The riots and “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice”
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Commenter “Snow on Pine” asks, of the left and the rioters:
Having created the monster, do those on the Left believe that they can call it back, that those who have tasted excitement and blood will just slink back into obscurity and silent, impotent rage?
Good question. My answer will start with a source that may surprise you.
Remember the Disney animated feature “Fantasia,” in particular the “Sorcerer’s Apprentice” section? I certainly do. When I was a child it struck real fear into my heart, and it remains somewhat anxiety-provoking (and powerful and brilliant within its genre, I believe) even today. The part that especially frightened me was when it became clear that Mickey had no ability to control the monster-broomstick he had created, and in fact his efforts to stop his destructive creation had only made it more powerful.
You can see that beginning around minute 6:14, but it helps to watch the whole thing. YouTube sometimes takes videos like this down because of copyright problems (especially regarding music), but at the moment it’s available in full in this version:
When I researched the film several years ago, I was surprised to discover—very surprised indeed—that the story is not really Disney’s, although Mickey Mouse as protagonist adds the Disney touch. Its inspiration, however, is a German story-poem by Goethe.
Goethe? Yes, Goethe:
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” (German: Der Zauberlehrling) is a poem by Goethe written in 1797. The poem is a ballad in fourteen stanzas…
The poem finishes with the old sorcerer’s statement that powerful spirits should only be called by the master himself.
Goethe’s tale became part of the German vernacular [emphasis mine]:
Der Zauberlehrling is well known in the German-speaking world. The lines in which the apprentice implores the returning sorcerer to help him with the mess he has created have turned into a cliché, especially the line Die Geister, die ich rief (“The spirits that I called”), a garbled version of one of Goethe’s lines, which is often used to describe a situation where somebody summons help or uses allies that he cannot control, especially in politics.
Goethe’s poem was so famous that Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels (Germans both) referenced it in The Communist Manifesto, “comparing modern bourgeois society to ‘the sorcerer who is no longer able to control the powers of the nether world whom he has called up by his spells.'”
The origin of the story behind the poem is a Turkish and/or Iraqi Assyrian tale that came to Goethe’s attention this way:
In 1788, [Goethe’s] friend Christoph Martin Wieland, a great writer and philosopher and also an accomplished translator from classical Greek…published a translation of the stories of Lucian of Samosata…a second century Assyrian, from a town on the headwaters of the Euphrates…who wrote a series of brilliant satires in classical Greek. Deep in that collection was a work called Philopseudes (the “Lover of Lies”). Midway through the story, a narrator named Arignotus weighs in and tells of a magician and his apprentice.
So the original story is also about the effect of lies. That article gives the exact quote of the famous lines from Goethe’s version [emphasis mine]:
And Goethe put [it] very elegantly, in two of the most quoted lines in the German language: “Die ich rief, die Geister,/Werd ich nun nicht los.” (“The spirits which I have summoned/I now cannot banish.”)
That brief article was written for leftist Harper’s in 2007. It is about Iraq and what the author believes were Bush’s lies. However, we can apply this quote from the article to the lies being told today by the left in order to promote the idea that black people are being singled out, hunted down, and killed by white police officers in a racial vendetta:
When the people have heard these lies, have been bewitched and stirred up by them, what is the consequence? Lucian says it is useful to think of the lies as a disease, and their recounting as a rabid dog biting the uninfected. He, too, then risks the infection. Is there is no shield to use against this scourge?
The general idea of Goethe’s version of the Sorcerer’s Apprentice is not especially about lies. The message is that we are not wise enough to know what the result of our efforts will ultimately be. When we call forth any powerful forces—inventions, weaponry, politics, laws, theories, artistic creations – they can be used for good or evil and everything in between, and we don’t necessarily have any say in the matter. The same is true if we call forth powerful destructive forces such as mobs, for ends we think we are achieving.
Right now, the “we” is the left (books, the press, the education system, the Democratic Party), and the force that’s been called forth is the Antifa BLM mob. Elected politicians such as a mayor like Ted Wheeler of Portland or Jenny Durkan of Seattle have already glimpsed the army of broomsticks coming towards them to trample them. But this is no cartoon.
