“If I am not a tyrant, if I merely seek legitimacy then why would I not accept such favorable terms?” – Rome
Hulk Hogan apparently had to seek therapy – the diagnosis was wrestle-mania.
I think one thing that has always been a feature of Americans is that we’ve had a healthy distrust for authority. The entire Revolutionary War was because we didn’t trust the British to take our interests into account. We even used roosters to find British spies – a version of chicken-catch-a-Tory. Yet, just enough trust has existed to keep us going.
Mostly.
Right now, however, there is a crisis brewing – a crisis of legitimacy.
We see it everywhere, but I’ll start off with the worst: the “Presidency” of Joe Biden. The points that bear discussing are certainly well known to readers here:
- The “open” conspiracy to change laws to beat Trump,
- Evidence of ballot harvesting, and
- Evidence of counting “irregularities”
Among a lot of other things. Heck, even Pa Wilder voted for Biden, which is something he’d never do if he’d still been alive.
How do you change a lightbulb in a house built by Apple®? You don’t, they no longer make that outlet, so it’s time to buy a new house.
The reaction of the Left is more of their politics as usual. Anything possible to distract and vilify the Right is in play. Any hint or even joke about the legitimacy of Biden’s electoral “victory” is shut down. Case in point, I made a joke about Biden’s victory being more in the counting than in the voting, and that podcast was immediately shut down by YouTube’s® A.I. (Shhh, don’t make fun of that A.I., it’s really self-conscious),
If they’re that sensitive, I know I’m over the target. The reason is that there is a mountain of evidence that shows fraud in the election, in just the right places and locations it would be needed (and would be possible) to swing the election to Biden.
Huh.
A robust and positive response would have been to participate as hard as possible to show Biden was legitimately elected. They would have taken the points brought up by (in many cases) non-partisan analysis showing the trickery.
Nope. The Democrats looked for voter fraud just as hard as O.J. looked for “the real killer”.
I drink apple juice; I heard OJ will kill you.
I wonder could there be a parallel there, or if that could be the reason that a majority of the American people think Joe was falsely elected? Instead, they use the word “baseless” when they really mean “facts we really, really, want you to ignore.”
Hmmm.
If a phony election was enough to destroy the Republic, though, it would have failed long ago. Historically, there have been other elections that have been called into question: 1876 and 1960 were two big examples. But we survived both, even though Rutherford B. Hayes was called “His Fraudulency” for the rest of his life.
Rutherford B. Hayes was a stunning success compared to Biden, serving one term where his most notable accomplishment was attempting to avoid inflation and keep the money supply sound, whereas Biden prints and spends money like a Pelosi drinks and drives.
Why is Owen Wilson’s nose in the middle of his face? It’s the scenter.
That’s the second crisis of legitimacy – phony money. Again, none of this is new – I’ve written that our monetary policy appears to be less sound than the logic of a drunken 22-year-old rock star in a strip club in Vegas.
The phony money is, of course, only one component of the phony economy. For years now, pools of cash have kept up the appearance of value in home prices. Likewise, stock prices have been artificially pushed upward at the same time bond prices (and interest rates) were artificially kept downward. At some point (and, it’s looking like that point is very near, indeed) the stored energy caused by the distortions will cause the economy to snap.
Because? Our economy is illegitimate.
What about the Uvalde police department: Who thinks that they’re legitimate now? But how many people are secretly asking, “if that happened in my town, what would our cops do?” and then thinking, “probably the same thing.”
Reason #238 for the Second Amendment.
Where most people would expect cops to run in and, oh, save children, it’s not in their playbook. Really. Lots of police departments put as their number one priority “officer safety”. And courts have repeatedly backed the cops up – they have no duty to even try to save me, kids in a school, or you.
How legitimate does that feel?
I could keep going all night, but sometime I have to sleep, so I’ll just bring up one more. We’re in a society where even the concept of “being a man” or “being a woman” is legitimate anymore. But even that is a symptom of a society where the basic values that have been consciously subverted at every opportunity – good is now bad, and vice versa. Truth is now despised while lies are celebrated.
To summarize our society is in deep jeopardy because we have:
- Illegitimate Politicians (especially the President),
- Illegitimate Money,
- An Illegitimate Economy, and
- Illegitimate Values.
I hope he never gets around to building back better . . .
This is the opposite of the formula to make a country work well. Civil strife combined with a collapsing economy, rising prices, and a collapsing social fabric sounds like a lot to take away from just a loss of legitimacy, but it’s not – for people to create a productive, free society, they have to have incentive, they have to have trust.
They have to have legitimacy – they have to believe.
To restore that? They have to have truth.
“… have truth.” Channeling Mr Nicholson, “You can’t handle the truth.” The reality is that 80%+ of the American populace just plain don’t get it. And don’t give a rat’s a** as long as the Folger’s is brewing each AM.
But I really think that more are waking up every day. The news is simply too absurd for them to all stay awake.
yup
Language is one of the most fundamental parts of a healthy culture. The ability to state your opinion clearly, without ‘shading’ the truth’ is critical to a nation’s functioning.
Truth has to be regarded as Feedback – if a citizen can speak the Truth openly, without fear of censure or punishment, government can be guided by the reality of truth. Without it, they can lie – both to others, and to themselves.
Dishonest government – those in charge by virtue of consent of the governed – can evade the harsh reality that their chosen pathway does not work, however much they would LIKE it to. Without that honest feedback – those in charge get locked into a game of “let’s pretend”. At first it’s just ‘spinning the truth’; later they find that the results of their governance becomes so detached from any connection, that any attempt to provide honest feedback on a misguided course can only be treated as though it were treason.
