Tal Bachman: We Have Met the Enemy, part III

I finished Part II of this "thinking out loud"-style series by suggesting two things.

The first was that the Wokist devastation of our society suggests our society's original rules set the boundaries of tolerance too far apart. The space thereby created allowed this ruthlessly intolerant, totalitarian ideology to take root and spread. As predicted by Karl Popper's Paradox of Tolerance, Wokism is now exterminating the very tolerance which allowed it to thrive in the first place. It permits no other rival ideologies. It is our own Islamic fundamentalism.

The second thing I suggested was that too much tolerance not only permitted this intolerant, totalitarian ideology to take root and spread, but was, in fact, the very thing which created the demand for it.

If this second suggestion sounds familiar, it might be because the German-Jewish psychologist Erich Fromm wrote a book about it eighty years ago. In Escape from Freedom, Fromm argued that while modern liberal democracy has freed man from the strong, inherited social bonds and obligations of pre-modern society, that freedom has left him isolated, disoriented, directionless, insecure, anxious, and feeling powerless.

One response to this, says Fromm, is a turn toward authoritarianism. The ailing modern man seeks to exercise authority and control over others as a way of imposing order on a world he now finds unnervingly chaotic. At the same time, he seeks out some supreme authority to submit himself to, who will control and direct him. That supreme authority could be either a person, or a set of abstract ideals (say, a "one true truth" ideology).

Another response is a turn toward destructiveness. This occurs because as ailing modern man seeks to impose order on chaotic life by exercising authority and control over other entities, he will always encounter entities he cannot control.

“...The ailing modern man seeks to exercise authority and control over others as a way of imposing order on a world he now finds unnervingly chaotic...”

He gives “modern man” (eg democrats) too much credit. They are actually just common, vapid, soulless, power hungry, control freak,low IQ garden variety scum.

The ailing modern man seeks to exercise authority and control over others as a way of imposing order on a world he now finds unnervingly chaotic. At the same time, he seeks out some supreme authority to submit himself to, who will control and direct him. That supreme authority could be either a person, or a set of abstract ideals (say, a "one true truth" ideology).

How did I escape this emotional illness? All I want is to be left alone. I am not a number!

Years ago I went to a county commission hearing where Democrats wanted to float a bond to set up "green spaces", to take over an old railroad right of way for a "nature path", and for landscaping at all traffic intersections. I stood up and told them that working men have no use for "green spaces" because we are always working for a living. I still feel livid about just typing this. They got their bond and the miles of walking paths along with the rapes of women isolated in those rural areas.

Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day, give a Karen a minute of leisure and she'll think of ways to destroy civilization.

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