Tuesday, May 30, 2017

Troubled Teens


In all of the discussion of LGBT etc. issues with regard to young people (AKA “minors”), I have yet to see a certain issue discussed. And no, I'm not talking about bathrooms and locker rooms, which have been dealt with at exhausting length and which, along with proms and dress codes, have brought public school systems to their knees (so to speak). And I'm not talking about traditional moral issues... or about the age-old nature vs. nurture debate, i.e. the question of whether people are “born that way” or become that way through environmental factors – upbringing, various forms of abuse (physical or emotional, or both), the influence of the media, friends, non-friends, bullies, rock 'n' roll, fashion, what have you. These are all worthy topics, but I can't add anything to what's already been discussed.

I am, however, talking about a political issue – but not about elections or candidates, or their “positions” with respect to the issue, or who they are counting on to vote for them. My concern is with politics on the “micro” level, and the response not of skeptics or of people who are “agin” the whole idea, or of people who would rather not talk about it and who hope the whole thing will go away. I'm talking about the response of what I will call the “well-meaning” community, and specifically of those in authority – which means, in the case of minors, parents and public school personnel, by and large (although I suppose this could be extended to include coaches, teachers, and instructors outside the formal education system).

The problem is not one of acceptance; let's take that as a given. I'm talking about too much acceptance – or acceptance of the wrong kind. And the motivation for this seems to be less purely humanistic than the perennial tendency to categorize, classify, and pigeonhole people in order to simplify life and make it easier for the Regime (however manifested at this level) to deal with and accommodate individuals – to, in effect, apply the rules of identity politics reinforced, as needed, by “psychological testing” and other practices of questionable merit. Another way of putting it is that the minute a certain group of individuals starts to manifest a certain trait or behavior pattern, they are no longer treated as unique individuals but as part of a class (which may be newly-minted for the purpose). They are provided with a ready-made label and earmarked for special treatment on the assumption that sexual orientation or sexual identity is like quick-drying cement – once it solidifies, it can be counted on to stay put, remain stable, and not bother anyone – and that the individuals involved are, once and for all, to be counted as members of a certain group, and never mind the complexities of the human psyche, and especially never mind that the human psyche, in all of its myriad manifestations, is subject to change – sometimes drastic change – particularly in the early years. At that stage of life, everything else is fluid and evolving; why shouldn't this be as well? But that's not good enough for the collectivist/totalitarian mind set, where labeling is paramount and essential to the pursuit of political ends.

For what is identity politics? It's a power game based on the premise that certain traits not only define an individual, but constitute the most important – perhaps the only important – thing about them. If you're black, you're black; nothing can change that, and that will define your class for life – and heaven forbid you should do or say anything that constitutes wandering off the reservation (as witness what happens to “black conservatives”). The situation is likewise if you're handicapped in some way (and pardon me for using what I consider to be a still-useful term). But these are things about which it can realistically be said that a person is “born that way”, or in the case of some handicaps, becomes that way and there is no turning back. But is this true of sexuality – of sexual identity? And, in particular, is it true of the sexuality or sexual identity of minors?

Put it another way. Does it make sense based on what we know about human psychology to jump on some early signs of sexual identity or “preference”, slap a label on the individual, and then expect them to somehow live up to their newfound “identity” -- to conform within the bounds of a certified non-conforming group (those bounds being pre-defined by the Regime)? Again, it's this societal compulsion to pigeonhole people and thus avoid all the messiness and complexity of having to deal with them as unique individuals. A grade-school boy starts playing with dolls or expressing an interest in fashion design. Leave him alone? Not a bit of it. He has to be “encouraged”, and reinforced, and directed along the path that the authorities have decided is his fate – his destiny in life. And if he sticks with it, all is well. But what if, a year or two later, he tosses the dolls into a box and quits drawing dresses, and develops an interest in football, auto racing, and guns? Woe is us! Oh, the humanity! Now he's a “problem”, and no one can quite figure out what to “do” with him (as if there is a compelling need to “do” anything). Or turn it around – football, cars, and guns first, then at some point dolls and fashion take over. Again, woe is us (but not as bad as the former case)!

