April 9, 2009

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? 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 along the Information Highway where an increasingly large number of our fellow citizens have assumed this dazed position on the highway of history. They seem surprisingly content to stand spot-welded to the tarmac as the glare of ruin and the promise of destruction rolls towards them, air horn suspiciously silent.

Some people think the deer are not innocent when they step into the headlights. Some people think the deer seek it out and I'm starting to agree with this cold estimate.

To make sure they can neither flee nor fight, our current cohort of glare frozen furbutts has elected a government whose actions mirror theirs in a kabuki of cowardice -- a herd of Congressional and Senatorial Bambis, if you will. This part of the herd, as a reward for their obsessive compulsion towards embracing bankruptcy and the sanctification of institutionalized cowardice, is actually praised by the scribblers snorting among them. The scribblers' praise extends to the President as he prances about Europe to universal swooning, while making manifest the policies of treason he promised, though none dare call it so. Throughout the history of the Republic we've seen many popular delusions of the mob rise and capture the nation, but we've never seen the towering tsunami of the mutual admiration society madness rise this high before.

It is an unusual government that swears to preserve and protect the Constitution, and then slaps that document, perforated, on a roll and installs it in the stalls of Congressional toilets. It is an unusual government that promotes and passes policies of failure and defeat while prating of "patriotism" to troops in Iraq who it long ago sold down the river. Yet failure and defeat seems to be what the majority in the current administration and congress desperately want. All while the deer only want to step out on the asphalt and watch.

Perhaps the answer to what goes through the deer's mind as it stands in the beams is as simple as "a death wish."

After all, the membership of a party that has spent many decades worshipping death -- before birth and when obvious usefulness is finished -- must all be more than "half in love with easeful death." To simply wish for death all around seems to be a simple next step. The current government must in turn love the death wish of its supporters. It figures that if some of the dead can help you get elected, more dead makes your job of governing that much easier.

Satan, the original progressive, informed Milton of this principle when he said,
Here we may reign secure, and in my choyce
To reign is worth ambition though in Hell:
Better to reign in Hell, then serve in Heav'n

Of course, much of the current government's institutionalized death wish, and the culture of cowardice that both precedes and envelops it, is carefully camouflaged, hidden from the sight of the less-than-persuaded centrists, independents, and other Americans who might not be ready to follow the Democrats across the Styx and down into the hell of collectivism "done right, this time, trust us." The love of death-in-life in political philosophies must always be hidden. If it were not the American collectivist party would 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. It keeps the marks and the rubes from wising up, waking up, or blinking in the glare of the headlights.

In the annals of bunkum, it is axiomatic that once you get the rubes in the tent and take their money, you've gotta get the plucked out of the tent in order to pack more marks in. This problem was first solved by the great American master of bunkum and bosh, P. T. Barnum at Barnum's American Museum

At one point, Barnum noticed that people were lingering too long at his exhibits. He posted signs indicating "This Way to the Egress". Not knowing that "Egress" was another word for "Exit", people followed the signs to what they assumed was a fascinating exhibit...and ended up outside.

We're seeing that clever bit of misdirection applied nationwide today where a bow is a "posture malfunction," a buy-in is a "bailout," a Nork Nuke ICBM is a "communications satellite prototype," and 7,000 centrifuges spinning in Iran is a chance for a photo-op and a koffee klatch.

"This Way to the Egress" America. We hope you don't notice that the door opens into the middle of the Interstate at midnight with a convoy of semis overloaded with history bearing down on you.

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.

Posted by Vanderleun at April 9, 2009 2:03 PM
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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.

Mencken was right, but you're better. The booboisie has arisen, and we need your anger. Keep afflicting the comfortable.

Posted by: Rob De Witt at April 9, 2009 2:43 PM

OK, so I was watching an episode of "NCIS," where there was a brief discussion of how you could kill (poison) someone by creating a drug that, while you'd put it into a community water supply, would only kill that/those persons with certain genetic markers.

I have to confess, that, in what some of us perceive as dark times, I was really thrilled at the possibilities hinted at in that episode. The grunt work involves collecting the DNA from places like the Capitol Hill dining rooms and such.

OK, so I'm evil. But admit it, you LOVE the idea too.

Posted by: Roderick Reilly at April 9, 2009 3:01 PM

The left: standing athwart history, yelling uncle.

Posted by: Gagdad Bob at April 9, 2009 3:04 PM

Oh, blinding light
Oh, light that blinds
I cannot see, look out for me.

Amen! Brother!

