Opus 2026-136: Don’t Make My Day

For some reason the phrase “Make my day” came to mind this morning.  I think it is from a Dirty Harry movie.  I don’t think I ever saw any of the movies but I have been exposed to the clips and segments that are common.  If my mental construction is correct the movies feature a cop who is committed to justice and is not worried about going outside the boundaries to achieve it.  My impression is that the audiences cheer him on as he breaks the rules to bring the bad guys to their deserved end.

Add to that the adventure novels that feature similar characters.  The first one I was aware of was James Bond, 007, which meant he had a license to kill.  We watched him exercise that permission and were entertained.  The same pattern was used in repeated series and stand alone novels about secret government agencies that reported only to the president and went around the world like undercover Lone Rangers.  The rules did not apply to them because they were in the service of righteousness.

It was exciting and for the most part we all went along for the ride.  In the process we were being conditioned to accept the idea of vigilante justice.  We were being taught that the rule of law was something that could be set aside in the quest for punishment of evil.  It was all very good when the president in charge of the secret agency was on the side of the angels but the question becomes, “Who appoints the angels?”

What we are seeing lived out on our streets is the shoe on the other foot.  The forces of darkness have adopted the idea that the end justifies the means and their end justifies anything that they want today.

The rule of law is being set aside. What is the rule of law?  Hayek gives a good definition:

“Nothing distinguishes more clearly conditions in a free country from those in a country under arbitrary government than the observance in the former of the great principles known as the rule of law.  Stripped of all technicalities, this means that government in all its actions is bound by rules fixed and announced beforehand - rules which make it possible to foresee with fair certainty how the authority will use its coercive powers in given circumstance and to plan one’s individual affairs on the basis of this knowledge.” p. 80

The rule of law is difficult to apply when you are facing an adversary who understands your limitations based on that rule.  We are faced with a Marxists incursion in our country that knows how to push our buttons and maniuplate our good intentions.  It remains to be seen if we will find a way to survive.  There are two things that allow this attack to be successful.  

The first is in infiltration of our judicial system by bench sitters who are part of the enemy.  Judges who legislate from the bench in obvious opposition to the Constitution are part of the enemy.  We don’t like to think that people who are appointed to be impartial can side with evil but it is a common experience.

What makes that a real problem is politicians who refuse to apply the oath they took to protect and defend the Constitution against enemies both foreign and domestic.  At the present time the Republicans have “control” of both houses.  If they would honor their commitment we could see judges impeached and fraud punished.  If we had a few Democrats that remembered they are Americans we could see the same thing happen.

We have had rough times before.  The one that stands out to me is the decade preceeding the Civil War.  We survived but the price was high.  Let us hope that we can avoid that violence but be willing to pay it if necessary.

Hayek, F.A.  The Road to Serfdom, Fiftieth Anniversary Edition.  Chicago:  University of Chicago Press, 1944, 1994.

homo unius libri

Opus 2022-022: New Terms: Politicized Science

Modifiers can change the total meaning of a word.  I have written before that adding the adjective “social” to “justice” produces something that has nothing to do with justice.  The same happens any time you put any number except two in front of the word “genders”.  One of the most recent marxist definitions is “multiracial whiteness”.  This is happening all around us.  You may think you understand but you need to accept that there is an organized campaign by the Proregressives* to change the culture through language.  

Friedrich Hayek commented on this 80 years ago as he was reflecting on how the socialists had taken over Germany and were infiltrating the rest of the world.

“In this particular case the perversion of the meaning of the word has, of course, been well prepared by a long line of German philosophers and, no least, by many of the theoreticians of socialism.  But ‘freedom’ or ‘liberty’ are by no means the only words whose meaning has been changed into their opposites to make them serve as instruments of totalitarian propaganda.  We have already seen how the same happens to ‘justice’ and ‘law,’ ‘right’ and ‘equality.’  The list could be extended until it includes almost all moral and political terms in general use.”,  p. 174

Notice the list of words that they focused on.  We have our own examples of language perversion.   

Have you heard people saying that this is the first generation of American children who will not be able to do better than their parents?  At the same time they whine about how there are no jobs available for them after they paid for a college education.  Overlooking the fact that they have not paid for it yet you need to understand that most of them have college majors that include the word “studies”.  How many good paying jobs are there where you work for people with a BA in Women’s Studies?  You can fill in the blanks yourself, *-studies means they went to school to party and have no interest in productive work.  They have no prospects because they have degrees in worthless subjects.

Then you have the diluting of the word “science”.  I wanted to teach history.  They did not have a teaching credential in history any more.  Now it is “Social Science”.  It is a broad category that has nothing to do with science.  It would include economics, government and psychology.  These are subjects that are based mainly on guess work and unprovable hypothesis.  Among the subjects is something called “political science”.  What do you think of when you hear that term?

I think a better title would be “politicized science.”  It is a pollution of the real goal of science which is to seek knowledge and question everything.  Real science uses the scientific method which suggests an hypothesis and then does careful experiments to find if the idea is true or false.  Once that is done they take a baby step, form a new hypothesis and recycle.  Politicized science decides what you want to prove for political reasons, finds guys with degrees and white coats and pays them to come up with the results desired.

Hayek, F.A.  The Road to Serfdom, Fiftieth Anniversary Edition.  Chicago:  University of Chicago Press, 1944, 1994.
 
homo unius libri

Opus 2022-003: Eliteicrom Variant

The minions of Communism think they are safe.  They are in for a rude awakening.  The thug attacks on expensive shopping areas are an indication of what is coming.  If they had been paying attention they would have seen pictures of notes stuck on windows proudly informing the rioters that the owner of the business is on their side.  Of course the note is attached to a window that is shattered in front of an empty display.  Criminal thugs, rioters and Communists don’t stop to consider your feelings, or it could be that they just can’t read.  Liberals think they are immune from the coming social holocaust just as they think that a mask makes them immune from a virus.

This is nothing new.  It is a characteristic of socialist thinking.  In his 1944 discussion of socialist thinking, F.A. Hayek said,

“If most people are not willing to see the difficulty, this is mainly because, consciously or unconsciously, they assume that it will be they who will settle these questions for others, and because they are convinced of their own capacity to do this justly and equitably.” page 243

Liberals are so out of touch with cause and effect that they think they will always be on top of the pile and the unwashed masses will be overjoyed at the willingness of their overlords to take an interest in their welfare.  

I can envision the theme song of these disillusioned fools when the van shows up to escort them to their next position in the hierarchy.  It is a song out of my past and it’s mantra is,

“They’re coming to take me away.”

I hope we are still here to wave to them as they pass.

Hayek, F.A.  The Road to Serfdom, Fiftieth Anniversary Edition.  Chicago:  University of Chicago Press, 1944, 1994.

homo unius libri