For some time now your correspondent has felt that we are devoting too much attention to Greta Thunberg. Those reasons were the conventional ones. However having seen several times her latest how dare you" rant it appears that the displayed condition deserves more attention than what the average oddity commands.
Mind you this is not about Greta as person. This is about movement a tendency that uses her with her elders consent. That kid is a type" a brand" and as such a warning about what is in the clip of the gun that fires her. No this is not an attack on ecological efforts. There is a problem and problems deserve due attention. Even if the problem can be stated rationally due to gullibility or an unstated political agenda the twitch that resulted amounts to an irrational but also threatening exaggeration.
There were times when movements sold themselves by pretending to be unstoppable to be the inevitable future" an expression of youth" -implying the sceptics demise- and so victory will be ours". The more so as the projected image claimed determination and ruthlessness. So it was march with us and you win. Oppose us in which case being an enemy you will be crushed".
In our times the public can be maneuvered by wearing a different mask. Pretend that the movement personifies virtue. Its advertised endless marching columns are said to be driven by the concerned love for mankind and that it aims to rescue even those that do not care. Brotherly love permeates the cause that rejects by claiming to express unadulterated virtue all that is evil -meaning in practice the doubters.
Nowadays it scores if a whining group claims to be insulted" outraged" hurt" or disappointed". That claim is followed by non-negotiable demands" in the name of a qualitative majority. Once the demanded capitulation is refused by the flat-footed numerical majority the implied temerity becomes a justification to persuade through violence. This coertion by elements that claim to be progressive" and liberal" goes beyond the effort to take power. The real violence against the blinded the morally retarded and those that feel well in the filthy morass of old habits will be unleashed only after the take-over. Making a New Man" -as desired by the Soviets and the Nazis- means a total war to be waged against the disdained majority. Scores of millions have become victims of this final stage of a logical process.
All that claims to be a human expression of the immaculate carries within it the potential to become criminal. This applies to infallible traditional religions ideology - a secular religion- and their leaders.
Yes mankind has the ability to improve its material lot and to perfect the way by which it structures its communities. Being consensual this organic progress is piecemeal and slow. Gaining consent and translating it into institutions and action demands patience. The exponents patience requires a consciousness within which fallibility occupies a prominent place. Nothing can limit more effectively the zeal of those that are totally convinced of the rightness of what they advocate than the philosophical commitment to gradualism and to tolerance exercised in the pursuit of the possible.
Accepting limitations such as in limited government" does not mean opportunistic eternal postponements. Certainly the Gretas do not temporize when in a state of tantrum they demand to get right away what they crave. Just the way they had learned as children in anti-authoritarian households. The case goes beyond structured politics limited ability to create majorities instantly and then to implement encompassing problem-solving measures. Our long experience reveals that certain types of radicals cannot be satisfied by meeting their initial demands. Authentic radicals are uninterested in solutions; their obsessive commitment is to a limitless struggle which they intend to command.
That thought deserves to be developed as its implications point to a future scenario. Some of us are born with personalities that are attracted by utopian projects. Utopias are devoid of an implementation in the world as it is. Therefore utopians propose to change the world. The change meant is not practical gradual and exploratory but revolutionary. This makes possessed visionaries want to overcome reality by razing it. By implication the exponents of such projects are more than prepared to be selectively violent; relying on coercion will be central to the way fanatics proceed as their influence grows. In fact as they gain ground much of their sway will not be due to the logic of their reasoned arguments but reflect the mass inability to resist the violence used against it. This violence does not dissuade; violence is not a deterrent but a proven tool of recruitment.
The soldiers of utopian causes are less interested in the original version of their cause than they are in saving mankind five before midnight" from an evil. Reversing this iniquity encloses these prophets with guns into a moral bubble. With the self-placed halo of being executors of a prophecy neither the individual member nor the movement as a whole can become guilty of a misdeed in the course of the noble struggle. The purity of the cause served contains within itself the moral justification of the actions of those that are in its service. With absolution granted prior to deeds that are equated with morality nothing that serves the race the Party etc. can be withheld. As Lenin put it morality depends on who whom". Herein lies the trigger that had led to the unflinching criminal liquidation of millions in an effort to raise mankind from its base condition to a higher state of development.
To the extent that the sketched process that leads from obsession to violence is correct the future promises to bring an escalating inclination of the True Believers of our time to resort to force in their effort to put deplorably confused majorities on the right track. Terrorism under another name is likely to become a growth industry. If it is allowed to happen it will be the fault of us all.
