The therapeutic creed is often used to coerce people into conformity. A central tenet of that creed is the idea that any trauma suffered will fester unless excavated, in public, if at all possible; on Oprah if you belong to the gilded elites. Research does not support the idea that beavering at—and broadcasting—past pain; picking at those scars and digging in them wounds, makes for a better adjusted individual. Still, an individual will pay a cruel price if he dares to challenge this convention.
Of course, there is nothing heroic about sharing the intimate details of your life. This state of affairs is the norm in a society that abhors boundaries between what is private and what is public, and encourages a state of flux between these spheres. If anything, hero status is granted to the conformist who lives by the precepts of pop-psychology, and manages a showy demonstration of therapeutic ‘self-knowledge.’
The silent and steely type is out. A country run by women (some of them with the Chromosome Y) wants its men to let it all hang out. Or at least to be a metrosexual like Barack Obama (who, to his credit, is more discreet than Scott). Brown’s “book,” grandiosely titled “Against All Odds,” might even be an attempt, like that of Republican Tim Pawlenty’s, to grease the skids for a presidential run.
Excellent strategy. Ask Oprah; she knows a thing or two about helping to elect a president.
UPDATE: On FAcebook, Michael Barnett expresses surprise that there is a “market for this stuff. Why do people want to hear about other people’s sexual abuse? I sure don’t.” I replied: “Michael, you are not yet a properly ‘evolved’ man. You haven’t got good ’emotional intelligence.'”
For a while, the natives were restless over being manhandled at the nation’s federally controlled airports. But American travelers (or reporters) seem to have relaxed. At least, one hardly hears much complaining about the home-grown terrorists of the TSA.
The triumphant Republican majority in Congress claims to have a new-found affinity for freedom. If this was so, their first order of business ought to have been the stopping of the en masse molestation at the country’s airports. So far nothing has been done about the ongoing violations of the individual’s constitutional right to be free of unreasonable searches without probable cause.
Back on terra firma, the TSA riffraff continue to feel-up the cancer ravaged chests of women like Alaska State representative Sharon Cissna. “We will need to see and touch your prosthetic device, cast or support brace as part of the screening process,” a goon informed the poor woman. “Cissna, who had been in Seattle for medical treatment,” chose to return to Alaska via ferry.
Alas, she’s a Democrats, so she probably has even less of an incentive than the Republicans to act honestly and help tag, collar, and impound The Transportation Security Administration attack dogs.
The Takers, tax consumers, want the Makers, the so-called rich, to support their parasitical life style. And the Über-parasites, the politicians, make the most of this state-of-affairs, otherwise known as human nature. For evidence of the power of the constituency that claims what’s YOURS on behalf of THEIR effing children, look no further than your property taxes. More than 50 percent of mine are garnished for “Local School Support.” “Port, Fire, Hospital, Library” constitute a minuscule 5 percent of the property-tax bill. Law enforcement is not even itemized. So when you’re told that budget cuts will hurt the police and sheriff departments across your state (here)—understand that said budget is probably already tiny and will be getting tinier in service of the Our Children, ignorance—the worst in the developed world—is unaffected by the money we are compelled to spend in furtherance of that legendary ignorance.
If you pay property taxes, please tell us at BAB what percentage your state extracts for the benefit of The Effing, Ignorant Kids.
By the look and sound of the striking educators on the streets of Madison, Wisconsin (here), the kids (plenty stupid in their own right), are not missing much. Chaos theory aside, the public sector was never supposed to be able to strike; that’s a later socialistic privilege they were granted (See “Regulation of unions and organizing.”) The absence of these coercive cretins in the classroom is no loss. Still, The government education cartel should not be permitted to hold taxpayers hostage. Collective bargaining in general ought to be outlawed unless workers and employers are free to associate and dissociate from one another at will. Otherwise, it’s extortion. Here, the monopolist has, in effect, the right to shake down the taxpayer, who has no recourse; cannot opt out of the abusive relationship, or protect himself from the extortionist.
THIS IS THE LAW OF RULE, NOT THE RULE OF LAW.
(To clarify: The only true monopolies are government monopolies. A company is a monopoly only when it can forcibly prohibit competitors from entering the market, a feat only ever made possible by state edict. In the free market, competition makes monopoly impossible. A large market share is not a monopoly.)
I would have no objection to unions were they voluntary, non-coercive associations that looked out for the needs of workers without trampling the rights of other non-aggressive parties.
While we’re meting justice (in theory, at least), government employees, politicians included, should not be allowed to vote. This is because they are paid from taxes garnished by force from taxpayers, and will always vote to increase their own powers and wages. They have always so voted! The other option is that they keep the vote and accept volunteer, unpaid status.
The moochers and the looters are upon us. Moochers “will claim your product by tears” and manipulation. The rioters among them will “take [your product] from you by force.” Both versions have been loosed upon us.
During the Greek wilding, I warned (as many others) that it was a minor event compared to the events that’ll unfold should we quit funding our federal behemoth’s bacchanalia. The sound and fury of the American public sector unions is going to be like Tyrannosaurus (T-Rex) tearing through Jurassic Park.
But Barack wears many hats. And today, he responded to the “oink sector”strike in Madison, Wisconsin, as a union man, a man beholden to “Organizing for America, the successor to President’s Obama’s 2008 campaign organization. It helped fill buses of protesters who flooded the state capital of Madison and ran 15 phone banks urging people to call state legislators.”
UPDATE II (Feb. 20): Larry Kudlow on a “European-style revolt”:
The Democratic/government-union days of rage in Madison, Wis., are a disgrace. Wisconsin congressman Paul Ryan calls it Cairo coming to Madison. But the protesters in Egypt were pro-democracy. The government-union protesters in Madison are anti-democracy; they are trying to prevent a vote in the legislature. In fact, Democratic legislators themselves are fleeing the state so as not to vote on Gov. Scott Walker’s budget cuts.
That’s not democracy.
The teachers’ union is going on strike in Milwaukee and elsewhere. They ought to be fired. Think Ronald Reagan PATCO in 1981. Think Calvin Coolidge police strike in 1919.
The teachers’ union on strike? Wisconsin parents should go on strike against the teachers’ union. A friend e-mailed me to say that the graduation rate in Milwaukee public schools is 46 percent. The graduation rate for African-Americans in Milwaukee public schools is 34 percent. Shouldn’t somebody be protesting that?
UPDATE III (Feb, 22): PEW AND THE PUBLIC. Pew Research cautions that “it is not clear whether the public nationally will support Wisconsin Republicans’ efforts to prevent government workers from unionizing. In the Pew Research survey, which was conducted before the Wisconsin protests drew national headlines, people were asked for their reaction when they hear of a disagreement between a labor union and a state or local government: 44% say that when they hear of such a dispute they side with the unions while 38% say they side with the governments.”
Here are Reagan’s memorable remarks on the air traffic controllers’ strike. Note this president’s clear reference to the burden the oink sector imposes on its fellow citizen; notice his allusion to the government’s monopolist position. Reagan was capable of clearly articulating the principles of freedom, and, in this case, he also acted on these principles.
