I read a little booklet by David Horowitz called The Art of Political War for Tea Parties. In it he says that what Conservatives do wrong is concentrate on logic, process and results.
He say Conservatives need to appeal to people's emotions like Leftists. I get what he means. And maybe it's a good idea as a short-term goal - to win the next election. But to encourage humans to live like animals sounds like a bad idea.
Animals live in their "feelings" (when not operating strictly on instinct). They want what they want when they see it and they have no rules about property or ownership. They'll take it if they can. And pack animals gang up on their victims. They have no rules about fair fights, or proportionate response.
Progressives are busy making government their Pack so they can sic it on anyone who has anything they want. Progressives are like nothing so much as hyenas who watch the lioness make the kill, then as a pack, steal the carcass.
I don't like encouraging that sort of mindless enthusiasm, even if it's for MY cause. I suppose we can learn to stampede animal-natured humans by appealing to their appetites. But what we end up with is still dumb beasts who are not fit to govern themselves.
Reason is what distinguishes human beings from animals. I think it's time we made that appeal.
I don't think we have to be stuffy school marms or talk like actuaries.
In fact, what we need to do is make thinking cool.
The Gunslinger
(Vulcan)
Joebama American citizens 2024 print
9 months ago
Every human has an emotional and rational side. To deny either in preference of the other as being the "most effective" isn't reality. Our Founders used reason and rhetoric to advance the cause of liberty and independence. The problem is not that Conservative rhetoric is weak but that it has been under constant assault by its totalitarian opponents using a barrage of lies, innuendos and false accusations. Some Conservatives just can't take the heat and back away.
ReplyDeleteI cannot think of a more emotionally compelling cause than that of liberty, the right to make choices for yourself, to reap the reward of your efforts and bear the consequences of your failures, to breathe free air of your own volition and not by the leave of some potentate who tolerates your existence. Liberals willing to surrender their liberty may do so, but when they attack mine they deserve every condemnation and ounce of resistance I can muster. If they wish to be pets, let them be so and give them flea collars because that is all they deserve.
Liberals, by their own rhetoric are incapable of exercising liberty responsibly. They are not men and women, but pets in search of a caretaker. We need to hammer them mercilessly on their feel-good words that appeal only to the lazy, ignorant and irresponsible, including themselves. It's always "someone else's job" or "someone else's money" with liberals.
Reason and rhetoric. It inflames, inspires and infuriates. It's about time Conservatives got over worrying about offending piss-ant liberals and their "feelings". If I make enemies in the cause of liberty, let their number be a measure of my devotion and of their craveness. Those beyond reason and rhetoric are already lost and not worth a single drop more of blood, sweat or tears.
You think too much.
ReplyDelete/sarcasm
Horowitz has a point. Some voters are incapable of thinking about an issue, only feeling about it. Tryint to appeal to their logic would be like dancing about architecture.
Don't waste your energy. Logic is wasted on the emotional.
I stopped giving a rat's ass about any of my liberal friends feelings when they thought it was humorous to post videos ridiculing conservatives on their fb page, KNOWING that some of their friends were conservative. You can't debate logically with them because they just don't get it. So, I don't even try anymore. I don't need the frustration and it's always fun to just post an innocent question and then watch the fur fly as they work themselves into a tizzy. Yeah. Life is good. -- skiri'ki
ReplyDeleteI go into the badlands often and I know animals view everything as a potential lunch. I admire them because they pay no taxes and have no agenda other than survival. The downside is that when they get romantic they have to fight for it. Locking horns, head butting, slashing of fang and claw. To keep thinking cool is what keeps us human. A great post!
ReplyDelete"Progressives are busy making government their Pack so they can sic it on anyone who has anything they want. Progressives are like nothing so much as hyenas who watch the lioness make the kill, then as a pack, steal the carcass.
ReplyDeleteI don't like encouraging that sort of mindless enthusiasm, even if it's for MY cause."
Hoo-rah!
"Reason is what distinguishes human beings from animals. I think it's time we made that appeal."
