May 17, 2007

The Deer in the Headlights

deerheads.jpg

What can be going through a deer's mind just before the deer goes through the windshield? The dazzle? Something so bright that it overwhelms the flight impulse which always comes before the fight reaction? In any case, the tendency of deer to freeze when caught in the sudden glare of an oncoming disaster is so well recognized that it has evolved into the familiar catch phrase; a phase used for any life situation in which the threat is so overwhelming and sudden that no survival reaction is possible. Instead, the animal remains rooted in place -- nailed to its perch, as it were.


We now see this dreaded situation acted out daily in our polity where an increasingly large number of our fellow citizens have assumed the position in the highway of history; surprisingly content to stand spot-welded to the tarmac as the glare of hate and the promise of destruction rolls towards it. To make sure it can neither flee nor fight this cohort of the confused has elected representatives to the government whose actions replicate a kabuki of cowardice; a herd of Congressional and Senatorial Bambis, if you will. And for this obsessive compulsion towards inactivity, the artificial heightening of passivity, and the sanctification of institutionalized cowardice, they are actually praised. Some even run for the Presidency on a platform of treason promised, though none dare call it so.

It is indeed an unusual political party that seeks office on promises of failure and defeat, and yet this seems to be what many associated with the party desperately want. Perhaps the answer to what goes through the deer's mind as it stands in the beams is as simple as "a death wish." The party has spent many decades worshipping death before birth and death when obvious usefulness is finished. To simply wish for death all around seems to be a simple next step.

Of course, much of this death wish and the cowardice that precedes it is carefully camouflaged, hidden from the mind of the less-than-persuaded centrists of the party and those independents who might align. If it were not, the party would quickly wither to its small and wizened core. After all one must, even while taking the country down the path to defeat and ruin, pretend that one has only the very best core American values at heart.

A recent example of this shameless pandering appeared a few days ago at the behest of John Edwards, a man whose vanity and intense self-regard, has gathered his own share of acolytes -- much as rich men always tend to gather those about themselves who are willing to abase themselves for the chance at a few extra coppers tossed their way. Edwards has put up a website dedicated to explaining to the troops how all those in the Democratic party in general, and the Hoping John camp, actually love them at the same time they are devoted daily to selling them out.

Called "Support the Troops. End the War" without a whit of self-consciousness at the richly Orwellian nature of that title, the site is so deeply cynical that it could cause a five-dollar whore to blush. But Edwards and his supporters are immune to shame as we have seen time after time. The site has a list of "things one can do for the Troops." Leaving them alone to finish their mission and achieve victory is, alas, not on the list. But you can do things such as send them a care package or talk to a vet or whip out that yellow ribbon you've sneered at for decades. All of this is, of course, pure cynical crap. As is the now oft-heard "I support the troops. I just don't support the mission."

On hearing the last, some wag in recent weeks suggested turning it around on these vacant souls with the phrase, "I support the life and work and person of Martin Luther King. I just don't support his mission." This of course would be impolite at the very least. If the true believers are deeply diseased enough to believe that one can support troops without supporting the mission they are unlikely to see the parallel or reflect on the meaning. The "racist" neural circuit would cut in and inhibit ratiocination.

But there is a slight, if unconscious, element of self-awareness embedded on the Edwards page. That is a headline that reads, "Reclaiming Patriotism."

This last element at least admits in a somewhat roundabout way that patriotism is one thing that Edwards and his cohort lack. They will continue to lack it since it is the last thing they want. What they want is the appearance of being patiotic without the bother that comes with it.

What follows is a tedious list of things to do "for the troops" that would, I imagine, "reclaim patriotism." It's a list cribbed from their betters in every respect and, in this context, each one becomes more hypocritical than the next until, when taken in sum, the fetid mass forms a steaming heap of hypocrisy so potent that its sheer aroma would be enough to drop a charging rhino at 50 yards. As a result there is evidently, to judge from the map displayed, no shortage of people so confused by the current world situation that they are actually signing on to do these things in the name of John Edwards, the big buck of the Bambi wing of the Democratic Party. Of course, this sort of thing is not new to a man who used his own wife's cancer to raise money for his own twisted ambition.

A sadder group of Americans -- outside of Congress -- is difficult to imagine, but the psychotic displacement of fear from our real enemies onto imagined enemies is really just getting underway. Sadder and more frightened constituencies are bound to emerge. Edwards is merely skimming la creme de la cowards, the best of the Bambis.

