Here’s where I was — struggling with my emotions, mustering some Generalship for my beleaguered FaceBook group, heavy into politics.\u00a0 Back when this blog of mine was political (you can still find a bunch of remnants here and there), back when I was a small cheese in a big way in the FB Tea Party scene, back before I had to take a year off of politics from my inability to write or even think about it.\u00a0 This is where I was a month or two before joining Second Life to find a whole different gang in a whole different context.\u00a0 Good Lord, what a dump.<\/p>\n
But here I was on that miserable day, when I was staggered at the fact that the incumbent President had won re-election.\u00a0 I could understand the first time, for a lot of reasons.\u00a0 I can’t really see voting based on race as a good thing, but every person retains the absolute right to vote for whomever they wish, for whatever reason they see fit.\u00a0 And, I figure that were the shoe on the other food, I might very well have seen it the other way.<\/p>\n
But re-election meant a widespread acceptance of things that I found unacceptable.\u00a0 We still have not “gotten to the bottom” of Benghazi, and we probably never will.\u00a0 But what happened is obvious.\u00a0 Likewise our precipitous withdrawal from Iraq, and the launch of ISIS.\u00a0 And our failure in Afghanistan.\u00a0 And in the South China Sea.\u00a0 And the list goes on.\u00a0 People voted for it.\u00a0 They got it.\u00a0 The man did the job he was hired to do.\u00a0 So here I was, trying to hold it together.\u00a0 And I realized that perhaps the best thing I could do was help others try to hold it together.<\/p>\n
The following is what I posted to my political FB group in 2012, as it became apparent that we had lost.\u00a0 Everything.<\/p>\n
Friends and Patriots<\/p>\n
Okay, conservatives. Mind your manners. Shut your mouths. Nothing you say on Facebook or anywhere else will do any good or change anything, at least, not for the better.
\nTalk is nothing. Group is nothing. Education is nothing.
\nThere is only victory or defeat, and we have lost.<\/p>\n
IF YOU WOULD MASTER YOUR ENEMY, FIRST MASTER YOURSELF<\/p>\n
Accept with poise and self-control the equally worthless words of your co-workers and family. Reflect upon how complete our defeat truly is.
\nThe Constitution is already ignored. It will not survive the next four years. Now how shall we talk our way out of this?
\nMeanwhile, take care of somebody who needs taking care of right now. We have many wounded, so to speak. Reach out privately to affirm and appreciate those who have given their energy, their time, their money, and in some cases, their livelihoods.<\/p>\n
I feel despair, but I resist. I want to lash out, but I refuse. I wish to burn and smash, to delete and quit, but I know that these are unhealthy and unwise reactions to our fortune. So weigh your actions. Measure your words. Limit your audience. Heal yourself. Lift up the needy that they may lift you in your need.<\/p>\n
Do not try to change or control that which is too late and too large for your effort. Do not damage yourself in recklessness any further than your well-earned wounds from this desperate battle. We have lost, and we now have internal needs to tend to. Which is just as well, because we are well and truly screwed in our struggle, for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n
Yet that which is not seen, we ignore at our peril, and this is as true of opportunities and threats as it is of Bastiat’s shoemaker. So be quiet and be of good cheer, for we have lost, and our anger can hurt only ourselves and our sacred Constitutional cause.<\/p>\n
A SENSE OF HUMOR IS THE LAST EFFECTIVE TOOL IN OUR KIT<\/p>\n
When people ask me about it, knowing full-well where I stand and have stood for years, I tell them it’s okay, that I got my brain implant, I’m now picking up the transmission from the White House, and I was wrong. Freedom is for chumps and I’m glad I finally got controlled like the rest of America. I genuinely laugh and then I genuinely make my way out of the conversation. Anybody wants to pick over my guts, they won’t have my help in doing it. I won’t lose my composure without having it kicked out of me, and I don’t see anybody man enough to do the job.<\/p>\n
Master yourself, care for your allies. Recover, and return to the fight in good shape.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Here’s where I was — struggling with my emotions, mustering some Generalship for my beleaguered FaceBook group, heavy into politics.\u00a0 Back when this blog of mine was political (you can still find a bunch of remnants here and there), back when I was a small cheese in a big way in the FB Tea Party scene, back before I had to take a year off of politics from my inability to write or even think about it.\u00a0 This is where I was a month or two before joining Second Life to find a whole different gang in a whole different context.\u00a0 Good Lord, what a dump.<\/p>\n
But here I was on that miserable day, when I was staggered at the fact that the incumbent President had won re-election.\u00a0 … Continue reading