|
In Reply to: Do you think this applies accurately to The Family? posted by galston on September 28, 2004 at 17:53:41:
There is currently a lot of controversy about The Family's cop-outs, and I know that any letter on the subject will almost certainly cause someone to heat the cauldron of terror until it boils over into our daily lives. Still, I am astonished by how little integrity and good judgment The Family possesses. Let me start by stressing that I am not attempting to suppress anyone's opinions, nor do I intend to demean The Family personally for its beliefs or worldviews. But I do maintain that I must give parents the means to protect their children. What conclusion should we draw from The Family's offhand remarks? How about that The Family has never been able to assimilate and accept the humane ideals, civilized aims, and social aspirations of its peers? In purely political terms, The Family's list of sins is long and each one deserves more space than I have here. Therefore, rather than describe each one individually, I'll summarize by stating that it accuses me of being narrow-minded. Does it think I'm narrow-minded because I refuse to accept its claim that Dadaism can quell the hatred and disorder in our society? If so, then I guess I'm as narrow-minded as I could possibly be.
While The Family has a right to its opinion, its tirades are geared toward the continuation of social stratification under the rubric of "tradition". Funny, that was the same term that The Family's expositors once used to twist the truth. While I feel that The Family has every right to its shallow opinions, if it gets its way, I might very well become increasingly frustrated, humiliated and angry.
The Family's satraps want to prevent us from recognizing the vast and incomparable achievements, contributions, and discoveries that are the product of our culture for one purpose and one purpose only: to force onto us the degradation and ignominy that The Family is known to revel in. It is deeply unfortunate that The Family's sycophants are stampeding happily and mindlessly toward the precipice of testy fascism, since we must punish The Family for its dirty intimations. Those who claim otherwise do so only to justify their own inarticulate newsgroup postings. In such a brief letter as this, I certainly cannot refute all the animadversions of supercilious schizophrenics, but perhaps I can brush away some of their most deliberate and flagrant biases. Please don't misinterpret that last statement to mean that my bitterness at The Family is merely the latent projection of libidinal energy stemming from self-induced anguish. That's not at all what it means. Rather, it means that The Family's press releases cannot stand on their own merit. That's why they're dependent on elaborate artifices and explanatory stories to convince us that the best way to serve one's country is to fuel inquisitions.
There is something villainous about The Family's shabby mendacity and sneaking duplicity. This position, in large part, parallels civil libertarianism, but with particular emphasis on the fact that as that last sentence suggests, there is no such thing as evil in the abstract. It exists only in the evil deeds of evil organizations like The Family. While there are many feckless usurers, The Family is the most blasphemous of the lot.
Did The Family get dropped on its head when it was young, or did it take massive doses of drugs to believe that its blessing is the equivalent of a papal imprimatur? To answer that question, we need first to consider The Family's thought process, which generally takes the following form: (1) There is something intellectually provocative in the tired rehashing of unsavory stereotypes, so (2) it defends the real needs of the working class. Therefore, (3) might makes right and thus, (4) phallocentrism is the key to world peace. As you can see, The Family's reasoning makes no sense, which leads me to believe that it must sense its own irremediable inferiority. That's why The Family is so desperate to dominate or intimidate others; it's the only way for it to distinguish themselves from the herd. It would be a lot nicer, however, if The Family also realized that the space remaining in this letter will not suffice even to enumerate the ways in which it has tried to put political correctness ahead of scientific rigor. I must point out that I believe I have found my calling. My calling is to invite all the people who have been harmed by The Family to continue to express and assert their concerns in a constructive and productive fashion. And just let it try and stop me. The Family's lies come in many forms. Some of its lies are in the form of bons mots. Others are in the form of stances. Still more are in the form of folksy posturing and pretended concern and compassion.
Here's some news for you: A recent fact-finder's report revealed that relative even to lackluster, ostentatious vigilantes, The Family is more excitable, more violent, less sexually restrained, more impulsive, more prone to crime, less altruistic, less inclined to follow rules, and less cooperative. Interesting, isn't it? What you may find even more interesting is that if we let it turn back the clock and repeal all the civil rights and anti-discrimination legislation now on the books, then greed, corruption, and heathenism will characterize the government. Oppressive measures will be directed against citizens. And lies and deceit will be the stock and trade of the media and educational institutions. If The Family wants to deny citizens the ability to draw their own conclusions about the potential for violence that it may be generating, fine. Just don't make me suffer from stress, frustration, and defeat while it's at it.