The headlights will keep coming down the road from the very near future and the deer will insist upon straying into them. The only question is whether or not you want to be part of the passive herd.

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Posted by Vanderleun at May 17, 2007 10:42 AM | TrackBack
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"It is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood." -- Karl Popper N.B.: Comments are moderated and may not appear immediately. Comments that exceed the obscenity or stupidity limits will be either edited or expunged.

Apt example.

The only way in which it fails to match the current situation is that the juggernaught that is bearing down on us will not be slowed by the deer carcases it encounters.

Pity...

Posted by: David St Lawrence at May 17, 2007 3:36 PM

Let's consider that Americans are among the champion "deer in the headlights" practitioners of all time. We continued to pay millions of women to have illegitimate babies for two generations after it became obvious it was a total loser of a social policy. And we are still allowing single mothers the social respect and privileges we give married ones, even knowing that fatherlessness is the main contributor to poor life outcomes.

We continue to drink and drive knowing it doubles our traffic fatality rates. Kids continue to opt out of education and put their faith in the musical and athletic lotteries. Despite overwhelming evidence that marriage makes men healthier, happier and wealthier, men increasingly avoid it.

Our fellow citizens are already roadkill on the Jihadist Highway. The real question is whether we are going to try to mitigate the damage, or simply enjoy the irony of their slaughter.

By the way, venison is still as good as it ever was, and in the red states road killed deer tend to disappear before they are cold.....to reappear next day, as small packages wrapped in butcher paper in the freezer of some alert - and no doubt gun-toting - hick with a truck.

Posted by: askmom at May 17, 2007 4:36 PM

Reminds me of Edwards' legal career, which was built on the enthusiastic support of OB/GYNs. Just not their mission.

Posted by: Gagdad Bob at May 17, 2007 7:01 PM

The deer in the headlights........Yes, what do they think? Do they think it is the sun coming up rather rapidly? Or are they blinded momentarily by the glare? Does it seem to them that there is no danger in a raoidly moving bright light? If we knew, maybe we could save some deer from death by automobile.

The Congress critters in the glare of hatred from Islamic jihadis.........Yes, what do they think? Surely they are more capable of thought and reaction than deer? Surely they can equate the glare of hatred with danger? If we knew what their thought processes were, maybe we could save some lives in the long run.

But, no! There is a herd of harmless Bambis that cannot rouse themselves to action. Caught in the glare of jihadi hatred, they are frozen.

Our best hope is, as you say, not to be a part of the herd of frozen in place Bambi's. To continue to support the troops and THE MISSION. To follow those who recognize how implacable and unyielding our enemy is. To recognize that the best armed forces in the world are useless without the national will to sustain them when the going gets tough. Nay, to support them in spite of the going getting tough. To stand up and recognize the evil intentions of the enemy. And to make plans to defeat them no matter what the cost.

Posted by: Jimmy J. at May 17, 2007 9:07 PM

Most any animal will freeze under such conditions. For most it's a short lived condition, but for animals like deer they seem to become fascinated and just stand there waiting to be shot or run over.

What we're seeing with the Democrats and fellow travellers is the product of our educational policy. An educational philosophy dedicted to the proposition that the common man is a clueless bumpkin with a low cunning who'll screw you over unless you keep him in tight restraints, and who needs to be trained for the mindless repetitious tasks of an industrial society. The new conditions that call for mental flexibity, initiative, and adaptability are quite beyond these people. We've been teaching our kids to be compliant, complacent, and unthinkingly obedient, and this is what we got. Oh, we tell them about thinking for themselves, but we don't teach them to do it effectively.

Why did none of the kids do something about the shooter at Virginia Tech? Because we taught them that doing something about a threat is wrong.

Posted by: Alan Kellogg at May 18, 2007 12:58 AM

Whether we're on the right, and see the headlights coming, or on the left and think the car, no make that locomotive, will swerve and miss us, we're all in for a train wreck/crisis ahead.

War is imminent again in the Middle East, the Dems will capture the White House and Congress in 2008 much to Islamists delight, and in spite of our and Fred's best efforts, and taxes will be raised for the rich and other assorted wretches, with a disastrous dampening effect on the economy.

If we survive, we may come back stronger, but in the meantime we should adjust our expectations and know we're in for a rodeo.

And there may be no place to hide, even for those of us who see it coming.

Posted by: Webutante at May 18, 2007 10:01 AM

Do mushroom clouds have headlights?