In Iran in 1979, the left played footsie with the Ayatollahs, thinking it could use them and that the left would win in the end. History tells us they were wrong. Right now in the US it’s left vs. left – the political, elected left (and the “useful idiot” liberals) versus the more anarchist/nihilist/sociopathic left such as Antifa. The first group is Mickey Mouse (in more ways than one) and the second group the broomsticks.
And the elected left may find that the spirits it has summoned cannot be banished.
[NOTE: Is there a sharp distinction between the two parts of the left, as I have stated here? Not really; there is some overlap. But I believe that, although both are of the left, there is a general distinction between the leftist mayors and the leftist mob in terms of the extremity of their methods and ultimate goals.]
No, the spirits summoned cannot be banished. A few years ago, Trump was mocked for suggesting that the statue-topplers might not be satisfied with those honoring Confederate generals, and now there is talk on the left about making changes to the “problematic” Washington Monument and the equally “problematic” Jefferson Memorial, thanks to a committee set up by DC’s worthless Mayor Bowser. From publishing to museums to monuments to national parks (John Muir is also under attack), all the citadels of our high culture are being systematically deconstructed by the barbarians within.
The more you feed them, the larger they grow, as a group of people, the hungrier they become, they thrive on the gluttony of destruction. This combination of devoted justice seekers and their sociopath comrades have been released, like a demon out of a bottle and they will not wake up some day and say mission complete, “let’s go get breakfast”. Many in this group of destructive riotors are the product of several generations that see the government of the United States as their enemy, like a ‘junk yard’ dog that has been abused since it was a puppy to attack and maim any outsiders and unknown people.
After Mao turned the Red Guards loose he had to call on the army to suppress them. He could not control what he had released.
The only thing that will stop this is for the DOJ and FBI to “follow the money” and prosecute those who violate federal laws.
By the way … Kyle did us a favor
https://www.weaselzippers.us/455275-leak-one-of-the-rioters-killed-in-kenosha-was-accused-of-molesting-5-children-ages-9-11/
How many of the antifa/BLM types are unemployed and previously worked in the food service industry and are now collecting a government check (and maybe now a Soros check) with nothing else to do? If a significant portion of these are, when the lockdown ends and the free money stops, they would conceivably go back to work. Biden as president might keep the free money flowing even if the lockdown was lifted (or he might just continue the lockdown) in order to keep the violence flowing.
I don’t necessarily agree with the assertion that the rioters are now permanently out of control. Do we think that they are so oppressed and starving that they feel they have nothing to lose? Of course not. As soon as they have something to lose — even a year in jail will be enough — they will stop. So as soon as our elected politicians decide to use the necessary force — including shooting — the riots will stop.
But …
1) Maybe people will continue to elect pro-riot politicians, meaning the majority of people have become pro-riot. I think this can only happen if the riots are sufficiently contained that they do not harm most people.
2) Maybe the democratic system will sufficiently break down so that it doesn’t really matter what most people think.
3) Maybe, in response to enforcing the law against the rioters, including rioters being killed, and maybe an innocent person or two by mistake, a whole new breed of rioter will be born, etc, etc, eventually leading to the army and police and a majority of the people siding with the new rioters. We then have a revolution, just as BLM/Antifa/Manson have always wanted, with BLM/Antifa/Manson on top. I, for one, think it will be the Brotherhood that will be picking up the pieces.
I’ve been thinking about an old SF story, ‘The Big Flash’, by Norman Spinrad. The plot is that the Pentagon wants to use tactical nuclear weapons to end a protracted war, but the President won’t allow it because most Americans would be strongly opposed. So a creative marketing strategy is implemented..change the public attitude toward nuclear weapons by (secretly) sponsoring a nihilistic rock group (called ‘The Horsemen,’ with costumes to match) which *glorifies nuclear weapons. Death metal, turned up to the ultimate level.
The plan works…people, especially young people, are wearing buttons with mushroom clouds and the motto “Do It.” But there’s something the plan’s sponsors hadn’t considered…
The ballistic missile crews are also watching Horsemen concerts and being swept up along with everyone else. So nuclear weapons are indeed used, but they aren’t of the tactical variety…
Your comparison of the BLM riots to the story of “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” is compelling.