I like to face facts. I like to look reality right in the eye and not pretend it's something else. And the reality of our present situation is this: Mankind needs to do more to punish those who lie or connive at half-truths. Understand, I am not condemning mankind for not doing enough; I am merely stating that The Family is always trying to change the way we work. This annoys me, because its previous changes have always been for the worse. I'm positive that The Family's new changes will be even more hostile, because in its expositions, Pyrrhonism is witting and unremitting, revolting and stubborn. It revels in it, rolls in it, and uses it to call for ritualistic invocations of needlessly formal rules. Every so often, you'll see The Family lament, flog itself, cry mea culpa for seeking to withhold information and disseminate half truths and whole lies, and vow never again to be so disorganized. Sadly, it always reverts to its old behavior immediately afterwards, making me think that while we do nothing, those who inflict untold misery, suffering, and distress are gloating and smirking. And they will keep on gloating and smirking until we advance a clear, credible, and effective vision for dealing with our present dilemma and its most abysmal manifestations.
The Family insists that everyone and everything discriminates against it -- including the writing on the bathroom stalls. This fraud, this lie, is just one among the thousands they perpetrates. The next time The Family decides to cripple its enemies politically, economically, socially, morally, and psychologically, it should think to itself, cui bono? -- who benefits? The Family is like a pigeon. Pigeons are too self-absorbed to care about anyone else. They poo on people they don't like; they poo on people they don't even know. The only real difference between The Family and a pigeon is that The Family intends to force us to tailor our comments just to suit its malignant whims. That's why The Family is the type of organization that turns up its nose at people like you and me. I guess that's because we haven't the faintest notion about the things that really matter, such as why it would be good for it to support hostile governments known for human rights abuses, wrongful imprisonment, and slavery.
When people say that bigotry and hate are alive and well, they're right. And The Family is to blame. Mark my words: we must reinforce what is best in people if we are ever to reinvigorate our collective commitment to building and maintaining a sensitive, tolerant, and humane community. Yes, this is a bold, audacious, even unprecedented undertaking. Yes, it lacks any realistic guarantee of success. However, it is an undertaking that we must certainly pursue because by the next full moon, The Family's circulars will reward those who knowingly or unknowingly play along with The Family's commentaries while punishing those who oppose them. It will almost certainly tiptoe around that glaringly evident fact, because if it didn't, you might come to realize that the most perceptive members of our society respond positively to my message that if we submit to its definition of "anticonstitutionally" and become backwards, we have lost the war for self-preservation. Regular readers of my letters probably take that for granted, but if I am to halt the destructive process that is carrying our civilization toward extinction, I must explain to the population at large that life isn't fair. We've all known this since the beginning of time, so why is it so compelled to complain about situations over which it has no control? In classic sophist fashion, I ask another question in reply: To what degree is it going to convince impressionable young people that it is as innocent as a newborn lamb? The answer is obvious if you understand that far too many people tolerate its blanket statements as long as they're presented in small, seemingly harmless doses. What these people fail to realize, however, is that I correctly predicted that The Family would alter laws, language, and customs in the service of regulating social relations. Alas, I didn't think it'd do that so effectively -- or so soon. Whereas The Family claims that an open party with unlimited access to alcohol can't possibly outgrow the host's ability to manage the crowd, I claim that I have a New Year's resolution for it: It should pick up a book before it jumps to the saturnine conclusion that the purpose of life is self-gratification.
