Thursday, March 16, 2006

Speaking Lies to the Powerless

Very little time to blog this morning. Have to bring my young 'un in for a hernia operation this morning. He had it done last August, but it came undone. Please pray for his, er, testicles.

Interesting piece this morning at American Digest, entitled "The Shame of New Orleans." It reminded me of one of Petey's infallible axioms, that liberals do not Speak Truth To Power. Rather, they Speak Lies to the Powerless, in order to keep them that way.

The execrable Spike Lee, speaker par excellence of lies to the powerless, has a new crockumentary coming out about hurricane Katrina. It includes the bombshell truth that it was the U.S. government that blew up the levees. "Here's the thing," says Spike, "Even today, a large part of the African-American community of New Orleans thinks that those levees were bombed. Now, whether that is true or not, that should not be discounted.... In the collective mind of African-Americans, it is not some science-fiction, hocus-pocus thing to say that the government is doing stuff," he continued. "Even if it didn't happen, you cannot discount it and dismiss it as 'Oh you people are crazy'."

Do you see the chain of illogic? Some blacks believe the levees were bombed; it doesn't matter whether or not it's true; in the "collective mind" of blacks it is true; belief in things that are untrue is neither science fiction nor hocus-pocus; it is an insult to suggest that people are crazy just because they believe their own delusions.

Is this not a perfect description of the liberal ghost dance? It is wrong to call liberalism an ideology. That would be a compliment. Rather, it is an emoteology. Since liberalism has been discredited, it has been reduced to attacking the very foundation of truth, which is what deconstruction, "diversity," and multiculturalism are all about. Truth is perception. Perception is reality. My reality is my truth. All truths are equally valid, but yours is a racist lie.

Thus, speaking lies to the powerless is not some kind of intellectual parlor game for liberals. It is the very key to their survival. For example, if they did not get 90% of the black vote, they would no longer be a viable party in something like twenty-six states. Speaking lies to the powerless is absolutely essential to keeping power in the hands of those who create the perception that blacks are powerless, helpless children. It's entirely circular. Trillions of dollars later, there is still no "exit strategy" for the War on Poverty.

Vanderleun writes that "A man of Spike Lee's stature and position should be ashamed to continue to inject the poison of conspiracy into the race issue in America today. But being ashamed didn't get Spike Lee his position and stature. Being shameless did. Weaving the big lies of contemporary race hustling into movies made Spike Lee what he is. It is working for him and there's no reason to think shame enters the picture."

Exactly. Like the Muslim Middle East, it is not that these are "shame cultures." Rather, they are shameless cultures. They should be ashamed, but they cannot tolerate their shame, because they have never learned to regulate it. So they project the experience of shame and convert it to aggression that seems to be coming from the outside. But that is preferable to having to feel it on the inside. Far preferable to live in a persecutory racist, sexist, and homophobic country than to have to deal with one's own painful internal feelings of shame, guilt, envy, inadequacy, whatever.

Vanderleun recognizes the unconscious self-deception. That is, "there is a deep shame associated with New Orleans and you won't see it any Spike Lee 'documentary,' or in any other dramatization of the event." He quotes the black intellectual Shelby Steele, who, in actually speaking hard truths to power, is disqualified from being an MSM-appointed "black leader" like Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson. He is not "authentically black," and he certainly isn't an example of diversity, since he doesn't think like Jackson or Sharpton or the New York Times.

Discussing New Orleans, Steele observes that "I think New Orleans shamed black America.... For generation after generation, New Orleans was full of human despair and backwardness. The flood just brought to the surface what had been there for so long, so we could see it on TV every night. And black America was truly shamed -- just ask blacks and they'll tell you. The whole world finally saw how hopeless and desperate the poorest blacks are. So then the question becomes, what do we do? Instead of saying what we should have said -- which is that this was an extraordinary wake-up call to black America, and we've got to make some profound changes in our way of life -- we said, 'George Bush is a racist.' Then we weren't shamed any more. He did it. He's the bad guy. He's the problem. And, once again, we're victims of white racism. We pulled out that old trustworthy excuse that has served us so well for 40 years. We blamed our problems on white people. And it works."