There is a historical comparison that keeps coming to my mind: the Nika Riots (aka the Nika Revolt). This “…took place against Emperor Justinian I in Constantinople over the course of a week in 532 CE. They were the most violent riots in the city’s history, with nearly half of Constantinople being burned or destroyed and tens of thousands of people killed.” (Wikipedia). It very nearly overthrew the Emperor. Justinian was ready to flee his palace (shades of Mayor Wheeler) but his wife, Theodora, refused to join him. She is said to have declared “The Purple makes a fine burial shroud.”
His courage awakened by his wife’s defiance, Justinian used a two pointed strategy to crush the rioters. First, by means of a massive bribe to the leaders of one faction, he split the coalition against him. Then he unleashed Imperial troops on those who had gathered to crown a new Emperor. There was a mass slaughter. Procopius, a contemporary historian, reports 30,000 were killed. The revolt was crushed and Justinian held power until the end of his life.
The longer our own riot/revolt/uprising goes on the more likely I think it will end only after mass killing.
As for the animation/choreography itself: genius!
From Julius Ceasar by Shakespeare:
Cry ‘Havoc!,’ and let slip the dogs of war.”
At some point, violence goes past the point of no return, and it must be played out until one side is vanquished or until both sides are spent.
FWIW, my read on these protestors is that the vast majority of them are complete losers. A lot of them are mentally unbalanced, either due to being born that way or they’ve abused themselves. These riots have given them, for the first time ever, a sense of belonging and solidarity and purpose albeit one constructed around the most galactically stupid and delusional set of core beliefs ever. Anyway, a lot of them will totally flame out if their tribe is disbanded. More innocent people will die because the asshole Dems needed an zombie army they could call their own.
AMartel:
Being mentally unbalanced losers doesn’t stop people from being dangerous – especially in large groups.
Back in the day, late Sixties, I noted on campus that the protestors for one thing or another were….not….normal.
As somebody said of BLM today, the white folks are scrawny, awkward guys and loud, ridiculous women.
That would apply to what I saw on campus better than fifty years ago. There were exceptions. And there was a continuum from more or less liberal-which you could find in the Greek system–to SDS wannabes. The further left you went, the less presentable were the people involved.
I recall a couple of stereotypical pencil-necked geeks trying to recruit some…third string…football players to The Cause for muscle, and presented it that way.
So those who don’t fit in, who make it a point not to fit in, those who know they’ll never fit in, those for whom we should feel some kind of regret their situations aren’t more congenial, have found a place to belong.
I recall a record cover of the Lettermen. It had pleated skirts, long hair, cardigans, stadium coats, October light and fallen leaves, penny loafers, a lacrosse stick. Everything about the, mostly fictitious, college experience one could want, distilled and concentrated into one fantasy. And who would not want to be in that world? Not many could be, but some looked closer than others and….somewhere was that world and….looking through the window at the privileged class–some of whom were shortly to be drafted or loving those who were–and that world was denied them. Like incels dreaming about how easy those other guys have it….. And resenting. Hating.
I know the awkward and ill-favored will always have it rough. Question is what to do about their alienation.
reminds me of the Biergarten scene in Cabaret , when Brian says to Maximillian
“still think you can control them”
The way the classic Disneys portray water is amazing, the more so when you remember that it was all by hand. Other examples are the shower in Bambi and the end of Pinocchio.
It’s funny what will scare kids. C S Lewis commented once that it was unpredictable. So here. Neo says “When I was a child it struck real fear into my heart”. I’m about the same age, and I enjoyed it. It was the Bach Toccata that scared me, particularly the part that looked like rolling logs made of lava. Well into adulthood that would show up in nightmares. (Not for a long time, though.) I know my sister was scared by Night on Bald Mountain.
But I was not alone in liking the Sorcerer’s Apprentice. When I was in college (I think, anyway in my bachelor days) there was a re-release of Fantasia. A few of us went, and picked a late showing so we could hear it. (I like kids – as I just said, I used to be one – but watching a movie in a theater full of them, well, it better be a silent.) The only real problem was that the floor was so sticky it was hard to watch. But there were a few kids there. Later in the movie, we heard one little girl, apparently bored, cry out “Mickey Mouse, come back!”
In other words, the denouement scene in Act Two, where the Useful Idiots begin to have their slow-motion epiphany.