Posted by: David McKinnis at April 9, 2009 3:55 PM

"Posted by Gagdad Bob at April 9, 2009 3:04 PM"

The winner!

Posted by: Rob De Witt at April 9, 2009 3:58 PM

Only one correction: the "buy-in" isn't a "bailout" - it's an "investment" in Democratic newspeak. Otherwise, spot on. The herd is in full suicide mode and they're taking us with them! As I said here before the election:

http://westernchauvinist.blogspot.com/2008/10/dear-friend-and-barak-obama-supporter.html

So, we all need some practical advice on what to do to prepare for the coming chaos. I was chatting over the fence with my retired banker (one of the good ones) neighbor about this yesterday and he's talking about cashing out his 401K before the Dems nationalize our accounts in 2010 (you'd still get 3% on them, but the withdrawal rules will be suffocating), buying a piece of land with a water well and a generator, etc. Our talk took place just as I finished planting the early spring crops in my victory garden - no kidding! We sound like whacked out conspiracy theorists and survivalists, but we're pretty average Americans with no psychopathology in our backgrounds.

Maybe a new feature on AD Gerard? "What are you doing today to prepare for tomorrow?" I don't think I'm the only one who would like to know.

Posted by: Western Chauvinist at April 9, 2009 4:43 PM

I think you nailed it.

What an insight!

No other explanation works as well.

The attraction of things euro.
Aging 60's radicals.
Utopians ignorant of history.
Power-corrupted narcissists.
Crooks

It's love of death itself and all the presages it.

Loss of vitality. Submission. Decay. Increasing chaos. Things falling apart. The blood-dimmed tide. Vain strugglings. Quiet.


And the winner, Ladies and Gentleman, is....Thanatos.

Posted by: Lance de Boyle at April 9, 2009 5:27 PM

I was woolgathering on my way home today (stupid thing to do on I-15 southbound out of SLC, but we live in stupid times) and it struck me that we stopped having a government last November.

What is happening now is a coup against the Constitution. The Democrat congress writes the boilerplate that changes citizens to serfs, the president provides MSM with column inches and empty oratory while the journalists miss the executive orders.

Nationalization of key economic sectors.

Direct attacks on contract law whereby government assumes the custody of property and debt.

Abandonment of sovereignty - on multiple fronts and at a breakneck pace. Amnesty and formal abandonment of any border controls. Active encouragement of voter fraud by illegal aliens.

Direct government funding of a hyper-partisan agitation organization; funding at a level that rivals some nations' military spending.

There doesn't appear to be much interest in fighting for freedom any more. Much like our ongoing war with Islam, there is a marked reluctance to name the enemy and define the stakes.

Something is going to give.

Posted by: TmjUtah at April 9, 2009 6:13 PM

"What can be going through a deer's mind just before the deer goes through the windshield?"

Probably a hood ornament.

Posted by: Mikey NTH at April 10, 2009 5:23 AM

A few lines from T.S. Eliot's "East Coker" seem appropriate, particularly on this Friday:

Our only health is the disease
If we obey the dying nurse
Whose constant care is not to please
But to remind of our, and Adam's curse,
And that, to be restored, our sickness must grow worse. . . .

The dripping blood our only drink,
The bloody flesh our only food:
In spite of which we like to think
That we are sound, substantial flesh and blood—
Again, in spite of that, we call this Friday good.

Posted by: Connecticut Yankee at April 10, 2009 3:44 PM

The funniest deer in the headlights I ever saw (and I saw them just about daily commuting from Baltimore to the DC beltway before dawn) was one that tried to get out of my way as I skidded to a halt. The asphalt was wet, the deer tried to run, and it made like a cartoon as its feet could get no traction - all the movements of running but zero progress. As I stopped with the bumper almost touching his flank, he finally made a leap out of the road. I was laughing so hard it hurt.

So let the laughter begin now for the current administration.

Posted by: Mikee at April 12, 2009 8:35 AM

Mikee:

I have seen the same thing when the family dog ran into the kitchen. Hitting the tile, paws flailing, trying to get traction to make the turn, falling on her bum and skidding into the cupboards, getting up, and hitting the throttle, and finally launching into the dining room.

Posted by: Mikey NTH at April 12, 2009 12:44 PM

The deer wait in the headlights because they too are in shock at what damage to this nation Obama's already done.

In all fairness the nation wanted to be lied to and now they're happy.

Actually the deer know that Obama's going to take away all the guns and also they no longer fear getting hit by an Obama eco-car as they usually win those encounters.

Posted by: Don L at April 17, 2009 5:20 AM