I can see that our politicians haven’t cornered the market on stupidity and insanity. I think after a liberal/progressive person gets to a certain age, they should have a net thrown over them and hauled away somewhere. The longer they are liberal, the crazier they get.
L. Hope
Baldwinsville, USA
June 15, 2009
In the comments to First ‘anti-stab’ knife to go on sale in Britain
Via Jeff.
[In a sense I think L. Hope is right. They are, in a sense, crazy. What I think is going on is that they do not or cannot understand the complexities of the real world. They believe central planning/control by “the right people” will result in a better result than letting people make their own decisions and being responsible for their own well-being When unintended consequences happen they think they need to exercise more control rather than understanding there are people just as smart, if not smarter, working to defeat their controls and even take advantage of those controls to their advantage. Hence criminals take advantage of disarmed people by nearly risk free home invasions. The disarming of the population made the home invasions possible with only a knife as a weapon. This sort of thing is repeated on a massive scale in the black market, taxes, prostitution, gambling, etc. Government controls, implemented with the best of intentions, almost always create more problems than they fix. The person that believes government can solve everything keeps thinking “just one more law” when a new problem shows up that was caused by the previous law. Eventually, such as in this case with the “anti-stab” knife, outsiders realize the proponent of government control is in some sense insane. But unless one or more of the five conditions are broken the people on the inside will not only fail to realize their insanity but will proselytize even more. This happens even when the proponents are facing near certain death. Read up on Joseph Stalin and his supporters sometime.
The only real solution that I know of is to remove the social support for their delusions. Point out their insanity. Rub their noses in it. People that have do not have the commitment to the “cause” need to be made aware and then join in on the public humiliation of the proponents of the insanity.
If we fail to stop the insanity early enough we run the risk the next Joseph Stalin will take over the reins of power of a system intended for use only by “the right people” with predictable and catastrophic results. And even after tens of millions have died there will still be people saying Stalin was a great leader. I believe there are some forms of insanity which are not completely curable and liberalism/communism/progressivism/socialism/statism may be one of those. The best we can do is to remove them from power and ignore them as they spout their mad ravings in public.–Joe]
I was reading a post on the change in folding knife import rules over at volokh.com and was amazed that most of the lawyerly comments there focus not on the infringement of individual liberty represented by this insane rule change, but on the details of interpretation of words in the regulation, as if a change in one or more words would make the crazy go away.
Madness comes in many forms. Willful blindness to the cliff ahead will not prevent you from rushing over it to your demise.
I agree that very strong ridicule is a good tool against these nuts.
I think we have already elected our Stalin.
“The best we can do is to remove them from power and ignore them as they spout their mad ravings in public.”
The problem with ignoring them is that their numbers will grow naturally. The Jim Joneses will always have their following. We know where it leads. Face it. They will have their way or they will kill, or both.
I say there needs to be an on-going, counteractive effort. Our constitution was supposed to be the blueprint for it.
Education is a key element but, as I keep pointing out, the crazies own public education. It’s as if we’re so occupied with the task of swatting wasps and treating stings that we haven’t noticed the huge nests in our attic.
Meanwhile; the Republican Party leadership, as always, is AWOL. If this is ever going to get fixed, it will happen from the grassroots. Republicans have been here all along, watching, and participating in creating the disaster we now face. Please; for anyone who thinks the Republican Party is going to fix anything, remember that they’ve been riding this train a very long time. Look where it’s got us. If 150 years’ track record isn’t enough to convince you, you’re one of those crazies, voting for Republicans over and over and over, expecting a different result.
Paul, while I agree that is a plausible hypothesis there is insufficient data to reach a valid conclusion one way or the other right now. My current hypothesis is that he has a narcissistic personality disorder but I don’t know if it can be considered malignant narcissism and if it is malignant whether he has the smarts and enough power under his control to pull off a Stalin like era. It seems to me there is a lot of evidence of incompetence and crumbling public support such that he will fall from power without massive loss of life.
Lyle, I also said,
I was inconsistent in later stating “The best we can do…”. I probably should have dropped that last line entirely.
Thanks for pointing that out. I was in a hurry to get to work when I wrote that.
Joe,
I would agree with your assesment, however I think there is a large supporting cast and while O may not have such delusions, those around him might not be so constrained.
I am surronded by those who support him and they are flat out frightening some times.