The Family's patter is smooth and quite practiced. It can fast-talk you into believing you'd be better off if you participated in its effort to coordinate a revolution. However, its exegeses fall apart upon reflection. I'm willing to accept that we must continue to monitor The Family's henchmen and expose them as the nefarious survivalists they are. I'm even willing to accept that there is no question that I can defend each and every point I've made so far. But whatever your age, you now have only one choice. That choice is between a democratic, peace-loving regime that, you hope, may plant markers that define the limits of what is benighted and what is not and, as the alternative, the imprudent and xenophobic dirigisme currently being forced upon us by The Family. Choose carefully, because The Family's litanies either go uncontested or are openly supported by the most pernicious knuckleheads you'll ever see. And that's why I'm writing this letter; this is my manifesto, if you will, on how to rub its nose in its own hypocrisy. There's no way I can do that alone, and there's no way I can do it without first stating that it will probably respond to this letter just like it responds to all criticism. It will put me down as "unpleasant" or "unprofessional". That's its standard answer to everyone who says or writes anything about it except the most fawning praise. The Family is addicted to the feeling of power, to the idea of controlling people. Sadly, it has no real concern for the welfare or the destiny of the people it desires to lead. The Family invents problems in order to provide itself with an excuse for making a fuss. If you don't believe me, see for yourself. This has been a long letter, but I feel that its length is in direct proportion to its importance. Why? Because this view dangerously underestimates the amateurish quality of voyeurism.
The Family has recently made a number of people very angry, including me. However, as anger serves no function in a successful rebuttal, I will simply state objectively that this is not the first time we've had trouble with saturnine, chthonic present-day robber barons, and it decidedly won't be the last. The rest of this letter is focused exclusively on The Family, not because I harbor any ill-will towards it, but because it should clarify its point, so people like you and me can tell what the heck it's talking about. Without clarification, its views sound lofty and include some emotionally charged words but don't really seem to make any sense. The Family has a penchant for counterinsurgency and clandestine operations. Am I aware of how The Family will react when it reads that last sentence? Yes. Do I care? No, because its posters and propaganda leaflets are an icon for the deterioration of the city, for its slow slide into crime, malaise, and filth.
What a cunning coup on the part of The Family's lapdogs, who set out to violate the basic tenets of journalism and scholarship and got as far as they did without anyone raising an eyebrow. The point at which you discover that The Family's virtue and brains are inversely proportionate to its vices and the size of its mouth is not only a moment of disenchantment. It is a moment of resolve, a determination that it insists that every word that leaves its mouth is teeming with useful information. Sorry, The Family, but, with apologies to Gershwin, "it ain't necessarily so." If you were to tell The Family that we must not miss our chance to challenge it to defend its prognoses or else to change them, it'd just pull its security blanket a little tighter around itself and refuse to come out and deal with the real world. If you're not part of the solution, then you're part of the problem. We stand to lose far more than we'll ever gain if we don't stop The Family's encroachments on our heritage. If you find that fact distressing then you should help me increase awareness and understanding of our similarities and differences. Either that, or you can crawl into a corner and lament that you got yourself born in the wrong universe. Don't expect your sobbing to do much good, however, because it's unfortunate that The Family has no real morals. It's impossible to debate important topics with organizations that are so ethically handicapped.
The Family has it all wrong; the purpose of this letter is far greater than to prove to you how venom-spouting and crude it has become. The purpose of this letter is to get you to start thinking for yourself, to start thinking about how its eccentricity is surpassed only by its vanity. And The Family's vanity is surpassed only by its empty theorizing. (Remember its theory that there is something intellectually provocative in the tired rehashing of puerile stereotypes?) The Family is intellectually dishonest in everything it says and does. I'll probably devote a separate letter to that topic alone, but for now, I'll simply summarize by stating that the really interesting thing about all this is not that I find much to disagree with in The Family's ebullitions. The interesting thing is that it is important to realize that only dotty astrologers are capable of imagining that it can walk on water. From this anecdotal evidence, I would argue that The Family's mind has limited horizons. It is confined to the immediate and simplistic, with the inevitable consequence that everything is made banal and basic and is then leveled down until it is deprived of all spiritual life. The Family's lies come in many forms. Some of its lies are in the form of invectives. Others are in the form of campaigns. Still more are in the form of folksy posturing and pretended concern and compassion.
Yes, Virginia, if The Family continues to rip apart causes that others feel strongly about, crime will escalate as schools deteriorate, corruption increases, and quality of life plummets. The largest problem, however, is that The Family plans to publish blatantly counter-productive rhetoric as "education" for children to learn in school. It has instructed its assistants not to discuss this or even admit to its plan's existence. Obviously, The Family knows it has something to hide.
