House of Eratosthenes

As the previous school year drew to a close, which seems like perhaps Wednesday before last although the calendar says something different — I made an effort to trace the path upon which the momentarily negligent become hardcore fanatical liberals, identifying ten terraces descending into the pit. The final terrace is, of course, a simple thing to define. Extremist; fanatical; completely distrustful of anyone with a different point of view on anything. Able to make a liberal/good versus conservative/bad issue from just about anything, like taking out trash, getting a cup of coffee, attending the birth of a child, watching a movie about space aliens invading earth…we all get the picture. My pontifications had to do with how one gets there. I liken it to threads on a screw, acting in concert with each other by handing off work from one to another.

Occupants of all ten threads have ideas about themselves they are anxious to prove to others. But the first of these, let us say the first four, use this What-I-Want-to-Prove feature as a recruiting tool. On the first of these there is the desire to alleviate pain for others. Who in the world can doubt the nobility of such a thing? But the critical error is made when the new recruit accepts that, since Plan X would make the trains run on time or deliver health care to everyone or clean the water, that anyone who is opposed to the plan must be opposed to its intended goals. Then they’re ready to graduate to the second stage. All ten of these are like this; each one designates something to prove, and a common error. Yet another fall from fidelity toward intellectual sensibility and truth. A slipping-down, to the next terrace.

Gagdad Bob has been noticing things about the clumsy logic of liberals too, and apparently been laboring just as hard to remember that they’re like the rest of us — making their errors out of some weakness endemic to us all. But his analysis, rather than simply dissecting the liberal mind, dissects human consciousness and comes up with some explanations for why they do the things they do. It’s pretty fascinating stuff, worthy of reading and re-reading as one fails to escape the civil war currently raging between right-versus-left. It explains substantially more than one can absorb at one sitting; and, perhaps, a great deal more than what would leave one feeling comfortable about things.

[W]hen they dissent, it is the highest form of patriotism; when conservatives do, it is nazism. How can this be? Are they just cynical and calculating? Or is there something deeper going on?

Human beings are not “logic machines.” Or, to the extent that they are, there are at least two distinctly different forms of logic that govern thought: the machine-like asymmetrical logic of the conscious mind and the very unmachine-like symmetrical logic of the unconscious mind. One of the most important points to bear in mind is that we might believe a person to be illogical, when they are in fact obeying a different form or logic: symmetrical logic.
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To take an example ripped from this morning’s headlines, it is obviously kooky for the left to regard citizens who don’t want the state to take over their healthcare as “fascists.” For one thing, logically speaking, anyone who wants a smaller and less intrusive government is the polar opposite of a fascist.

But in the unconscious mind, where symmetrical logic rules the night, it is the work of an instant to convert terms to their opposite. This is how we may understand what makes the leftist tick: whatever he accuses others of, is what he is unconsciously guilty of. Thus, when he says, “you are astroturfing,” he means “I am astroturfing.” When he says “American citizens are behaving like fascists,” he means “we and our union thugs are behaving like fascists.” When he says “you are a racist,” he means “I am preoccupied with race and cannot see beyond it.” Etc.
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But it gets even more complicated. For example, many people are drawn to social work because of an unconscious sense of victimization that they try to spuriously heal by projecting into others. This is why these fields are so overrun by leftist do-gooders with rescue fantasies. The leftist feels victimized by anyone or anything that arouses their tendency to feel victimized. Thus…on a deep unconscious level the real abuser — the persecutor — becomes a sort of rescuer who rescues the social worker from her feelings of victimization, allowing a temporary discharge of victim feelings.

Again, think of the typical leftist activist who is “rescued” from an otherwise meaningless life by entertaining persecutory fantasies of global warming, or “income disparity,” or “male oppression,” or “racial profiling,” or what have you. This explains why the leftist clings to his persecutor long after the persecution has stopped. The left cannot “let go” of George Bush, any more than the radical feminist can let go of her symbolic “rapist” or the Islamist can let go of his Jew hatred, for these are the organizing principles of their own rage and hostility. Six months ago I predicted that the left would be unable to let go of George Bush. I was right. They cannot let go because “he” is a vital part of them.

Update: This aside comment about radical feminist and rapists reminds me, I had damn well better be sure and bookmark this wonderful essay, a link to which arrived yesterday in an offline courtesy of Daphne. It only relates to the topics above insofar as it is a wonderful example of them. No question about it — if liberal silliness and douchebaggery was fast food, this would be the Taco Town. She managed to hit every single bumper in the pinball machine, even making quick work of the list of words I totally hate.

While I agree that abortion and contraception are necessary at the moment, because we are living under male supremacy, women do not have any level of sexual freedom and intercourse is an unfortunate reality in many women’s lives… I am also looking forward to a time where abortion and contraception are no longer necessary. A time where women can engage freely, safely and lovingly in relations with other women, or in non-coital relationships with men.

I cannot in good conscience jump on the abortion/contraception is great for women bandwagon. In my opinion it has done as much damage as good. In reality, it gives men another crowbar with which to wedge open women’s legs. Yes, it gives *some* women, *some* level of control but it is a very, very far cry from actual liberation.

It’s terribly sad watching someone, whether it’s a liberal or a normal person, building such an identity around a quest for a prize. It takes someone on the outside looking in, to see what remains hidden from the person in the middle of the struggle: The identity is built upon the journey, not the destination, so if ever the day comes that the journey ends, the misery will have only just begun.

And that, in turn, reminds me of another e-mail I got from one of my former colleagues…it’s a Family Guy clip. Careful with this, it’s got dirty words in it.

Yup. That’s a hardcore liberal for ya. The (imaginary) day comes where some Golden Fleece or Holy Grail has finally been acquired, and any sense of self that has been cobbled together up to that instant, is gone forever. In its place is nothing but a sickening, desolate sense of emptiness. How can you not feel badly for them?

For example, many people are drawn to social work because of an unconscious sense of victimization that they try to spuriously heal by projecting into others.

In 1971 or so I worked for a little over a year as and aide in a private psychiatric hospital. What was almost immediately apparent was that the primary characteristic separating the staff from the patients was that the staff had keys.
- rob | 08/09/2009 @ 09:09
LOL, Rob!! 🙂

Back to the subject at hand… I was amazed at “this wonderful essay.” My first thought was “Omigawd… do people like this REALLY exist?” My second thought was overwhelming pity for the author of that “essay” and her fellow-travelers. It must be a bitch (ahem) to have to go through life feeling that frickin’ oppressed. Srsly.
- bpenni | 08/09/2009 @ 11:46
bloody hell… what sad and lonely lives these poor miserable creatures must lead.
- pdwalker | 08/09/2009 @ 16:48
I was enjoying the clip right up until the very end…when our good friend Seth McFarlane had to make a nasty swipe at Christians. It’s like he enjoys pissing us off. Oh, wait….
- cylarz | 08/09/2009 @ 21:49
Yeah. The Christian swipe turned me off a bit, too.

I suppose they’d never do it to Community Organizers™.
- philmon | 08/11/2009 @ 07:26
My Facebook friends are having a field day with this blog entry right now. Any of you guys on Facebook? If you are, add me: http://www.facebook.com/james.bostwick. We’ve got a whole Conservative network thing going on over there.
- sanskara | 08/11/2009 @ 20:30
How do we see it? I don’t know if this fellow would appreciate a friend-request from a knuckle-dragger like me…
- mkfreeberg | 08/11/2009 @ 21:12

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The Ill Logic of the LeftSaturday, August 8th, 2009

The Ill Logic of the Left
Saturday, August 8th, 2009