What's up with that?
If you wonder on that long enough to ask some questions, and long enough to move on from those initial questions, to still other questions (and I do mean questions, mind you, not merely doubts), you might find that they will bring you face to face with some interesting clues and questions, which, if you're willing to follow them, will lead you into taking a closer look at who it is that we, and you, are. True, they might not provide the full answer, and what they do provide, might be a little unsettling, but the clues are at least easy enough to find, and to follow, and, as the examined life is not worth spinning, you might as well.
Right?
For instance, to give you a clue just how easy it is to find these clues, just turn on the News. Take a look at the media spokespeople who're telling you what's going on - man, woman, Maddow, local, network, web or cable - it doesn't matter, just take a look, and then ask yourself this question:
'Does the way that these news sources communicate to you - not what they communicate, but how they present themselves and the way they present their information - seem to you to be normal for this day and age?'With one or two rare exceptions, which prove the rule, the answer to that will be: No. And I'll betcha that if you ask yourself what group, place, or time period, that they do remind you of, I'll bet that the 'when' in time that they remind you most of, is some sort of throwback to the 1950's, maybe early 1960's.
Don't they?
And the answer to why that is, is a big clue to why Trump is winning. And yes, he, at least, is still winning. Even now. And you don't need to be a Trump supporter - I'm certainly not (and by that I only mean that he has no history of displaying the manner and commitment to ideas, that I can support) - in order to see this; it's just right out there in the open, if you open your eyes and look.
Those that we are in the habit of looking to, for information about our world, look like they do, because the media, Left, Right and center, have consciously formed themselves from a template derived from a 1950's 'Leave it to Beaver!' world of Ward Cleavers - as have the more popular means of manipulating (or attacking) the world we perceive around us.
Just look at what is deemed to be 'edgy' today - think Vagina costumes and pink pussy hats. They're only conceived of as being 'edgy', in relation to those things that would shock that old 'Leave it to Beaver' world view - do such fashion choices shock the generations raised in a world of 'South Park' or 'The Simpson's'? I'm gonna say, nope - in fact, they're far more likely to laugh at and mock it (another big clue).
Nope, the stuffed shirt shock and outrage of the estab...but no, 'establishment' doesn't quite cut it.
What I'm referring to here is more, and less, than that... let's call them here, our Cultural Showmen', in that they are more than simply 'the establishment'; these are those that have a stake in promoting the status quo, from all the places you'd typically think of, but also in areas that you'd tend to think of being less than 'the establishment'. This would include those in and around your private life as well - school, work, church, sports, whose expectations of what they expect to see, and expect you to cheer, were formed in relation to the worldview of 'Leave it to Beaver' - either fondly, or in reaction to it. These are the ones you look around for, if you're going to make a 'un-pc joke' - do you look around to make sure isn't standing nearby - if you see either Ward Cleaver, or a Social Justice Warrior Madonna/Eddie Haskell, you whisper or keep silent, right? But Al Bundy?, you wave 'em over and yuck it up, right?
Seriously, think about it. Is there a more Ward Cleaveresque visage being channeled into daily life, than that deliberately broadcast by a Brian Williams or Jake Tapper? Why do you suppose that is? They're taken as authority figures, because they've represented those we've long thought of as being those in authority - and especially by those who resent, and/or covet, their authority.
Every tactic used to direct and call the action in 'the show' of American life, is based upon that 'Cleaver' template. Even, and especially, the infamous Saul Alinsky's 'Rules for Radicals' - they all depend upon his Rule #4 which says:
"Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules."Rule #4 depends upon not only understanding those rules which 'The Enemy' (us) lives by, but most important of all, and vital to the success of Alinsky's entire system, is that "The Enemy" must also believe in them, or that they will at least desperately pretend to live by those rules which they claim to live by (as always, a person's usefulness to a manipulator, increases in direct proportion to their own hypocrisy). Alinsky, the MSM, the Pro-Regressive Left & Right - let's just call them The Showmen for short - base their power and their ability to exert it, upon their expectations that their enemy's rules, mean something to their enemy.
The first and most obvious meaning of this, is that we, you, our expectations, have always been the secret to their success. Right? Eddie Haskell would've gotten himself punched out in nothing flat, if Wally & The Beav', weren't raised as Wally & The Beaver' Cleaver. Alinsky's rules absolutely rely upon those sensibilities being in place, so that their tactics will be able to tear their targets (you, and me) down, without harm coming to themselves.