Apply the same thing to girls. Today's “tomboy” might become next year's prom queen – or again, vice versa. Or – a kid develops a “crush” (another old fashioned term) on someone of the same gender. Is that the same as waving a flag which reads “I'm _______ and proud of it!” And this is just about observable behavior. Do we know what's going on inside the kid's head? We might ask, or they might tell us – but again, is this already set in stone or can it evolve? Do we care? Well, the system cares, because it depends on labels – on classes – on setting one group against another, because only in that way can the system step in and save the day, imposing a kind of deadening peace (AKA “diversity”) upon the populace. I've commented before – as have others – that “diversity”, while appearing to honor individual choices, is really a program to enforce a stifling conformity on another level – conformity to the system, and submission to all of its varied mechanisms for categorizing people. True diversity is not the flesh-and-blood equivalent of the “It's a Small World” ride at Disneyland; it's accepting human nature in its entirety, with all of the complexities and ambiguities that entails. On some level, we are all nonconformists simply because we're individuals – but this is the very thing that society does its best to stamp out.

I suppose that part of the problem is that adults in general have already forgotten (or suppressed) their own childhood and youth – how fluid things can be, and how ambiguous. They have also forgotten how overwhelming “peer pressure” (in whatever direction you like) can be – as well as the impact of fashions (in the broad sense), fancies, and fads. Kids really are a lot like Silly Putty – highly malleable, able to be bent and stretched every which way, and apt to take on impressions from their social environment. The growth process brings with it uncertainties and insecurities; this seems pretty much inevitable. A maturing person is not only a stranger in a strange land, but they are strangers to themselves as well. What they need, above all, is time – and not this bogus instantaneous “understanding” or “support” or advocacy that attempts to force them into a given identity, class, or category – or force them to stay in one that they may have adopted only for a season. And granted, it's a delicate balance. I think the key is to support the individual as an individual, rather than as a member of a class that they may or may not truly belong in, or even be interested in.

It was not that long ago that boys were naturally expected to take up the occupation or trade of their fathers – and that girls were expected to do likewise vis-a-vis their mothers, who were typically homemakers. Biographies are full of stories of young people who “rebelled” against that system; it seems that many interesting people did so, which is probably why they wind up having biographies written about them. And while conformity on that level is pretty much a thing of the past, at least in Western societies, what we are faced with now is a new conformity which is focused (the way the old system never was, or at least not explicitly) on sexual identity. And it's gotten to the point where people not old enough to drive, or vote, are being encouraged to undergo hormonal therapy or even “sex reassignment surgery”. I consider this an egregious form of child abuse. Not only has the labeling process become a major industry (in the political sense), but it is being translated into permanent, irreversible physical alteration – all, of course, with the total “support” and encouragement authorities and of society in general.

And there is no denying that, for many young people, this is precisely what they want, and what they think will solve their problems and make their life better. But again, we have the judgment issue – why trust people of a tender age to make a life-altering decision when we forbid them from making other decisions of equal (or even lesser) import? Why should the first adult “right” granted to children be the right to change their genitalia? It makes no sense.

I predict – and there are precedents for this – that we will eventually see lawsuits by adults who went under the knife (or had drastic hormone treatments, or both) as minors, but who realized later on that they had been exploited. If someone who is already an adult decides that this is the path they want to take, that may be a matter for discussion and debate, but at least the person is acting from a position of legal and, hopefully, psychological maturity. But to impose the same expectations on a person who is immature in pretty much every respect goes way beyond disservice; it's setting them up to be a victim of a political agenda that they have no notion of. Growing up, and life in general, leaves enough scars without offering young people up as sacrifices to a world view that doesn't value their rights and uniqueness as individuals.


Saturday, May 20, 2017

And Now For the Good News


Good news if you're a Trump supporter, that is. And I admit, it's paradoxical, but what is politics but the kingdom of paradox? Whenever you start to think that things are making sense, you can assume you've been deceived.

The good news is that Trump hasn't (yet, and hopefully never will have) sold out to the opposition – which means, in the most broad-brush sense, the globalists. I've referred to this previously – the idea that the power and energy behind the unstinting rage and hostility toward Trump and his administration (and his family as well) comes from the globalists, whose octopus-like arms reach into every corner of the globe (never mind that that makes no sense in geometrical terms), but whose power base is in Western Europe with the U.S. as a semi-reliable partner.

We need to shake off, once and for all, the romantic notion that the opposition to Trump is a grass-roots, popular (vs. populist, which would be bad), “people's” movement. It's supported, encouraged, and funded at the highest levels of the globalist empire, George Soros being the most prominent but far from the only source. Those on the ground, or in the streets – the by-and-large non-bloodied cannon fodder of the globalists – may not always realize it, but they are being exploited, used, and duped by people for whom they are no more than insignificant insects – inert bodies of value only to aid and abet a political/social/economic agenda. In other words, it doesn't matter what they “think” they're doing out there on the street, or on the Internet, or on TV, the truth is that they are mere tools, deftly wielded by those far above them on the social and economic scale. They may not “feel” like a mob, but that's what they are.