Act Three cast: stage call.
Having created the monster, do those on the Left believe that they can call it back, that those who have tasted excitement and blood will just slink back into obscurity and silent, impotent rage?
They dont think this is a monster… THAT’S the fun part..
To their raisin brains this is a feature…
They fantasize of revolution and so that is what they see..
Its actually comedic that they, like Lenin, wonder why everyone didnt rise up!
They also haven’t figured out that the counter moves of Trump are not just Trump
That is, Trump listens to other people, takes advice, and considers. There is no way to get where he is in any way shape or form without having people provide information and being good at picking those to listen to… Call it an art form of kings… or leaders… (despite what you think of his Churchill crudeness, but in an American way)
Just as the left nations have think tanks that work things out, what do you think we have? We have lots and lots of paid thinkers, and not all of them are leftist, and not all of them are about removing and replacing… some, are vested and well paid in counter-insurgency tactics and strategies too…
This is why things are not so cut and dried and maybe even why they were let go this far…. otherwise no one would see the mask come off and then wake up… something has to wake up the sleeping dragon and shock the monkey to action.
Its the Great Game…
and the game is afoot
regardless of how it turns out, its going to be interesting
and its not going to go the way the simple minded pundits of stupid think or dictate from their safe seats and ignorant positions…
pass the popcorn…
i may be going to hell in a hand-basket
but at least i can enjoy the ride…
Its may be about to ramp up before the election https://thefederalistpapers.org/us/communist-revolutionaries-planning-50-day-white-house-siege-say-things-turn-ugly?fbclid=IwAR3d-Smw68cxbV1mUIntGPT9OTBBjHh4xqRQsEam9FLovsEZBP-FF1LNkoI
……..Confederate generals, and now there is talk on the left about making changes to the “problematic” Washington Monument and the equally “problematic” Jefferson Memorial, thanks to a committee set up by DC’s worthless Mayor Bowser.
It wasnt magic or precient of trump… he came from a military academy..
and i kept saying read this book, and read that history and so on…
did you think my book list was made up from whole cloth?
maybe i was trying to get you guys to read what would inform you
The four olds… The left does nothing original, they copy, recombine, retry, etc.
This is nothing more than Mao and the removal of the four olds..
The Four Olds were: Old Customs, Old Culture, Old Habits, and Old Ideas (Chinese: Jiu Sixiang ???, Jiù Wenhua ???, Jiu Fengsu ???, and Jiu Xiguan ???)
remember that woman i said to read? it would have clued you in on how much more enamored the american communists were with the chinese over the russians… to ALL the left the russians were always too crude and brutish… the american left fell in love with Asia… you only had to read the books or a few of them and see how many went to work with this service or that service and analysis of china and asia was paramount.
Freda Utley, Writer on Asia, Dies at 79
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1978/01/25/freda-utley-writer-on-asia-dies-at-79/6adea864-29dc-4516-971c-4f6e45df2ce3/
Why did they call her writer on Asia, when the story of her and Arcady was about Russia and etc. etc. etc.
anyway… you wont know… you never read it… you didnt want to read what they buried to find out why they prevented you from wanting to read it and why they buried it!!!!!!! the stuff you get easy is not important… they let you chew on that… the stuff they hastened to erase, hide, make you disinterested… now THAT is the forbidden fruit.
These people were having the conversation about these things when they were but murmurs…
Japan’s Gamble in China, with an introduction by Laski, described Japan as “a police state, governed by a bureaucracy wedded to a plutocracy.”
Her 1939 book China at War idealized the Chinese communists. The work aroused considerable popular sympathy for China………
In 1945, Reader’s Digest sent Freda Utley to China as a correspondent. The trip resulted in Last Chance in China, which held that Western policies, especially cutting off armaments to the Chinese Nationalists, favored the Chinese Communist Party victory. She began a crusade to name those who “lost China”
The last of her studies of the Far East, The China Story, was published in 1951 and was a best seller for several months. Time magazine called Utley “a seasoned, firsthand observer of China events.”
ah well…
read about Sidney Rittenberg…
Once a U.S. Army linguist serving in China in the 1940s, he stayed behind after his enlistment ended, married twice, became a leader in the Cultural Revolution and spent 16 years in solitary confinement? — ?and was once imprisoned because Joseph Stalin thought he was a spy.