It works that way in schools, too. Without grades that are a fair reflection of the progress/lack of progress of students, students never have an unbiased assessment of their strengths and weaknesses. Failure to provide that feedback leaves a significant part of the nation’s citizens with an erroneous idea of their competency. Such ill-prepared citizens are incapable of making reasonable judgements about their leadership, and must rely on specious input, such as “Everybody says that person is the best”, or “Only BAD people would vote for THAT guy”.
And, that’s the state of the nation today.
Orwell had a great discourse on language in 1984 in the appendix where he talked about Newspeak – the idea to remove ideas from society by destroying language. And . . . here it is.
We did not arrive at this point by accident. the Left has worked hard and long to assure the failure of America. Their sock puppets (useful idiots, as the Soviets used to say) may be dumber than a bag of hammers, but their leaders are smart, determined, and working from a century old playbook.
Only since alexander hamilton probably, maybe since king george PO’d some group…led by Satan of course
And they never, ever stop.
Speaking of subversive plots to manufacture legitimacy…
https://yournews.com/2022/06/10/2358046/brandon-smith-leftist-groomers-keep-your-gender-fluids-away-from/
More yet to come.
John, I would argue for many years – most of the country’s history perhaps – a healthy distrust and disdain of government was a characteristic of Americans. Seemingly in the last 14 years, that has all changed (with one four year interruption): now the expectation is that we believe anything and everything the Our Political And Social Betters (OPASB) say without any sort of questioning (except, of course, if upcoming midterms go one way: then, of course, disbelief will be back in vogue).
Once trust is broken, there are only two ways back: sincere admission and repentance, or simply accepting the broken trust and moving on to a new situation.
When someone lies to me, I may forgive them, but I’ll never trust them again.
The consent of the governed is gone as far as I and my family are concerned. Once the traitors in the Senate pass their gun control package, I expect spicy times to increase speed significantly.
Between Governmental meddling in our industries and the growing list of food production facilities that are either spontaneously combusting or the slaughter of health animals due to faulty PCR tests for bird flu it is very hard to stay positive about the future of this once great Republic.
I think that it will. But I also think a revolt against the Left is brewing too. Their Evil is also . . . clueless.
There is a teeter totter in the economy we’ve not been able to accommodate. “Build a pipe line”. Removes all the excess jobs of rail or trucking workers. In the name of efficiency, a lower pricing, to “free” those workers up to do greater better things with their time. Not just the truck drivers or engineers are displaced- Tire makers, truck builders, steel workers, truck stop wait staff, etc.
Rail says they will not deliver DEF ingredient to Pilot. Win for all the truckers who now get the opportunity to do those deliveries. But we have been too efficient in removing trucks & drivers through wage/cost inflation. In the past, you would have been able to displace that $4 a gallon DEF with $6 a gallon DEF delivered by truck. Instead it’s going to be more like $10. And only so many can afford that.
ESG & Basing pay on EBITDA instead of true profitability is another area that will destroy companies.
It’s just the Waiting for the house of cards to collapse.
How come nobody saw that coming?
John Wilder did!
I think the Left thinks they can make the economy better by breaking windows and the jobs that fixing them would create.
Teddy Roosevelt was a self-promoting progressive. Thomas Edison was a self-serving asshole. But they had self-respect. Biden, Pelosi, Schumer, Bezos, Gates are self-important. People who don’t respect themselves can’t respect others.
John, it’s overlooked that Edison was a monopolist who tried to bankrupt Cecil B DeMille before he could compete with him in the movies.
And they’re idiots (well, except Bezos and Gates, who at least have produced something).
Great article John. Perfectly sums up what is wrong with our country today. The questions are what has to happen to fix it (or at least start to make it better) and who will have the gumption to stand up and do it? Will you? Will I? Will anyone?
What else has to happen before anyone is willing to volunteer as Tribute?
We’re already in the beginning stages of the Hunger Games. Will anyone voluntarily send their children to be slaughtered in the Games? We know that’s what the government wants – citizens fighting each other for scraps to feed their families, being forced to depend on them to stay alive. Will they get what they want?
Or will the Tributes band together in District 13 and begin the Revolution? Who will be our Mocking Jay?
I wonder how the average person will cope when the world is slower and poorer and hungry?
People are also just a lot more cynical. Their trust in *every* institution is just about gone. Something will eventually replace those now corrupt organizations and what does replace them likely won’t be what They expect it to be.
No, it won’t – it will be an inevitable reaction – they’re unleashing forces they don’t understand.
Truth has become the three legged dog that lives on the highway, and most of the drivers are drunk.
And the road is icy.
Mob Rule started under OJ but the bread and circuses were potent.
Now the smoke and mirrors just aren’t working.
The natives are restless in the egalitarian world shopping bazaar as the fiatbux buy less and less.
The Big Steal was too far and the end of the line and now the brick wall and machine gun tower will come into view.
No elites will be harmed and it is probably 97% of society completely clueless and on the defensive if you even try to inject some truth into any discussion.
Some box wine aunties of the family still cling to that democrats helped grampaw eighty years ago at the big three automaker plant as they crack open another box.
They will make good cover or boat anchors but serve no other purpose.
My mother-in-law hated everything the Left stood for, but would vote straight, party-line Democrat. Now that she’s passed away, the good news is she can keep voting that way.
John, We desperately need more like you…a modern Diogenes and his lantern. Sadly, our society lacks the necessary shame for it to be effective.
Thanks for the wonderful comparison – but I have a way better house.