For some time now your correspondent has felt that we are devoting too much attention to Greta Thunberg. Those reasons were the conventional ones. However having seen several times her latest how dare you" rant it appears that the displayed condition deserves more attention than what the average oddity commands.
Mind you this is not about Greta as person. This is about movement a tendency that uses her with her elders consent. That kid is a type" a brand" and as such a warning about what is in the clip of the gun that fires her. No this is not an attack on ecological efforts. There is a problem and problems deserve due attention. Even if the problem can be stated rationally due to gullibility or an unstated political agenda the twitch that resulted amounts to an irrational but also threatening exaggeration.
There were times when movements sold themselves by pretending to be unstoppable to be the inevitable future" an expression of youth" -implying the sceptics demise- and so victory will be ours". The more so as the projected image claimed determination and ruthlessness. So it was march with us and you win. Oppose us in which case being an enemy you will be crushed".
In our times the public can be maneuvered by wearing a different mask. Pretend that the movement personifies virtue. Its advertised endless marching columns are said to be driven by the concerned love for mankind and that it aims to rescue even those that do not care. Brotherly love permeates the cause that rejects by claiming to express unadulterated virtue all that is evil -meaning in practice the doubters.
Nowadays it scores if a whining group claims to be insulted" outraged" hurt" or disappointed". That claim is followed by non-negotiable demands" in the name of a qualitative majority. Once the demanded capitulation is refused by the flat-footed numerical majority the implied temerity becomes a justification to persuade through violence. This coertion by elements that claim to be progressive" and liberal" goes beyond the effort to take power. The real violence against the blinded the morally retarded and those that feel well in the filthy morass of old habits will be unleashed only after the take-over. Making a New Man" -as desired by the Soviets and the Nazis- means a total war to be waged against the disdained majority. Scores of millions have become victims of this final stage of a logical process.
All that claims to be a human expression of the immaculate carries within it the potential to become criminal. This applies to infallible traditional religions ideology - a secular religion- and their leaders.
Yes mankind has the ability to improve its material lot and to perfect the way by which it structures its communities. Being consensual this organic progress is piecemeal and slow. Gaining consent and translating it into institutions and action demands patience. The exponents patience requires a consciousness within which fallibility occupies a prominent place. Nothing can limit more effectively the zeal of those that are totally convinced of the rightness of what they advocate than the philosophical commitment to gradualism and to tolerance exercised in the pursuit of the possible.
Accepting limitations such as in limited government" does not mean opportunistic eternal postponements. Certainly the Gretas do not temporize when in a state of tantrum they demand to get right away what they crave. Just the way they had learned as children in anti-authoritarian households. The case goes beyond structured politics limited ability to create majorities instantly and then to implement encompassing problem-solving measures. Our long experience reveals that certain types of radicals cannot be satisfied by meeting their initial demands. Authentic radicals are uninterested in solutions; their obsessive commitment is to a limitless struggle which they intend to command.
That thought deserves to be developed as its implications point to a future scenario. Some of us are born with personalities that are attracted by utopian projects. Utopias are devoid of an implementation in the world as it is. Therefore utopians propose to change the world. The change meant is not practical gradual and exploratory but revolutionary. This makes possessed visionaries want to overcome reality by razing it. By implication the exponents of such projects are more than prepared to be selectively violent; relying on coercion will be central to the way fanatics proceed as their influence grows. In fact as they gain ground much of their sway will not be due to the logic of their reasoned arguments but reflect the mass inability to resist the violence used against it. This violence does not dissuade; violence is not a deterrent but a proven tool of recruitment.
The soldiers of utopian causes are less interested in the original version of their cause than they are in saving mankind five before midnight" from an evil. Reversing this iniquity encloses these prophets with guns into a moral bubble. With the self-placed halo of being executors of a prophecy neither the individual member nor the movement as a whole can become guilty of a misdeed in the course of the noble struggle. The purity of the cause served contains within itself the moral justification of the actions of those that are in its service. With absolution granted prior to deeds that are equated with morality nothing that serves the race the Party etc. can be withheld. As Lenin put it morality depends on who whom". Herein lies the trigger that had led to the unflinching criminal liquidation of millions in an effort to raise mankind from its base condition to a higher state of development.
To the extent that the sketched process that leads from obsession to violence is correct the future promises to bring an escalating inclination of the True Believers of our time to resort to force in their effort to put deplorably confused majorities on the right track. Terrorism under another name is likely to become a growth industry. If it is allowed to happen it will be the fault of us all.