Disillusioned and returning to America with his family, he started a new life and became a respected academic.
what could a leader in a CULTURAL revolution have to say?
isnt that what we are going through? or have you not noticed what has happened to all the entertainment and the ideas and ideals around you? jane bond? star wars? everything is woke… yet people still think hollywood is about money? they lose too much to be about that, they only insure they have enough funding for their more important purpose… which willi munzenberg and things like the algonquin table insured…
funny funny funny
pass the popcorn!
“Being mentally unbalanced losers doesn’t stop people from being dangerous – especially in large groups.“
They’re extremely dangerous, of course! They’ll be even more so when the one good thing in their miserable lives is taken away.
The BLM/Antifa thugs are violent sociopaths. They love getting a political permission slip from Democrats and cash from Soros to enjoy their favorite games. Look at all the criminal records of the ones we find out about.
Just as German thugs in the 20s and early 30s could switch from Communist gangs to Nazi gangs, the appeal is not ideological as much as the Permission slip to be violent.
Richard Aubrey…”And there was a continuum from more or less liberal-which you could find in the Greek system–to SDS wannabes. The further left you went, the less presentable were the people involved.”
I think this is less true than it once was. I knew we were in trouble about 10 years ago when I started frequently seeing Leftist political stickers on cars that also had sports-team stickers…previously, it was two largely non-intersecting worlds.
As far as the actual violent protestors, yeah, they’re probably as weird as ever, or even weirder. But among those who excuse and even romanticize their behavior, there are a lot of people who are outwardly pretty normal.
“there are a lot of people who are outwardly pretty normal.” – David
There is a certain romantic appeal about a revolution, so long as no one is shooting at you.
The cross-over of sports and politicos (shorthand for “politically aware but not necessarily a megaphone-carrying activist) is indeed something to ponder.
I put it down to the affect of Gramsci – athletes now have also been brought up to lean left, so the gap between them and the politicos is simply not a large as it once was; likewise, the politicos no longer have any ideological reason to despise jocks, as they did heretofore.
Thus, the “woke” sports leagues and their fans.
There’s an American variant of that tale set at Harvard. Some foolish students summon up a devil. Fortunately, the president of the college returned in time.
Ah, how Harvard has changed.
The (old) Loeb Library edition of Lucian has the story in volume III, with the translation starting on page 371: it is related by Eucrates, the apprentice of the scribe of Memphis, Pancrates. There is at least one scan of the volume easily available online.
It all boils down to orangemanbad. How dare an outside the beltway buffoon become POTUS. Those damn flyover country deplorables have to be put down hard. That is their message, but we aren’t listening. We got the guns, and we cling.
One Apprentice has fallen to the Brooms that he summoned.
https://dailycaller.com/2020/09/04/michael-reinoehl-antifa-portland-aaron-danielson/
I wonder if we will now see a shift to #WhiteLivesMatter, since the deceased certainly fits the profile of social justice martyrs, except for skin color — probably not, though.
“The message is that we are not wise enough to know what the result of our efforts will ultimately be.” – Neo
Some dots connected themselves tonight.
This:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGxbaxviRVw&lc=UgwnZ8RDF8f347y0rtF4AaABAg
What It’s Like Getting Censored on YouTube
(J P Sears is an astute commentator on society & psychology, and skewers the Apprentices with pointed humor.)
Connects to this:
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2020/09/report-doj-about-to-file-antitrust-suit-against-google.php
Some time ago, I had the idea to call Trump “The Apprentice’s Sorcerer”, largely based on Trump’s show and the snarky comment Obama made about what “wand” was Trump going to use to achieve his goals. I’ve used it a few times in comments.
I thought, since Trump was not the sorcerer, but rather the un-supernatural apprentice, he’d have to use facts and reality to achieve his ends. I knew that to be a good builder, you have to rely on a vast knowledge of, and belief in, facts, and even in often unpalatable truths. The knowledge can be both in your own head and in those brains you hire.
It’s an imperative distinction, the differences between desires based on emotions, which often contravene the possible, and goals based on hard work and the responsibility of facing reality.
