Random thought of the day

Political heresy is more of a threat to the collective than is a thief or murderer. The common criminal only affects a few people. A heretic can affect all of society.

This insight is almost directly from Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn’s book The Gulag Archipelago, Volume 2: An Experiment in Literary Investigation, 1918-1956. This is why the political prisoners were treated worse and had longer sentences than thieves and murderers.

It also might explain why the political left in this country are so violent toward their political opponents. They, at some level, have reached the same conclusion as their political brethren of the former USSR. And that is that independent thought is a threat to the entire power structure and the very foundation of their existence.

Share

One thought on “Random thought of the day

  1. Quite so. As with the Muslim assertion that the Koran is the end all, be all, body of law (Man’s law is irrelevant) and the one and only guide for personal behavior, so too is political power and the authority of the state the most highly regarded and worshipful thing to the American left. To think for yourself is, in a very real sense, heresy. Questioning the authority of the state is blasphemy and cannot be tolerated lest all the years of careful planning and hard work by the smartest people in existence be put in jeopardy, and everything fall into darkness (and no one wants that). It makes you an enemy, just as sure as “slandering the name of the Prophet” as Obama put it. It puts you in opposition to everything that is good and holy, and so you are to be rubbed out as a means of maintaining a proper, orderly, and safe society. There is no a place for you on Earth.

    Yes, yes, and forever, yes. The question is then; what do you do about it? I am unable to come up with anything that would make any sense to most people. “Nothing” being fairly close to a decent summary, though “almost nothing” may be closer.

    You’re being tested, in much the same way a shark is said to “bump” its potential prey to see now it will react. The shark then circles and waits, trying to determine if the subject of its attention might be suitable prey, watching its responses, sizing it up to see how weak or strong, or dumb or observant, or slow or fast it is. It’s a process that is millions of years old. To continue the analogy, the Republican Party is essentially shark shit at this stage of the game.

    It’s a grim situation and there will be much suffering. And how will we react? But in reacting you almost always lose, because it puts the other side in control.

    I could tell the story of the Rottweiler that came snarling, with its hackles up, into my yard, running at me the other day, pretending (and doing a very good job of it) that it was going to do everything in its power to tear me apart. “Pretending” being the key word, see. I’m twice its size, I’m on my property, and I have a gun. I looked him in the eye with a relaxed smile and told him “not here, not today, that won’t do” or some such in body language and in words. From five feet away, he jerked back as though he’d been hit with a heavy club, did a little yelp and trotted off. Sometimes it happens that way, and I suppose sometimes you get bloodied up. Whatever. I cannot say how it happens, nor do I have any confidence (faith?) that it always works one way or the other. Some dogs are just plain insane, and so you have no choice but to kill them I suppose. That’s the difference, I’ve hear it said, between an adversary and an enemy. You can dismiss an adversary, but an enemy you have to kill. I’ve never had to kill an animal in self defense. Thankfully, this one turned out to be reasonable, as far as dogs can be reasonable.

    I’ve heard there was a man who could stop a charging elephant in exactly the same way. If it isn’t true, it should be.

    The point is, stand your ground, but know what your ground is, and know the difference between an adversary and an enemy. Don’t get drawn in to the ruse. An adversary is doing you a favor, testing your metal. An enemy just what’s to die.

Comments are closed.