that the "right-wing" in America is practically the same as the "right-wing" in Europe. But they are entirely different.
Author and historian Garry Wills has made the point that the right in America is anti-monarchical, anti-authoritarian in its root and on its extreme is almost anarchistic. The libertarian views are reflective of that. The right in America can really be traced to 1776. The right-wing in Europe is rooted in monarchy and is authoritarian".
Of course, when the right wing becomes part and parcel the corner of authoritarian voices, it begins to share in common more with the increasingly totalitarian Left, those soldiers of political correctness, whose aim to speak with a single "righteous" voice pits them against those rugged individualists who consider themselves quite capable of discernment over issues which influence or exert control over their own lives, and choose to voice dissention within the context of those times, or even from among all times, in the spirit of 1776, from a position that a strict constitutionalist of the hard right might favor.
On the other hand, the promise that same rugged and even somewhat radical individual may exhibit strong tendencies for empathy and compassion while choosing to think and act locally in most cases, is often a good ally to those liberals who seek redress of grievances against the harsh realities brought upon the many or the few by this or that specific heavy handed policy or measure of the Right. And the converse is true, as well. Liberalism oftens tags itself as the party of progressive thinking. Frankly, quite often, runaway liberalism is nothing but regressive and transgressive activity masquerading as humane policy.
Today's political parties offer no hope of elbow room for such an individualist. The political soup is poisoned and polarizing. When rights become set aside privileges in a twinkling of a cobra's eye by political gerrymandering whether done in the name of the Left or the name of the Right, something has gone wrong in the process. Of course the historical record shows that politics has never been a walk in the park. Today's political climate, while steamy, is not especially free of precedent or parallels. Intense struggle is always the norm; thus, the rippling blood and guts of political life has usually cautioned all but the worst provacateurs and the liliest of Pollyannas from entering political life.
As someone who was once elected to serve 26,000 Washington residents, as the ANC chairperson, I know first hand what a load of horse feathers the political game inspires in its captors. The suspicions of the electorate are usually valid while the maxims of the pundits tend to be greatly exaggerated, no matter what point is currently being postulated. One of our founding lights, Tom Paine, rightly walked away from the political arena after refusing the powered wig in vogue at the founding of this new republic, the beacon of hope for the world, as he once wrote.
Unfortunately, America still accepts and arrogantly touts that description of itself while playing an entirely different game on the world landscape today. Yes, times do change, but times have always been dangerous. Particularly in times of war, and in times preparing nations for total war.
It's still a smoke and mirrors game. Each side withholds evidence while arguing extreme positions. Despite past differences and pigheadeness on many a life or death issue, we the people have managed to stake our children and grandchildren proudly into the future, generation after generation. And for this we should not feel ashamed but healthy and thankful. But strategies for global survival seem particularly dangerous in these specific times. Indeed, as in the times of Dickens, these are the best of times and the worst of times. Every glance beneath the sheen of favor and status is observed a crumbling, rotting, core. Infrastructure of every kind is aging, superficial, and woefully neglected as the focus of Western life has shifted in great numbers to the mad rush of this constitutionally guaranteed personal pursuits of happiness and grabbing for riches and leisure from top to bottom, seizing the nation like a deadly fever.
So let's be plain. A polarized population weakens the House of America, and our enemies are watching, mapping strategies, recruiting soldiers, counting the hours. Consent of the governed? In a fifty-fifty red state, blue state split? Hardly.
Report: Four score and seven (or a few million years) ago—an idea
of freedom took root in this American soil. Knowing life is crisis, punctuated by brief periods of solace,
we also know that after all is said and done, we shall never cheat infinity, nor extinguish the mark of a
single thought. Like this mathematical pun, strong and fiercely sought, we engage this nation, its myths,
its memories, its magnanimous messengers, and its monstrosities as we seek a more perfect union. But
as always in America, we must rebuke an enemy with both fists on the wheel driving for success and justice
for all. An enemy that is always changing is an enemy that never changes. We must engage that enemy on
the ancient battleground where art and politics beat each other up and few are they who seem the wiser.
We must reject roving wild-eyed policy now weakening our nation, to live again as one nation under truth,
both as strategy, and as reality on the ground, certain of the age in which we struggle and from which we
must engage the enemies that threaten our existence as a nation of liberty. A vigorous new morality must
replace the old farces found frothing along the same profane beachheads as those which defiled the hopes
of our ancestors. In renouncing our petty grievances must all stand together as one to rebuke our mortal
and spiritual enemies who care not for our struggles, and even less for our feelings. We are at war, people.
"Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice...moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue." —Barry Goldwater
"None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.” —Johann Wolfgang Goethe
"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act." —George Orwell
"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it
to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on
for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children
and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free." —Ronald Reagan
"I have been made victorious through terror." —Muhammad, founder of Islam
The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort,
to protect themselves against tyranny in government. —Thomas Jefferson
"Think about it folks. Capitalism is the most effective and purest form of Communism ever practiced." —Gabriel Thy
"Political language—and with variations this is true of all political parties,
from Conservatives to Anarchists—is designed to make lies sound truthful
and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind." —George Orwell
"Exaggerated self-criticism would be a harmless luxury of civilization if there
were no enemy at the gate condemning democracy's very existence. But it
becomes dangerous when it portrays its mortal enemy as always being in the right.
Extravagant criticism is a good propaganda device in internal politics. But if it is
repeated often enough, it is finally believed. And where will the citizens of
democratic societies find reasons to resist the enemy outside if they are persuaded
from childhood that their civilization is merely an accumulation of failures and a monstrous imposture?" —Jean Francois Revel
“Never ascribe to malice that which may be ascribed to stupidity.” —Napoleon Bonaparte
"A communist is someone who reads Marx & Lenin. An anti-communist is someone who understands them." —Ronald Reagan
"The world is far more complex than the concentrated cool of some flippant rock star." —Dunaway Ka
