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Denial, Delusion, or Dreaming: Which Describes You Best?
For the last several years, people on Ricochet have ranted about the corruption of government, and how little has changed. Now we see many people who continue to propose steps that the government must take to hold despicable members of the administration accountable, despite the overwhelming evidence that nothing will happen.
I’ve said in the past that I am a cock-eyed optimist, and I have been one of those people who has proposed solutions to the current ugly state of affairs. Lately, I’ve also stated that I have mostly given up hope for things to improve. So, here’s my question: why do people continue to hope when it seems that all may be lost? A clue is in the word “may.”
I’ve diagnosed the disease that seems to be running rampant through the conservatives and Republicans (however you wish to identify), and I’ll share them with you here in no particular order:
There are those in denial. These are the folks who refuse to see things just as they are. It’s all good, things will be fine, we are still a democratic Republic, it’s not as bad as it looks. They refuse to acknowledge the facts, just as the Democrats refuse to recognize the truth when it hits them in the head. Denial can be a difficult condition to maintain, particularly when you live among those people who prefer reality to denial. But at least you don’t need to see the ugly truth.
Then there are those who are deluded. These folks are determined to create their own reality and focus on the few things that are working: Kevin McCarthy rounded up Republicans to fight for a lifting of the debt ceiling if expenditures are held in check. Investigations of all kinds are proceeding in order to demand accountability from Joe Biden and his administration. Whistleblowers are speaking out, even in a public forum, against the travesties of our intelligence community. And very little will change.
And finally, there are the dreamers. These are the folks who remember the good ol’ days and the way government used to be (or at least it seemed to be). They recommend solutions that will never happen. They demand that people be held accountable when no one else is interested in accountability. Of all three ailments, this is probably the most difficult to maintain on a site like Ricochet, unless you are a lurker and have nothing to say.
You might say that people are entitled to believe and say whatever they wish when discussing politics, and I agree. Except for one thing: it doesn’t motivate the person to deal with life as it is, which means any of these illnesses will discourage, if not prevent, people from dealing with the facts on the ground. Maybe that situation is good for all of us: maybe we should insulate ourselves from the impossible situation we’ve found ourselves in. It is a survival mentality, helps us get through the disillusionment that sits at our doorstep and threatens to overwhelm us.
Do I have a solution for this dilemma? I don’t. I finally realized, however, that Conservatives are effectively faced with having to go through grief and loss: who are we? What have we become? How do we move on? Most people hate to grieve; it is such a difficult journey to take. But I do know that denial of the truth, delusion about the facts and dreaming of an unlikely future will get us nowhere. I also know that creative solutions can only arise when we allow ourselves to move through grief, strengthen our resolve, and look at our current situation with honesty and clarity.
Otherwise, in one way or another, we will lose.
Published in Domestic Policy
I am hopeful, but not optimistic, to quote Dan Bongino “I am long on the US.” I don’t expect the short term to be pleasant at all and I fully expect it to be somewhat catastrophic. I may not even survive it, but I have hope that I will. I pray that we come to our senses before too much harm is done, but I expect a great deal of harm to be done.
Some I think we need to build parallel ones. Others we need to scour out the rot root and branch. I think we need to move to school choice and finally dissolve the federal department of education. I would start winding down federally guaranteed student loans going forward. I would even advocate something I don’t normally do but forcing Universities to take a haircut on outstanding student loans. The military and our federal law enforcement agencies will need to be scoured top to bottom. People need to be fired and lose their pensions/ retirement. The next administration should fire a lot of generals and then let it be known that any organization that hires these people will not be doing business with the executive branch. We need to build a new media that is independent with parallel delivery systems and immunity from chokepoints.
We may be, but even if we hit that limit it is about what that looks like and what is on the other side. The Roman Republic was destroyed, but paradoxically after the Republic was Rome’s greatest cultural flourishing and more importantly it became the source of spreading Christendom throughout the West and the World. Then in 1776 far across the sea the some of the values of the Republic and the values of Christendom were fused to create a second great Republic for the world. It maybe faltering now but it isn’t necessarily done. Maybe it becomes something else maybe it can renew itself. Maybe it just becomes something that future man can reach back to and understand there is a way beyond autocracy and collectivism. I am not sure, but I still hope.