I remembered an old Twilight Zone where a boxer won by magic, and by the end of the episode reality was established and the other boxer won. The story was seen through the eyes of a little boy who was thrilled when his favorite “won”, and then crushed when the victory was reversed by the magic disappearing. I felt so sorry for the boy, and then I realized that the magic had been unfair, and that the other boxer—who had actually worked for and achieved the victory—was the RIGHTFUL winner.
I don’t want a victory by magic wand, filled with lies and cheating. The would-be sorcerers of the Left destroy, and build on sand. Obama used the metaphor of the wand because, to him, things occur effortlessly or through cheating. That’s because he, like Biden, has never had a real job.
Biden can say, if you can go down in a mine, you can write code. He’ll say, Trump and White Supremacy Groups are rioting, looting, and committing arson. He’ll rely on the Charlottesville Hoax. There’ll be millions of New Green Deal jobs.
Trump’s a builder, building reality with the tools of fact. Those on the Left depend in fantasy, cheating, and pure luck.
I’m rooting for the Apprentice’s Sorcerer.
I went and read the poem in the original. My German is just rusty enough that I had to have a dictionary handy for a few words. It doesn’t seem to me to be about lies. Or if it is, then about deceiving or flattering oneself about one’s prowess. Amusingly, the apprentice tries to subdue the broom by grabbing it and splitting it with an axe. Unfortunately, Hydra-like, this only makes two brooms, which then continue about their mad business until the master shows up.
Besides pointing out the apprentice’s incomplete command of the art, it looks like he is also being implicitly upbraided for having tried to use the spell for what seems to be a selfish motive, as I take it the bath referred to is for himself and not his master, as the latter is away. The poem doesn’t say what happened to the apprentice after the wizard subdued the animated broom finally – I wonder if the poem was unfinished.
[tan: The Wikipedia backgrounder mentions a folklorist named Stith Thompson – what the heck kind of name is ‘Stith’?! It can’t be short for Efstathios or something, could it?)]
David Foster
I may nostalgic for my college days and presume some of that applies here.
But, in those days, the left would say, “They’re using football to sell the war,” and others would nod solemnly. If you were throwing the football around, especially in front of the fraternity house, a passing lefty–to be distinguished by garb–would be likely make a dumb remark. But maybe it was the fraternity thing.
I knew more than a few far lefties for one reason or another.. One, early in a semester, noted that the prof was more than five minutes late to start the class and began yelling that the university’s own rules meant we can leave the classroom and it wouldn’t be counted against us. Prof got there a bit later. We were still in our seats.
About a week later, I saw him at a football game screaming in an unhinged shriek, “Kill, Bubba, kill”, a kind of joking encouragement for a hot shot defensive guy named Bubba Smith. But he was…..out there.
He was extreme but not alone in that left/fanaticism. However, it was only the revenue sports–we were Division One–whcih attracted such fervor. Huge, violent guys…..
My colleagues in the civil rights group were more measured, but still, certain sports–the combat sports like football and so forth–were infra dig if you’d participated. What the varsity was doing was one thing, But I’d done lax and judo and so…there was just the hint of othering. Cycling and tennis were okay.
If I were to make a generalization, one might find some of these folks seriously into the varsity revenue sports but never, ever in intramurals. Not merely distaste, but complete physical inability.
From which I return to my point that they may well have felt left out. Not that being an intramural participant was a goal. But the physical ability to make it in IM sports was part of looking “in”. Reasonably fit, moved well. Probably did okay in high school sports–with the resentment that elicited. Unconscious physical confidence. While it may not have been a positive attractor to women, such ability was better than not having it, socially speaking.
So, what’s it all mean? I suspect serious envy and resentment with regard to “the system”, in a vague sense. Because they’ve never been “in”, in that vaguely seen dimension where all that is desireable is available. Not when they’re on the outside looking in. So any “system” including the opportunity to make money and have a generous life, which is foreclosed them must be destroyed. Political justifications come later, whatever they are. I would guess this is why the obviously irrational justifications, the logical inconsistencies, the magical thinking and the moral righteousness regarding immoral acts, cannot be addressed on the grounds of logic, facts, shared moral codes. Indeed, logic and facts are tools of the Oppressor.
l go, as a metaphor, to the coming and going of interest in incels, who are supposed to be a threat to women. Some of their social media or other thinking as available shows desperate anger at being “outside” with no way to get into that world of social acceptance, positive regard from women, and sexual freedom.