That strategy, of slipping a Ward Cleaver mask over an Eddie Haskell sneer, was what so many thousands of the 1960's & 1970's radicals like Tom Hayden's and Bill Ayer's of the world, were following when they cut their hair, donned three piece suits, and infiltrated the respectable world of the Cleaver's 'Leave it to Beaver!'. Hayden became a U.S. Senator, and Ayers became a motive force in the world of 'Education', as did so many others - but they didn't leave their old tactics behind, only their hair and clothing, freeing them to ring out their charges: 'Boozer! Philanderer! Stupid! Greedy! Cheat!', at a generation suddenly helplessly hamstrung by Alinsky's Rule #4, and their own guilt. People, of course, have always had failings (and always will), but now the Eddie Haskell's, masked in their Ward Cleaver faces, made use of Ward Cleaver's audience, who expected the establishment to live up to their wholesome ideals - that is how you use Rule #4 to turn people's own rules, against them.
And the Ward Cleaver believers needn't be outright frauds, just less than perfect. Rule #4 was key to how Bush 41 & 43 were manhandled for being 'out of touch' with the people, or for not being as being well spoken, highly intelligent, articulate, cultured and reserved as 'Presidential' should be. The roles were even turned about on We The People, to help us to ignore Bill Clinton's transgressions, as The Showmen directed the audience that a President had a right to his 'privacy!', and to 'have some respect for the office!'. They, and we, were contained by the role cast for being 'Presidential', and presidents 41, 42, 43 & 44, wanted, and auditioned for, that role. As have we. The Showmen are all still emulating the Cleaver look, because our expectations, are their means to acquire the power to convey their sense of shock and outrage to us, their viewers - not because they have any respect for those manners, styles and attitudes (one who holds 'Ozzie & Harriet' and 'Leave it to Beaver' dear, does not march about in vagina costumes, or wear pussy hats, or praise those who do), but because WE DO.
But their recent ineffectiveness in so many areas shows - from Trump's 'loser' to the Montana Rep. body-slamming a reporter on the eve of his election, and still winning, with a national 'ho-hum' response -, something has radically changed, which they've been surprised and were wholly unprepared for - and the rest of us should be concerned about as well.
The Termites Coming Home to Roost
What has changed, is of their own doing, their termites have come home to roost. You can see as much, in the satirical comedy sketches of British actor Tom Walker's self created character, Jonathan Pie, whose portrayals of a conflicted network news reporter, are perfect illustrations of just this sort of issue I'm describing. Network newsman Pie, finds himself bound and tied and effectively gagged, by the faux-Cleaver role he has to play on camera. He clearly doesn't believe in his role, or respect it, but having taken the role, it requires that he dutifully perform it for the camera, and the public eye. In his 'between takes' moments, he drops his mask and freaks out in enthusiastically creative four-letter word style, to his off screen control room person, 'Tim', about how obscenely F'd up their entire shtick is... and yet as they 'go live', he, uncomfortably, slips the Ward Cleaver mask on once again. But the moment he can take his mask off, he colorfully rants his heart out, like this:
"...Being offended, doesn't work anymore! Throwing insults doesn't work ANYMORE! The only thing that works is F'ing bothering, doing something, and all you have to do is engage in the debate, talk to people who think differently than you, and persuade them of your argument, it's so easy, and the Left have lost the art. Stop thinking that everyone who disagrees with you is evil, and racist, or sexist, or stupid, and TALK TO THEM! Persuade them otherwise, because if you don't, I'll tell you what you get, PRESIDENT TRUMP!..."
And unfortunately for the left in general, and for Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in particular, who're all still playing to an 'Ozzie & Harriet' and 'Leave it to Beaver' audience - that audience has left the building. Or, as one of former president Obama's favorite sayings repeatedly put it:
'That's not who we are as Americans'Good lord, even the Chinese are laughing at our uber-offended and triggered Left, calling them 'Baizuo'
"...However, it may surprise you to learn that these people aren’t just a joke in America. They are the laughing stock of the world. They are looked down upon, even in countries where they don’t have a significant presence.Hey Showmen! Psst! Do you recall those 'cool teen in school' TV shows that you used to transform America with? Do you remember the uber-uptight, uncool, nerdy teacher/principals, that you often had wander into a scene to impart words of wisdom, such as:
In China for instance, they have a word for these people. They are called “baizuo” or the “white left” on social media. Which is interesting, because even though China has its fair share of socialists and communists, they don’t have a direct equivalent to our liberal snowflakes. ..."
"Now students, remember that you are young adults now, and I trust you to follow the rules and do the right thing, 'cool'?", to the kiddies for comic relief? Guess what 'Showmen', with the 'Leave it to Beaver's America gone, you've become the understudies for the role of Mr. Tuttle - that is who you now are.