Exactly. Dysregulated shame means that shame cannot be tolerated. So it must be psychically converted to something else. But this can only happen with a whole panoply of cultural messengers that help create the illusion that the perception is the reality, that the lie is the truth. Steele goes on: "It doesn't matter that you've got a black mayor who's obviously incompetent. Bush is the fall guy because he's white. And no American politician ever asks black America what they're going to do. Whites just accept the excuses. That's why Bush is just going to dump a lot of money into New Orleans."

And that's the point, isn't it? Money is power. There are different ways of going about getting it. One way is to engage in what is called "activism." Another more direct way would be to engage in "economic activism," otherwise known as "work." But really, what could Al Sharpton actually do for a living? Jesse Jackson? Louis Farrakhan? Who would hire them? To do what? These are deeply dysfunctional people.

Blacks who point this out are excommunicated from blackdom. And whites who point it out are branded as racist. Vanderleun observes that to actually speak truth to the powerful race-baiting money machine would threaten "the vast bureaucracy and wall to wall entitlement programs that have been thrown up by the government over the decades to keep so many African Americans firmly inside of the Democratic Party's Plantation."

The race-obsessed liberal media constantly reminded us of "the color of the faces" of the residents of New Orleans. A couple weeks ago, when the story came out about how many of those residents defrauded the government that was trying to help them, not one story mentioned the color of the faces. Nor should they have. Instead, they only focused on the incompetence of the Bush administration. Thanks to the MSM, we already knew that Bush was a racist. But it's worse than that. Now the liberal media have discovered that he is hopelessly naive, for he actually trusts black people. Unlike the MSM and the rest of our liberal elites.

19 comments:

Lisa said...

Best wishes and prayers to your son. Glad you made it back from your ride, as well.

I saw Spike Lee speak at my college around the time he was making the Malcolm X movie. I have never been witness to such racist behavior in my life. He admitted he was only taking money from the rich white guys at this college to help fund his movie. He only hires blacks. He was also verbally abusive during questioning to a girl because she looked Jewish and asked a question that made him uncomfortable. It was so disgusting that it made my blood boil. I will never pay a dime for anything that man creates. I am so glad he hasn't done anything worthwhile and probably never will, so it won't be much of a loss. He plays the victim very well and unfortunately is a role model for many blacks. If there is an article about anything that quotes him, I discount it immediately. His logic and reasoning is almost non-existent. He is most definitely old news! OJ is innocent, dontcha know!

Anonymous said...

"It is wrong to call liberalism an ideology. That would be a compliment. Rather, it is an emoteology. Since liberalism has been discredited, it has been reduced to attacking the very foundation of truth, which is what deconstruction, 'diversity,' and multiculturalism are all about."

While agreeing totally with your post, I wonder if it might not be more appropriate to substitute the word "leftism" here for "liberalism", since from a long historical point of view the movement that we now call "conservativism" would more appropriately be labelled "classical liberalism". David Horowitz makes this point from time to time.

Anonymous said...

Lisa - Spike Lee has always been overrated as a filmmaker, in any event. Jim Jarmusche, who graduated from the NYU film school around the same time as Lee, is infinitely better as a director. JJ is a cauc, however, and has no political axe to grind - guess who gets all the ink? Whatever flair SL's films have - and very few of them have made $$ at the box-office - come courtesy of SL's ripoffs of Martin Scorsese's techniques.

Lately SL wants to play Leni Riefenstahl to Farrakhan's Hitler, the difference being that Riefenstahl actually had talent, however put to evil use.

Anonymous said...

Prayers for the Gagboy. Hope his recovery is swift and no harder on y'all than on him.

"economic activism" otherwise known as "work". Too funny.

Off to see "Capote" even though it's Lent. I'm justifying this b/c of its spiritual content and I won't have popcorn.

Anonymous said...