To cut this short, the resentment and anger come first, the justifications later and so there’s no percentage discussing the latter with them. If necessary 2+2 will equal five.
Take a look at the very important and very clear linked analysis of the practical and political issues involved in deciding whether the President should send in Federal troops to put down these Insurrectionist riots written by Kurt Schlichter, who has direct military experience with these issues, and who warns that “sending in the troops” would be to fall into a trap.
See https://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2020/09/03/why-trump-doesnt-just-send-in-the-troops-n2575501
Neo,
This is a marvelous post — the very essence of the fascinating way you provoke important discussion and exploration. I commend to you (and everyone here) and important and largely overlooked book, a superb survey of the “revolutionary faith.” Historian and former Librarian of Congress James Billington’s “Fire in the Minds of Men.” The footnotes alone are worth it.
And those lies and slanders keep on coming:
The latest “hi-tech”—if easily refutable—hit piece from Jeffrey Goldberg (in “The Atlantic”):
https://pjmedia.com/columns/stephen-kruiser/2020/09/04/the-morning-briefing-the-atlantic-barfs-up-2020s-worst-trump-hit-piece-yet-n886990
And Sean Davis follows up in his twitter feed (you have to scroll down….):
https://twitter.com/seanmdav
Ah, they’re thinking: If WE can only get the military to support our noble efforts… to destroy the country…. Banana Republic, indeed!
File under: Going far beyond scraping the bottom of the barrel….
Related:
https://twitter.com/JohnWHuber/status/1301865920437121024
“so the gap between them and the politicos is simply not a large as it once was; likewise, the politicos no longer have any ideological reason to despise jocks, as they did heretofore.”
Just saw from Turley that the NFL commissioner has stated he no longer cares about the traditional NFL fan, and is going after “a new audience”; which I assume are all the woke lefties….good luck with that.
Philip Sells,
Stith is a surname – probably used as a first name in the case of the great Stith Thompson (for whatever reason) – compare the more famous Luther, Calvin, Wesley, Nelson, etc.
The end of the anecdote in Lucan is worth reading – the apprentice tells his audience that he still remembers the magic word to start it, but never learned the one to stop it… and conversational reflections on scaring listeners follow.
The Wikipedia article on Paul Dukas’ 1897 tone poem does not discuss whether he imagined the production of more than two magical water bearers by splitting – is this a brilliant Disney studios touch? It does mention two earlier cartoon versions which it would be interesting to pursue.
Mary Shelley warned against the making of monsters.
Indigo: Indeed.
She was not the first, of course, but certainly among the best.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/golem-Jewish-folklore
(paragraphing and emphasis added)
Golems and their like show up in a lot of modern science fiction, most recognizably in Asimov’s Robot stories, where they cause trouble by being too literal (and mechanical!), and also become frightening because of the damage they do despite their good intentions.
Aesop Fan…”In early golem tales the golem was usually a perfect servant, his only fault being a too literal or mechanical fulfillment of his master’s orders” This is of course a prescient description of the programmable computer, and if you look at some of the stuff that was being written at the dawn of the computer age (late 1940s thru mid 1950s), there was a lot of discussion of golems and similar folklore….in fact, the mathematician and cyberneticist Norbert Weiner wrote a book titled “God and Golem, Inc”
Curious how many invoke “Federal” in the reporting on the group of cops that killed Reinoehl.
But if you read for detail FBI and US Marshals located him but local cops shot him after he blazed away at them:
“Thurston County Sheriff’s Lt. Ray Brady said four task force members fired their weapons, including two Pierce County Sheriff’s deputies, an officer from the Lakewood Police Department and an officer from the Washington State Department of Corrections.” (AP)
The Federales were thus not involved when it mattered most.
The shooters remain nameless for their own protection from Antifa/BLM, I’m sure. I commend them in their just actions.
Cicero:
I recall reading somewhere that those officers had been federalized for the occasion.
Goethe Schmoethe. The pithiest version of this comes from H. P. Lovecraft:
“Do not call up that which you cannot put down.”
— The Case of Charles Dexter Ward