Mencken Was Right
H.L. Mencken was correct when noted that "Democracy is a form of worship: it is the worship of jackals by jackasses". This became clear to me today on my way home. Since I commute on a bicycle, I have a bit more time to reflect upon my surroundings than your average automobile driver (especially since I can't be texting or talking on the phone). As look up ahead of me, what is careening down the bike lane but "Activist Hippie Woman".
Mind you, this isn't all that uncommon in Gainesville. Being a university town, it's full of old hippies, young hippie wannabes, and lots of bums who make a living getting handouts from guilty old hippies and young hippie wannabes. But this woman is almost a caricature. She's on a Walmart special bike, wearing a big white hat with plastic flowers on it, she has about 10 cans tied to the back of her bike for maximum acoustic unpleasantness, and her purpose for all of this is to show everyone the huge "Obama 2012" sign on the back of her bike. I zip around her, but alas fate is cruel and we wind up stuck at a traffic light. She noisily pulls up next to me, and the conversation is roughly as follows:
Activist Hippie Woman (hereafter AHW): "Do you vote?"
Me: "Yes."
AHW: "Obaaaaaamaaaaa whoooooohooooo!"
Me: "I can't vote for him, I'm not a socialist."
AHW: "Then you shouldn't vote."
[This is indeed an interesting statement ... guess the only people who should vote are required to agree with her. Freedom is obviously not her utmost concern.]
Me: "I believe people should be responsible for themselves."
AHW: "Yeah, but they're not .... so we have to take care of them."
I've been thinking about this mental giant all day. It's 2010, and the upcoming election cycle isn't for President, but that doesn't stop this motivated Obamabot. She's so caught up in the cult of personality that she's fighting an election campaign that hasn't even started yet in a way that accomplishes nothing (except perhaps tempting someone to mistake her for a speed bump). It's kinda reminiscent of the old school Stalinists, or Maoists, or those poor folks in North Korea who worship Kim Jong Il.
But she's really just another jackass worshiping another jackal. (And just for the record, I'm in no way implying that the jackasses who worship the Jesus-loving Christo-facist jackals are any better.) When politics is drained of fact, reason and evidence and reduced to a cheerleading, quasi-tribal popularity contest, it's no wonder we consistently elect the thieves, con-artists and despots we do. The masses really do get the government they deserve.
Mencken would be proud ... or maybe just disgusted. I know I am.
Mind you, this isn't all that uncommon in Gainesville. Being a university town, it's full of old hippies, young hippie wannabes, and lots of bums who make a living getting handouts from guilty old hippies and young hippie wannabes. But this woman is almost a caricature. She's on a Walmart special bike, wearing a big white hat with plastic flowers on it, she has about 10 cans tied to the back of her bike for maximum acoustic unpleasantness, and her purpose for all of this is to show everyone the huge "Obama 2012" sign on the back of her bike. I zip around her, but alas fate is cruel and we wind up stuck at a traffic light. She noisily pulls up next to me, and the conversation is roughly as follows:
Activist Hippie Woman (hereafter AHW): "Do you vote?"
Me: "Yes."
AHW: "Obaaaaaamaaaaa whoooooohooooo!"
Me: "I can't vote for him, I'm not a socialist."
AHW: "Then you shouldn't vote."
[This is indeed an interesting statement ... guess the only people who should vote are required to agree with her. Freedom is obviously not her utmost concern.]
Me: "I believe people should be responsible for themselves."
AHW: "Yeah, but they're not .... so we have to take care of them."
I've been thinking about this mental giant all day. It's 2010, and the upcoming election cycle isn't for President, but that doesn't stop this motivated Obamabot. She's so caught up in the cult of personality that she's fighting an election campaign that hasn't even started yet in a way that accomplishes nothing (except perhaps tempting someone to mistake her for a speed bump). It's kinda reminiscent of the old school Stalinists, or Maoists, or those poor folks in North Korea who worship Kim Jong Il.
But she's really just another jackass worshiping another jackal. (And just for the record, I'm in no way implying that the jackasses who worship the Jesus-loving Christo-facist jackals are any better.) When politics is drained of fact, reason and evidence and reduced to a cheerleading, quasi-tribal popularity contest, it's no wonder we consistently elect the thieves, con-artists and despots we do. The masses really do get the government they deserve.
Mencken would be proud ... or maybe just disgusted. I know I am.
posted by DrJDG @ 22:53
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