Cooking with fire!
"In fact, what we need to do is make thinking cool."
And the way we do that... is by stop giving a rats ass for any goddamned politically correct piece of shit evil notion that some politician wants to appease in a fools attempt to secure 'success' at the poll's. Pardon my french, but I know I'm not the only one who can smell that John McCain/Lindsay Graham at the first syllable... the same sepekuing actions that's led to scrubbing terms like 'radical islam' from our govt, including defense, doc's.
Political Correctness, aka Cultural Marxism, is killing us, bowing to it is cowardly, and no one respects it, let alone is appeased by it.
Reason does need to be rediscovered, and the first step in that rediscovery is realizing that some lifeless Mr. Spockish calculator is so far from Reason as to be anti-Reason. Emotion and imagination are a vital component of Reason... if someone feels they can reasonably discuss Liberty without feeling emotional heat and passion... then I suspect that they know as little about Reason as they do about Liberty.
Now, that emotional fire needs to be justifiable, it needs to be explained, it needs to have a solid foundation in experience, logic, and evidence... but assuming your position is Right and True, that shouldn't be to difficult to lay out.
We don't need to mislead anyone, but we'd better pack an honest emotional punch in our discussions of WHY Liberty and our Constitution are important to each and every person living here... why in God's name would anyone have an interest in taking on the burdens, the never ceasing vigilance, required of Liberty and responsibility, if that wasn't the case?
Trubolotta said "If I make enemies in the cause of liberty, let their number be a measure of my devotion and of their craveness. Those beyond reason and rhetoric are already lost and not worth a single drop more of blood, sweat or tears."
ReplyDeleteExcellent comment through and through.
Anonymous said "You can't debate logically with them because they just don't get it. So, I don't even try anymore."
ReplyDeleteTo a large extent that is true, and we'd do good to learn from it. For the most part, we shouldn't be bothering with convincing leftists that our cause is Right... they don't care whether or not we are Right, they only want what they want because they want it. We don't need to bother convincing leftists - they don't matter. There are not enough of them to worry about.
We do surround them... but the majority of 'us' tuned out long ago, don't feel that they can make any difference or that their Vote matters (hello John Venlet).
There are two types out there who we need to pursue, one being those who haven't been paying attention, those who haven't given any further thought to 'free healthcare' than the fact that it sounded like a generous thing to do. Those are people we need to appeal to, and wake them up to the fact that what they perceived to be 'generosity' is in fact vicious beyond belief, thieving and ultimately destructive to everyone's healthcare.
The other type are those who don't bother voting. The last election had only something like a 64.1 percent turnout rate, which was, according to one site, the highest since 1908 which had a 65.7 percent turnout rate. People began tuning out when they saw that their votes were going towards pure corruption and reducing their liberties... it's going to take our getting their attention and showing them that not only their remaining liberties are in peril, but their lives and that their votes are now going to be used to begin restoring those liberties... and we had better mean it, and hold those elected to accounts each and every day following the elections.
AM...of course Horowitz has a point. He's dead right...as far as he goes.
ReplyDeleteWe COULD win more elections if we were to fight full on emotionally. But what would we have gained...an electorate who is still ripe for demagoguery.
As Van says, the Leftists like libtard are lost causes...lost in their animal natures, and only respond to physical or emotional stimuli. But the rest of the electorate just hasn't been paying attention, or has been lulled by the constant beat of the Leftards.
That is who we have to reach. Van has it right. And Horowitz is thinking too short-term, in my opinion.
Which is not to say it is BAD advice, or that we shouldn't use it FOR the short term. It's just that it is not a long-term, (small "r") republican solution for growing responsible, independent, free citizens who are jealous of their liberty and righteously suspicious of gummint.
...for that you have to know what you believe, and why; cleave to your principles, and understand them; and be a full human being using all components of our nature.
ReplyDeleteFeeling is good. But it is not good enough by itself. Without our intellect, we are just hairless apes.
And behaving like that is a crime against Nature. She went to a lot of work to evolve us these big brains. :-)