The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Althouse Discovers A Problematic Pattern With Our Society: Living In The Present Tense

Posted on | March 18, 2011 | 8 Comments

by Smitty

Concerning the punkish online behavior of a couple of people she’s encountered in the last three weeks:

Even if you have no human kindness at all and care only about yourself, how can a moment of passion be worth all the damage you do to your reputation? Do you think a potential employer who reads something like what we discussed here and here would consider hiring you? You may think you are really just a harmless guy with “good politics,” having some fun, and you may not care at all whether you scare me or not, but you are hurting yourself.

The cultural divide could not be more stark. The young lack all capacity to step back and view their lives from a distance. They tend toward the momentary: morally, mentally, sexually, professionally. The scope of their vision doesn’t really extend past the next SMS message on the phone.
This is the fruit of Progress. The opposite of liberty is dependency. These young idiots are secure in their faith that an exception will be found for any transgression. The Government God will never actually punish; an exception will always be found, or the violated rule ignored. The Government God is all mushy sentimentality, and always gives another subsidy. Justice is a capitalistic notion, carried out by the Satanic market. This is why the idolatrous, Satanic markets must be stripped of their capitalistic priests and made subservient to the Government God. Government God will re-distribute the seized goods of the capitalistic priests in accordance with notions of Real Lawful Justice.
Past all that sad farce, these kids need de-programming, if that is possible. They’ve been enslaved by Progressives and are totally confused. They badly need to be held accountable for their actions, allowed to fail, and permitted to let hunger and want teach them the value of things in the real world.

Update: As a case in point, via Drudge, we have a brawl over rule-breaking on the subway in New York:

In the video, which contains profanity, starts with some arguing. Then one woman says, “What kind of animals eat on the train?”

The woman eating the spaghetti responds, “What kind of fat ****** looks like you?”

The back-and forth continues until both women stand up and get in each other’s faces. Then the spaghetti went flying and the two passengers start a physical confrontation. Other people on the broke up the fight but the back and forth continues until the video ends.

The notion of there being any enforceable rules eludes the spaghetti eater. Had a suitable authority figure been the one to call her out, it would have been raaaaacism, and Al Sharpton would have been conjured to plead the unfairness of the situation to a slobbering media.
Witness that media stunned at the lack of looting in Japan after the recent tragedy. Just to be perfectly clear, I have plenty of heathen relatives in my own extended family who have, in their own way, been the spaghetti-eater in the subway equation. There is not shred #1 of racial specificity in the cultural problem at hand.
What to do? I was walking back from a workout the other day, and my T-shirt had come un-tucked from my gym shorts. A very junior petty officer, walking the other way, said “Check your shirt.”
I replied “You’re right. Thanks,” tucked the T-shirt into my gym shorts. Completely minor point of uniformity, but the junior sailor was correct and my place was to shut up and stand corrected.

Category: Ann Althouse

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