Actually I have to give credit to Lee for making a pretty powerful film, The 25th Hour, with Edward Norton - I was impressed, I have to say. For the most part, Lee dropped the racial propaganda and concentrated on the narrative. The film deserved more attention than it got.

He's still an anti-semitic bigot, however.

LiquidLifeHacker said...

My prayers are with you and your family today Bob!

Lisa said...

Will- no disagreements here. I really enjoyed Ghost Dog and Night on Earth. Haven't seen Broken Flowers yet, but I did not care for Coffee & Cigarettes except for the scene with Jack & Meg from the White Stripes. Best band I have ever seen live especially considering it is only 2 people! Coffee & Cigarettes was a tad too slow and disjointed with no narrative for my tastes. JJ has much more artistic credibility and talent than SL will ever have. When has the press ever been ahead of the curve identifying talent?

Anonymous said...

Lisa - yeah, JJ is well known for having pro musicians as leading actors - and they can really carry it off too. Tom Waits and John Lurie in DOWN BY LAW, a wonderful, magical film.

BTW, speaking of music - in the Sopranos premiere episode last Sunday,a piece was played during the opening montage and later during the closing credits that really got my attention.(the Sopranos series always employs interesting music from all genres) This piece featured a jazzy horn section with heavy percussion, some fairly far-out stuff along the lines of Sun Ra or maybe John Lurie's band. There was a voice-over, rather funny but scary too - it sounded like the voice of a 50-ish hygiene instructor, intoning away on an old film used in high schools. Only he was reading from the Tibetan Book of the Dead, slightly modernized. Sounds sorta ridiculous but it really worked.

Any idea what this piece is?

Lisa said...

Sorry Will. I can't help you with the musical reference to the Sopranos premiere. I cancelled HBO 2 years ago when I got sick of watching the same 7 bad movies from the 1980s they would continually play! I will try to watch the last season on DVD when it comes out. I have a fondness for Italian mafia-types being a Jersey girl myself!

Lisa said...

Spoke too soon. I found it... Beginning of episode voice over.
Song: Seven Souls
Artist: Material, voice-over, William S. Burroughs

Anonymous said...

Wow, prompt! Thanks, Lisa! We will have to consider making you consigliore, capiche??

I shoulda figured that was Burroughs doing the VO.

Lisa said...

How do you know I am not already?!!! See, no sign of Benedict today, capiche?! LOL

Anonymous said...

Oh no, Lisa - did you have him whacked??

Oh well - wasn't like he wasn't asking for it.

Anonymous said...

Read Raskolnikov's take on victim culture at Dust My Broom. Would be awkward for black Americans, whom he criticizes among others, to call him racist - he's Canadian Indian (for lack of better phrase).

Anonymous said...

rorschach - yeah, but I'd bet they call him an "apple", you know, red on the outside, white inside. That's their usual tactic with any non-white who they perceive as stepping outside their narrow vision.

Anonymous said...

Purely anecdotal, so take it for what it's worth:

I've volunteered for several years at our local emergency assistance program. We're in a large Texas city, and Katrina refugees tripled our client numbers.

Most of the folk we work with are the "working poor" who've experienced a setback that wiped out their resources - car accident/repairs, medical expenses, spousal desertion, death in the family, etc.

When I checked my perceptions with the other volunteers, we all admitted that we'd noticed a difference between our regular clients and a number of the Katrina refugees - a sort of mix of helplessness plus a sense of entitledness plus, I'm sorry to be blunt - greed. Even making allowances for the traumatic experience they'd been through, we were struck by the difference.

Our usual clients, with a few exceptions, have some dignity and hopefulness and sense of purpose. We did not see that with a lot of Katrina clients.

Anonymous said...

Sal:

Thirty years of Democrats keeping you under their thumb with constant pandering will do that to you.

Gagdad Bob said...

I believe it was in order to have a receptacle for you to project your unconscious demons into.

gumshoe said...

"fake but accurate".

stick to the script Bob,
and you won't get hurt.

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