Homosapien: An Animal by Another Name

“The ideal of self-advancement which the civilizing West offers to backward populations brings with it the plague of individual frustration. All the advantages brought by the West are ineffectual substitutes for the sheltering and soothing anonymity of a communal existence…The Western colonizing powers offer the native the gift of individual freedom and independence…It means the cutting off of an immature and poorly furnished individual from the corporate whole and releasing him, in the words of Khomiakov, “to the freedom of his own impotence”.”
The True Believer, Eric Hoffer

The 20th century can be defined as the clash of ideologies. Marxist-Leninism disguised itself as the champion of the masses, led by a vanguard of privileged political rulers. Its opponent was portrayed as capitalism, an economic system that defined itself as offering tangible rewards for the effort applied by an individual. Big government and multi-national corporate bureaucrats would have us blindly adhere to the central planning efforts of these self-proclaimed savants.

Today fascism in its many guises is challenging the West and attacking its culture of individual freedom and inalienable rights. In the US it is aided by the Progressive elite that defraud our treasury and turn a blind eye to the rule of law. Rather than educate they pontificate; they are a self-serving “vanguard of the people” no different, in effect, than Lenin, Stalin or Mao. These busy-bodies loath their own existence so they look for redemption in the exploitation of others.

Change, hope, rising above partisan politics, transparency have become empty promises intent on keeping the gullible looking to the future and away from the crimes of the present. Why would any rational person want to do this?

“One of the most potent attractions of a mass movement is its offering of a substitute for individual hope. This attraction is particularly effective in a society imbued with the idea of progress…The despair brought by unemployment comes not only from the threat of destitution, but from the sudden view of a vast nothingness ahead.”
The True Believer, Eric Hoffer

The techniques for creating a mass movement are used in smaller venues as well. Corporate team-building, military training, associations, political parties, churches, synagogues and clubs all want to attract new members and integrate all members into a like-minded group. If you are not with the in-group you may be out. Most people are inherently attracted to group membership where they seek acceptance and validation. The growing number of groups and causes are closely followed by political agendas. More and more these seem to divide us more than to unify us. Venerable institutions like the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts are assailed by atheists and others who attempt to impose a minority faction’s agenda. There are many more examples.

In the past decade we see a propensity toward sound-bites couched in the language of “I feel…”. Opinions have taken on the stature of facts; research is no longer needed when unsubstantiated conclusions are so readily made available for plagiarizing. Even scientific research is perverted and skewed to the satisfaction of those bent on acquiring power at any cost. Political correctness is invoked to silence any criticism or opposition. Too many of us can’t break away from TV “reality” shows, culturally bankrupt “comedies”, or social media to research the facts bearing on our nation’s pressing issues. The banal seems ever so comforting.

The masses are being herded with false promises, anesthetized by government handouts, and confined by larger and more numerous government programs and regulations. We are virtually being divided into many antagonistic camps. Large government, large banks and corporations are in collusion to create an environment of individual isolation and frustration. Overwhelming frustration is the goal. Then and only then can otherwise normal, well-behaved citizens be recruited to the new mass movement. Wrapped in the trappings of patriotism, environmentalism and forward-thinking, their movement is taking us away from our constitutional republic.

“There is perhaps no more reliable indicator of a society’s ripeness for a mass movement than the prevalence of unrelieved boredom…When people are bored, it is primarily with their own selves that they are bored. The consciousness of a barren meaningless existence is the main fountainhead of boredom.”
The True Believer, Eric Hoffer

Europeans felt comforted by their respective nanny-States until they were overcome by debt and immigrants that had no intention of assimilating. Americans have been fed a steady diet of propaganda through movies, television and the mainstream media. We have become a nation of “what you have” not of “what you are”. Values, ethics and morals are uncomfortable and interfere with the self-evolvement of the crass and the selfish. Our political and corporate leaders sealed the deal by making us a debtor nation that knew only how to consume for consumption’s sake. No appetite suppressants here!!! The malls of America are the new cathedrals raised to fill the internal vacuum of those seeking fulfillment with every purchase.

There is no discipline in far too many of our public schools, rules make it easier for teenagers to act out against their parents and other adults, gangs have been allowed to grow and fester, illegal immigration is used to destroy “mainstream America” and dull us to the corruption of our nation’s politicians. Churches are being lulled with the mantra of social justice and the average idiot thinks that if we only love the bastard enough he will no longer be a bastard. The youth have not been properly led or taught; they have deluded themselves into thinking that wishing is enough. Too many reverends, ministers, imams, rabbis and priests have bought into the business of religion and are spiritually bankrupt themselves. To invoke the name of God, Jesus or Mohammed is sufficient in their minds to become unassailable by you or me.

Our government is now waging an illegal and unconstitutional war in Libya and there is no clamor against it. The war protesters against the Iraqi conflict under the Bush Administration were hypocrites and cowards. Hypocrites because to follow Obama is to accept any of the four conflicts we are currently engaged in abroad (i.e., Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Yemen). Their cowardice prevents them from donning the uniform to go fight for their country. Unfortunately, they know our military are not fighting for our country any longer.

Our servicemen and women are being used as expendable pawns in a political game to distract America from the usurpation of liberty at home. The Patriot Act was the start; the avalanche of bankrupting spending and crippling regulations continues unabated. We are no longer fighting for our nation; we are fighting for the partisan political ends of the Progressive’s New World Order. The latter, simply put, means large government, the abolition of personal liberties, and the shredding of the Constitution.

In nature, animals often hunt in packs. Territory is protected by extravagant shows of force without bloodshed or resulting death. Violence and death is linked to feeding and survival. Crimes of passion in the wild and premeditated murder are not a part of what we call the animal kingdom.

We have many of the attributes of that animal world but we boast a higher intelligence with the capacity of guiding our thoughts and controlling our feelings of hate or rancor or jealousy or greed or avarice. Unfortunately, too many well-intended and more intelligent humans are standing on the sidelines, horrified by the hysterical talking heads, and too fearful to contemplate a looming worst-case scenario. Evil expands in the absence of Good to restrict it.

The irony of it all is that humans are proving to be the most dangerous and treacherous animals of the natural world. A human, after all, is nothing more than a homosapien, an animal by another name.