Posted by: gabrielpicasso at May 18, 2007 10:54 AM

No arguement on the deer in the headlights point, but I would flip your Martin Luther King Jr. arguement on it's head. Of course it is possible to be in favor of what he worked for and not support him personally. It is said that he was an adulterer. I don't know if this was true or not and I don't really care since it says nothing about the cause he fought for. It is easy to separate the man from his work. Similarly, Thomas Jefferson supposedly had a relationship with one of his slaves. Can we not admire and be thankful for his life's work even though he owned slaves and may have committed adultery. As to the troops, the situation is just the opposite; instead of supporting the person's work they are supporting the person. The Dems are saying that they will support the troops but not what they being ordered to work on. A U.S. soldier swears to uphold the Constitution, they are not responsible for formualating U.S. policy.
P.S. Obviously, the problem the Dems have is that they really don't support the troops or the mission.

Posted by: Barnabus at May 18, 2007 6:00 PM

I would wonder how all those stuck in the Headlights types that can't think, will feel when this President's private war on Iraq shows for what it really was in history. A waste bigger than the Viet nam war. While we support the troops which so forth following orders trusting in their commanders.

Our more that worthy soldiers - the bravest and most honorable - wasted on failed political stakes.

Yes - I agree with John Edwards.

Support our troops - but still fight to bring them home. I thought we learned in Viet Nam not to have anymore conflicts like hamburger hill in the middle of a countries infighting civil war.

Go in to win or don't go in at all.

Posted by: dk2 at May 19, 2007 11:09 AM

Your posting is right on the money! Unfortunately we have been down this road before in the 70's and the 80's when our Liberal friends decided that there was no reason to resist either the Soivet Union or Communism. None of my liberal friends would ever criticize either the Soviets or any left-wing dictatorship. Instead, our Liberals reserved all of their venom for the likes of Nixon and Reagan. Liberals never wanted to discuss either the Gulag Archipelago of the Soviet Union or the Killing Fields of the Khemer Rouge; they instead obsessed over the insignificant or imagined crimes of their own country.

So here we go again!

Posted by: David Sensenig at May 20, 2007 5:13 AM

I wonder if when kids stand in the street and see the US tanks heading towards them, do they feel like Deer caught in headlights?

Dear Americans, when Muslims are driving tanks around Times Square and telling you what to do with your oil and their stealth bombers are flying over New Jersey and they are installing their puppet government in Washington and telling you that who you voted for is "illegitimate" and building military bases and "Green zones"in California and Chicago and selling missiles and arms to your rivals THEN the rest of the world will take your fantasies about you being the innocent good guys fighting the evil Islamic imperealistic bad guys who are coming to destroy us all seriously.

Until that day comes, the rest of the world pretty much all see you as agressive bullies using force to achieve your strategic and economic goals at the cost of millions of ruined lives.

Take a good, long, hard look in the mirror, dudes...

Posted by: deano at May 27, 2007 8:51 AM

Deano,

You make some valid points regarding the empathetic/sympathetic considerations of civilians caught in the midst of war. However, the status of the US itself is somewhat (and steadily increasing) to that of being an occupied country as well.

Our general public thinking is policed by groupthink coming forth from our enemies (dialectical materialists, Marxists, whatever you want to call them), as evidenced by the biggotry and dogmatic thinking by the elite in academia, much of the news media and many government institutions. This small minority of elites control the flow public information, who can and cannot be hired in academic jobs and awarded tenure, how elected officials are presented to the masses, etc. They do not need tanks or bombers as they use other means to take our wealth such as "green" policy, academic brainwashing/rewriting history, taxes, eminent domain, and brainwashing of youth to meet their ends, depending on their respective roles. The difference between these pigs and Orwell's in Animal Farm is that these pigs assume the posture of men to trick the farmer and get the farm handed to them as inheritors.

America is a Christian nation .. there are already atheistic nations such as China, North Korea, and Vietnam. Instead of accepting our fate like deer in the headlights and allowing the country to be handed over to the materialists, we should encourage them to either take up residence in a country where their ideas will flourish and they can rule as the elite "rationalists" they so claim/desire to be or simply allow the US to remain as a Christian nation and stop complaining (oh yeah and thank Christianity for its undeniable historical role in founding modern civilization, social progress, scientific discovery. etc..
versus attempting to rewrite US history)

Posted by: Two minutes hate at June 10, 2007 11:34 AM
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