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| Mr. Tuttle = The New Left |
And Donald Trump, in particular, rather than auditioning for the role that The Showmen were offering him - which I suspect that a couple decades on Reality T.V., told him no longer exists - has been improvising his own unscripted, one man Reality T.V. show - which has been a big part of his success.
Now, if your reaction to that is 'But he lies!' or 'He isn't really a Conservative!', while I feel for you, someone's got to break it to you: today's audience is not seeing that as a fault of his, but as his attraction. And seriously, if you are a fan of T.V. shows such as South Park, any of the movies of Will Ferrell or Seth Rogen, or the Hip-Hop 'music' of Beyonce', or Rap - any one of which would have gotten you slapped (if not challenged to a duel) by any major figure from George Washington's time, through to Harry Truman's - and yet you somehow still expect the political world to continue by those rules, while you yuck it up with the 'best' of modernity? Sorry, but I doubt if you're even convincing yourself on that one, and you look ridiculous (and not a little bit manipulative and deceptive) trying to influence others to buy into it. Stop it. Pick one world or the other - you can't have both.
Similarly, what once would have drawn mass outrage nationwide, a candidate for representative, physically body slamming a news reporter, drew little more than 'ho-hums' from coast to coast - not because people think it was okay, but because they are tired of the entire show. People aren't willing to play along, as faux-reporter Jonathan Pie said, 'anymore!', and they resent The Showmen's 'laugh track' trying to prod them on. Trump is advancing and prevailing today, because he fits in with today, while his opponents - Left and Right - have tied themselves to a world that was canceled decades ago. Reality T.V. star Trump, is brazenly doing to The Showmen, what their own Eddie Haskels' have been surreptitiously doing to us all for decades. He's flipped Rule #4 on them and has been holding them up to their own pretensions, by both fair means and foul, and America has been voting them off the Reality T.V. island, and their audience participation has been loudly and raucously delivering the line: "Your fired!".
The Showmen are victims of their own success in fundamentally transforming the world, but ironically, their Brave New World is one which someone like Donald Trump is far better suited to performing in, than that 'Leave it to Beaver' role they woefully miscast themselves into - as clearly, not a damn one of them actually cares for, or reveres, any of the fundamentals which that role requires (again: one who holds 'Leave it to Beaver' dear, does not march about in vagina costumes, or wear pink pussy hats, or praise those who do), and the Youth, the Millennials, just as attuned to hypocrisy today, as the young have always been, see more than enough hypocrisy in the Faux-Cleavers. How many Professors spouting Marxist tripe while pulling down six figure salaries, or socialist enthusing senators who own three houses, or 'Truth to Power!' speaking newscasters like Dan Rather, or Brian Williams, being caught out with their forged documents and outlandish stolen valor lies, do you think they need to see, before questioning their credibility? Trump, believe it or not, is credible, because he clearly glories in all the faux-cleavers disdain - his money, his toys, his wives - and he is blunt, unabashedly insulting, and most of all, has become wildly successful by doing it. He may wear a suit & tie, but no one, least of all himself, sees him as 'Ward Cleaver', but as an Al Bundy done good.
And yet the Showmen are still trying to pull their same old faux-outrage schtick on 'the Trumpian Right', unaware of how ridiculous they appear. Remember the faux-Cleaver newscaster Jonathan Pie:
"...Being offended, doesn't work anymore! Throwing insults doesn't work ANYMORE!..."They came to war with The Donald, armed with tried and true tactics that were developed for a generation of Americans which now hardly even exists, outside of those who're only pretending to be them. Much to their surprise, when Donald 'Al Bundy' Trump walked onto the stage, the viewing audience almost reflexively began roaring their approval of his every move, because it mirrors what they've grown accustomed to, and enjoy, and 'love'.
In short: The Eddie Haskell Left, found themselves trying to shame Al Bundy, and got themselves punched out - to the roar of the crowd.
It is funny, but before we spend too much time laughing at them, those of us who aren't caught up in either show, need to consider what happens when what were once the tactics of radicals, are now no longer considered either radical or effective.
Which do you think is more likely - that the frustrated radicals are going to peacefully fade away, or that they're going to violently ratchet things up?
Mistaking 'Progress', for 'Pro-Regress', has its consequences, and fundamentally transforming a society that you never understood to begin with, is an inherently volatile process, one which has left The Showmen and their obsolete 'Rules for Radicals', flailing about in front of an audience that's grown more used to Al Bundy, Beyonce and South Park, than anything from 1950's T.V. (except maybe for Twilight Zone), and I'm sorry, but I just can't help LMAO at them.
But what now? What follows after that? Once you've fundamentally transformed the ground that you're standing upon, into something new and unstable - what then? We'll get to that, in the next post.
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