What is my evidence for this? That is, for the notion that Trump hasn't sold out yet? It's not only the continual and accelerating hostility and resistance from all quarters, but the fact that they all say the same things about the same things at the same time. This gives the game away. It's as if they get up every morning, check their phone messages or the Internet, and receive their marching orders – figuratively if not literally. And along with those marching orders are provided “talking points”. This is why the media are all of one mind, and their mind is a perfect match for the mind of the Democrats in Congress, and a perfect match for the minds of the “entertainment” industry (which has ceased to be about entertainment, but is now only about propaganda). So there is a central control unit... a single source. How can it be otherwise? Surely that many influential people can't have the exact same thought at the same time, and use the exact same words to express it; that would be way too much of a coincidence. What this says is that they're all working for the same master – they are all clones, basically... serfs, slaves, parrots. And shameless as well! There might have been a time when they were willing and able to think for themselves, but that time is long past. Now they are taking orders from a single master in as mindless a way as the mobs who threaten, intimidate, and terrorize the rest of the citizenry in any totalitarian society – Mao's China, Pol Pot's Cambodia, and Kim's North Korea all being good examples.

So if the sheer volume and ubiquity of hostility toward Trump is “good news” in this sense, what would be bad news? That would be if a truce were called – if the hostility ramped down, cooled off. If the Democrats decided to “cross the aisle”. If the “entertainment” media went back to entertainment rather than non-stop propaganda. If the media started to publish or broadcast some good news about the Trump administration and program. This is the point at which you will know that the fix is in – that Trump & Co. have capitulated... buckled under the pressure... decided that if you can't beat 'em, join 'em... etc.

So anyone who is seriously supportive of Trump and his program had better be on the lookout. The minute a soft spot in the opposition appears, that's a sign of trouble. Better for the hostility and rage to continue unabated right up to Inauguration Day 2021, if not beyond. Because that will indicate that Trump is not only a “different animal” but that he continues to be, and is not willing to compromise – that he remains defiant. For there is, truly, no compromising with the globalists. The old liberal/progressive/Democratic dream of turning the U.S. into a people's republic is a thing of the past now. At this point the best the U.S. can hope for is to become a citizen of the world – to assume the posture of a beached whale, and to have its resources divided and scattered among the countless warring and contending tribes that inhabit the globe. It's only fair, after all, since we are ultimately the source of all their troubles and complaints (or at least that's what Bill Clinton and Obama always claimed). America needs to be liquidated – and who (or what) better to do that than the EU, George Soros, and the rest of the globalist cartel. We need to be put in our place – not necessarily through war or combat (although Vietnam certainly planted the seed for this whole idea) but through gradual erosion, through instruments such as open borders, “free trade”, political correctness on a global scale, unilateral actions regarding “climate change”, “foreign aid”, and so on. Uncle Sam has played Uncle Sucker for long enough – it is now time for the coup de grace.

Don't get me wrong – I've preached against “American exceptionalism” and the American Empire any number of times, and against this notion that our moral superiority gives us not only the right, but also the obligation, to be the world's policeman. I know that there are many varieties of colonialism that are much less obvious than in the old days, when European colonial empires spanned the globe. Empires in our time are economically-based, and rely on a technological and informational superstructure. You don't need planes, drones, bombs, warships, and troops to create and maintain an empire any longer – although we still seem to be wedded to this idea because... well, basically, it's more traditional, more masculine, and, doggone it, more fun. But anybody can see that nerdballs like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg wield way more power than any fleet or army ever did. So there has to be a wedding – or at least a rapprochement -- between the old ways and the new ways. Fair enough – empires, and the ways of empire, evolve just as weaponry and technology do. If Facebook is the Bofors gun of our time, more power to it – but it doesn't make it any more benign, or the empire it helps build any more of a boon for humanity. The new collectivism doesn't involve things as crude and obvious as driving the peasantry off family family farms and into factories and communes, but requires the creation of a uniform, globalist mind – a point of view characterized by amnesia when it comes to the ancient values (family, land, ethnicity, faith) and a sense of “belonging” to the world at large. And the word “belonging” is appropriate, since we are becoming the property of the globalists – a world-wide serfdom trapped in a new class structure with the technocrats at the top. It is, truly, “the revenge of the nerds” -- but is it sustainable when all of the connective tissue that harmonizes with human nature is being systematically cut away? There are signs of rebellion everywhere – newly-rediscovered nationalism and patriotism, as well as ethnic pride, not only in Europe and the U.S. but elsewhere in the world as well. Perhaps the struggle has just begun.