“Is it clear, then, that those who are determined to be offended will discover provocation somewhere? We cannot possibly adjust enough to please the fanatics, and it is degrading to make the attempt.”
-Christopher Hitchens
It is Fourth of July week, and it should be a universally patriotic time for our country. Anybody with two eyes obviously knows this year will not be. It’s the most splintered we’ve been as a nation since the Sixties. Why is that? Why all the ruckus? Conventional wisdom would have us believe it’s two warring factions of our American citizenry. One justified, and one ignorantly falling behind our times, clinging to a troubled past. Not only is that inaccurate, but it is much less political and racial than we are told on a daily basis. It is more of a philosophical parting of the ways that is tearing our society’s fabric a part. It’s the battle between Outrage Puritanism vs. Non-Compliance Americanism. And, only one is appropriate for this unapologetic week of red blooded American celebration. So, buckle up Puritanical Zoomers, I’m coming for you.
Cue the Lynyrd Skynyrd. Tuuuurn it up...
This pandemic of “Outrage-19” has been exacerbated by this generation’s counter culture. They have sadly become the pearl clutching puritans of the past. The ‘Footloose’ Baptist Mothers’ and Preachers’ in rabid heat for censorship. The Tipper Gores’, and Paula Hawkins’ that Frank Zappa, and John Denver so honorably fought against in Congress in the Eighties.
The battle was won in the 80’s, but now we live among a generation wrought in rebellion that is pro-censorship against tradition, history, religion, and anything that smells of the founding of this country. How did we get to a place where we are inundated by mass waves of protests composed of ANTIFA Freedom Fighters, and Race Revolutionaries that are more akin to the puritans of the past? These crusaders for justice are closer to the religious authoritarians from The Scarlet Letter, and the burning of the Salem witches. These Millennial-Zoomers go out goose-stepping screaming at moderate free thinking Americans, belittling them. Screeching at them that they're indoctrinated white supremacists, no matter their beliefs, actions, or color of their skin. A simple existence where one cares about nothing but friends, and family; while treating everyone along the way with a proper dose of distant politeness is no longer considered day to day respectable human behavior. It’s the scarlet letter for racist. It’s the stain of violence through silence. The re-education is coming. Everything we have learned, as white, black, brown, and purple people has been wrong. We are inherently evil due to the superficiality of our pigmentation. What lies in our hearts and minds is no longer valid. History isn’t a teaching tool anymore, it’s an evil ladder of oppression.
“Wipe it clean! Blow up Rushmore! Kill Lincoln, again!”
One might think throughout a time like this, I would and should be reflecting on writers such as Dostoevsky, or that of Socrates. But my mind has been travelling mainly to 1970s’-1990s’ post apocalyptic literature, and film. The minds of John Carpenter, George Miller, and lastly and least known; the mind, and prophetic like creativity of Marco Brambilla. The director of Demolition Man. A movie starring Sly Stallone, Wesley Snipes, and Denis Leary. The societal censorship, erasure of history, and the empty and gross achievement of universal utopia in this movie is unfortunately what we are witnessing by our cultural crusaders today. I sit back with very little influence or power, and I feel much connected to the seethingly conflicted apathetic Denis Leary character from Demolition Man. A man who understands true freedom is the dangerous thing in life, the nastiness of the truth, and that a “Utopia,” doesn’t exist.
It is not a coincidence that the funding through ad campaigns, and the leading of the charge for this revolution for a futuristic, and global utopia are led by the most powerful corporations in the world. For the biggest pitfall in this philosophy of rebellion, and the biggest shame of it all; is as always, whether it be fiction or reality. That the common man, and the middle class, black or white never reap the benefits from a Utopia. The Utopia, is a ship out to sea with the master in total control. The idea of healthy mutiny isn’t even in the vernacular of the seamen. It’s the masses finally locked out of the gated community, it’s total and utter conformity with very little chance for upward mobility. Did you just say “___!?” Thirty days of community service, and suspension without pay; no matter if your job is in the private sector or government. Do you dislike this policy ______?! Fired. Blacklisted.
“Wipe it clean! Fire them. Make them suffer for ideas. Actions no longer matter!”
We are not just approaching a world like that any longer. We are officially in that world. If your thoughts and ideas don’t line up with a corporately green lit utopia, the newly social justice approved authorities, and the rebellion is heading for you, and you will be punished. How grotesque. How shameful to live in a world where the counterculture is nothing more than intellectually fascist minded drones. Ironically these political fanatics rail against the dogmatic approach to the world that organized religion preaches. And, yet that very world they reject is more inclusive than the one they feverishly want to create. I am close friends with traditional practicing Jews, and Christians and not one of them slightly resembles the close minded zealot Instagram Revolutionaries wanting to tear it all down, and start anew.
Here’s our societal demands. Our cultural taxation without representation. You must comply, or our outrage will no longer be civil. We will send our troops of red coated social justice royalty on your police, your small businesses, your statues, your country. Comply, or it burns.
-Brought to you by Outrage Puritanism
I reject you and your movement. And this is why. It’s OUR police. OUR small businesses. OUR statues. OUR country. You’re angry. I see you. I hear you. But for better or worse, this is all of ours. Yours and mine. It's the 4th of July. Enough. Crack a beer, sing a song, and grill a dog. This is America. And this week of all weeks, is not the time to bend a knee.
-Non-Compliance Americanism
Free speech, and the allowance to express honest thoughts and ideas without the fear of punishment is the only true tonic for a society clearly falling towards intellectual authoritarianism. Come this 4th of July, this Saturday. Whether you’re at backyard BBQ, a quiet family dinner table, or marching the streets burning down statues of abolitionists; allow yourself to have honest thoughts, no matter your surroundings. Stop filtering who you are for the mob. That isn’t America. Be who you are, express everything you believe in un-apologetically no matter how moderate, radical, or ignorantly apathetic it may be. Honest protected speech, without filter is the only way we steer this ship back in the right direction. Otherwise we will all become prisoners in our own minds, and the America we love will be gone for good.
“Many on the political left are so entranced by the beauty of their vision that they cannot see the ugly reality they are creating in the real world.”
-Thomas Sowell
Comments