Keep Right-Detached & Vulnerable

Idaho Speaks

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Transcript:

"You are yourself, plus your circumstances." The early 20th Century Spanish philosopher, Jose Ortega y Gasset, was correct when he described an individual's identity as being a fusion of internal qualities and external context.

Each of us is awash in a sea of circumstances which define who we are, what we do, and how we think about the world. Our lives are lived within a precise moment in history and culture.

Everything extrinsic to us, from our language to our expectations about life, derives from whether we were born in 1962 or in 1992, in New York City or in Rathdrum, Idaho, in the USA or in Zimbabwe. We are shaped by whether we were raised by a gentle soul or by a martinet, by a Doctor or by a Day Laborer, by a Christian or by a Communist, by a married father and mother or by a single parent.

Taken in isolation, we are each vulnerable. Alone in a treacherous world, we are hard-pressed just to survive. Very few of us can thrive without others. In fact, a stark and unremitting solitude will drive many of us mad.

Fortunately, the circumstances of everyday life provide many opportunities for isolated individuals to connect meaningfully with others. The birth family, neighborhoods, churches, schools, military service, jobs, clubs, teams, romantic partners and chosen families that we experience all offer us opportunities for meaningful relationships. Such connections make life worth living.

We can find purpose and satisfaction by associating with others of similar faith, ideals, ethnic heritage & culture, life experiences, vocations, avocations, and nationality. Or, we can enjoy discussing our differing notions with those of divergent views.

With functional linkages to other human beings, our stark solitary existence is energized by the vitality and enthusiasm of others. With the involvement and help of family, friends, associates, colleagues, and other companions, our efforts reshape our world.

In short, we human beings are social animals. One of our most fundamental needs is companionship. With it we thrive, and without it we wither.

Given our social nature, the inescapable consequences of certain "woke" progressive ideas on human relationships is nothing less than appalling. In their unremitting eagerness to destroy the imperfections of the past and build an entirely new utopia of justice, these zealots are prepared to wreck our established connections to the wider world.

Woke progressives advocate that every human tradition, religion, philosophy, ideology, business, workplace, symphony, opera, song, poem, book, play, movie, video game, comic book, art object, sport, contract, or social custom be reevaluated. Nothing, not even the unstructured play of preadolescent children, must be allowed to flow naturally. Every work of human hands and the human mind must be scrutinized to determine how power is distributed.

Who has power, and who lacks it? Which parties have been privileged by traditions and which have been systematically disenfranchised?

A stark equality of result, the touchstone of all variant Communisms, is becoming the new universal standard of value and virtue. Perceived past wrongs must be righted, and all must conform to the strictures of reward and punishment necessary to redistribute power and bring about a new order of righteous equity.

This type of unrelenting fanaticism is well-known throughout history. "The Cause" varies from epoch to epoch, but the totalitarian methods are always consistent: an uncompromising and doctrinaire pursuit of ideological purity at all costs.

The impure receive terror, pogroms, purges, Holy Inquisitions, and Star Chamber Courts. The pure receive the power to sit in judgment over everything and everyone; to play god and decide who lives and who dies.

This violent winnowing of human society from anything discordant from their woke ideal is not truly about justice. It is designed to detach the individual from all healthy relationships, making the solitary person isolated, vulnerable, and more easily subjugated.

This pattern is ubiquitous in abusive relationships. The abuser always attempts to detach their victim from their family, friends, and other worldly contacts. Alone, the victim is at the mercy of the abuser. Despite their talk of social justice, the woke among us mean to abuse us. As Robespierre said during the French Revolution, virtue without terror is useless.

We each must insist that our naturally evolved human relationships, personal associations, faiths, and traditions not be reduced to the raw calculus of a dogmatic understanding of power and justice.

In China during the Cultural Revolution, adolescents were given Mao's "Little Red Book", a summary of the expressed insights of the greatest mass murderer in human history. These Middle Schoolers were organized into Red Guard cadres, given AK-47 assault rifles, and entrusted with the power of judgment over everyone and everything in the People's Republic. 30-50 million Chinese were murdered in 10 years, and every survivor was brutalized; left carrying scars to this day. The fictional "Lord of the Flies" had nothing on this hellscape reality!

This is the dystopia we are abetting if we continue to abide woke progressives savaging everything that is not of them as being indecently racist or obscenely oppressive. This extremist cult has already spread from college campuses into corporate boardrooms. How long until armed thugs fill our streets, holding "People's Courts" where "Enemies of the People" are identified, tried, punished, and even executed; all in one afternoon?

We must stand by plain friendship and free play, straightforward associations and time-honored traditions. We must insist that most of the relationships in which we engage have nothing to do with power politics.

We must defend the sublime complexity of real human societies, and the needs of most every man, woman, and child to be free to fully engage without permission from would-be Political Commissars. We must do these things and more, because if we don't then we risk the extermination of everything spontaneous in this world that makes life worth living.