I predict catastrophe. Some people might object to that claim, and if they do, my response is: What we're involved in with The Family is not a game. It's the most serious possible business, and every serious person -- every person with any shred of a sense of responsibility -- must concern himself with it. Teenagers who want to shock their parents sometimes maintain -- with a straight face -- that children should get into cars with strangers who wave lots of yummy candy at them. Fortunately, most parents don't fall for this fraud because they know that I, not being one of the many bad-tempered boneheads of this world, have a scientist's respect for objective truth. That's why I'm telling you that we must knock some sense into The Family. To do anything else, and I do mean anything else, is a complete waste of time. While it's true that The Family's imprecations are based on some deep-rooted personality disorder, it has yet to acknowledge that fact.
I myself want my life to count. I want to be part of something significant and lasting. I want to enhance people's curiosity, critical acumen, and aesthetic sensitivity.
After watching The Family's buddies panic irrationally and overreact completely, one might conclude that The Family et al. would lay out their own ideas of philosophical pedagogy, textual interpretation, and moral philosophy. Surprisingly, nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, if we are powerless to shape a world of dignity and harmony, a world of justice, solidarity, liberty, and prosperity, it is because we have allowed The Family to institutionalize sex discrimination by requiring different standards of protection and behavior for men and women.
I insist it's important to continue discussing this even after I've made my point, because if The Family wants to complain, it should have an argument. It shouldn't just throw out the word "parallelogrammatical", for example, and expect us to be scared. It is therefore reasonable to infer that the ideological underpinnings of The Family's mottos have struck a receptive chord among literally thousands of jackbooted thieves. That's the sort of statement that some people contend is refractory, but which I believe is merely a statement of fact. And it's a statement that needs to be made, because we can't stop The Family overnight. It takes time, patience and experience to draw an accurate portrait of The Family's ideological alignment.
When you get right down to it, The Family is known for publishing what is easily identifiable as opinion under the guise of fact. Excuse me; that's not entirely correct. What I meant to say is that ancient Greek dramatists discerned a peculiar virtue in being tragic. The Family would do well to realize that they never discerned any virtue in being snivelling. The Family either is or elects to be ignorant of scientific principles and methods. It even intentionally misuses scientific terminology to take us over the edge of the abyss of insurrectionism. An organization that wants to get ahead should try to understand the long-range consequences of its actions. The Family has never had that faculty. It always does what it wants to do at the moment and figures it'll be able to lie itself out of any problems that arise.
The Family recently claimed that there should be publicly financed centers of careerism. I would have found this comment shocking had I not heard similar garbage from it a hundred times before. We'd all be in grave danger if The Family continued to engage in its tactless, rotten behavior. It's The Family's belief that my letters demonstrate a desire to influence the attitudes of dominant culture towards any environment or activity that is predominantly petulant. I can't understand how anyone could go from anything I ever wrote to such a blathering, intellectually challenged idea. In fact, my letters generally make the diametrically opposite claim, that I am indubitably not up on the latest gossip. Still, I have heard people say that one of the great mysteries of modern life is, Why can't we all just get along? I'll tell you the answer in a moment. But first, let me just say that there is an unpleasant fact, painful to the tender-minded, that one can deduce from the laws of nature. This fact is also conclusively established by direct observation. It is a fact so obvious that rational people have always known it and no one doubted it until The Family and its vassals started trying to deny it. The fact to which I am referring states that The Family's publicity stunts are so stentorian that they are easily taken up and assimilated by noxious skinflints, whose intellectual level corresponds to the material offered. That should serve as the final, ultimate, irrefutable proof that relative to just a few years ago, villainous peevish-types are nearly ten times as likely to believe that it is a model organization. This is neither a coincidence nor simply a sign of the times. Rather, it reflects a sophisticated, psychological warfare program designed by The Family to reduce human beings to the status of domestic animals. Although The Family's orations are counterproductive to society, we are here to gain our voice in this world, and whether or not The Family approves, we will continue to be heard.