I worry that your hopes may be unrealistic, unless we’re willing to prioritize and see these as long-term goals. Even with a Republican administration, the pushback will be terrible. Unfortunately, we can’t get rid of all the bureaucracy; somebody has to run the office.
That is mostly accepting the coming sectarian civil war.
Good Rx. No hope though.
And God has never, not once, answered any prayer of mine with a yes. When it has mattered it has always, without fail, been a no.
I hate this statement because it is only one way.
Almost all of the left wins are permanent. Heck, they lost Roe but that had resulted in n9 real impact on abortion.
Nothing. No one has an answer.
https://www.thefp.com/p/the-takeover-of-americas-legal-system
Maybe the way he “answered your prayer” was answered in a way you didn’t expect, or hasn’t been answered–yet.
Id like to think that. But not so far.
I fear we have lost our democratic republic. Progressives are acting like it is a fait accompli. 2024 will either confirm or refute it. But if we have retained our republic it will remain on life support at best. Progressives are demanding submission and do not fear a real fight. They should fear, but they don’t. And that makes our future frightening. I believe that “die on your feet rather than live on your knees” will have a resurgence. I live in the Appalachian Redoubt.
I’m not sure I’m any of those three categories. I am a realist, one who understands that conservatism is in the minority in today’s society. That’s just a basic fact from which we need to operate. The majority will win, implement its view to some degree, but the the majority will overplay it’s hand and there will be backlashes. Society must fundamentally change to a conservative, Judeo-Christian value system before we become the majority. Until then you have to be politically savvy.
Great advice Hoplite.
You’re asking if I’m ignorant or apethetic. I don’t know and I don’t care. Hehe . . .
They are all long term goals. It is like gardening. You have to constantly pull out the weeds or they tend to take over. School choice is probably something that can only happen at the state level but it needs to be happening when and where it can. The department of education will require legislation but if republicans keep the house, and take the senate an the white house they can chip away at it. If republican’s take the Presidency they can and indeed must scour the military and federal law enforcement. A new media is already being built to replace the legacy media. That is actually the furthest along of the three and has been set up, at least so far to have minimized the chokepoints, so the same thing that happened to parlor can’t happen to those sites.
This speaks to me!
Unfortunately they have had a big head start on us while we buried our heads in the sand. I may have hope we can turn this around, but I have no illusions that our response hasn’t been fouled up, and I really want to use a different non-CoC complaint word here, for a long time. On the Roe front, I am still hopeful it is early yet but many states have rolled back the time when abortions are legal and put meaningful restrictions in place. It will take a long time before we reach a national consensus on this, but it is back in the political sphere now that isn’t nothing. Dobbs was about a 15 week ban, now several states are down to 12 or less some are even at 6 that is progress. The important thing is that it moved the issue back to in play instead of frozen in amber. Of course Republican’s like the dog that caught the car were thoroughly unprepared for what was to come next. I may have hope but it is a long range type. In the immediate future I see a lot of pain.
*When I use we and our here I mean the party that most of us identify with and share some ideological affiliations to. I don’t mean to imply that any Ricochetti haven’t been well aware of what is going on for a long time and screaming at our side to wake up and smell the coffee.
Susan, I am very disappointed in this post. It is a cry of despair. You are normally an optimistic person with an energetic zeal for self improvement. This post sounds like someone whose emotional life just came crashing down. And yet you live in the state of Florida, where the conservatives have been running roughshod over the leftist and woke agenda unlike anything I’ve ever seen. How do you think the leftist Floridians are feeling? If you are in despair, they must be positively suicidal. Both ends of the political spectrum are in complete misery? This makes no human sense whatsoever. Maybe the only happy people are the ones who don’t pay any attention to politics?!
The world must be totally upside-down if I am agreeing with Jerry Giordano in a post (comment #24). Maybe I have lost my marbles?! I live in Cleveland. I’ve gotta say that despite being in one of the worst big cities, on a day to day basis, I see very little of the egregious woke or leftist agenda going on, though I do see some. We often get overwhelmed when all the news we read is the cream of the crop of the absolute worst abuses that take place in our country of 330 million people. It is a magnifying lens that gives the impression that you are living right smack in the middle of the worst incidents. Yet I go outside and meet friendly people, nobody tries to indoctrinate me, nobody demands to be called by odd pronouns, my block club neighbors don’t disown me for being a conservative or a republican, despite the fact that I live in an extremely democrat leftist neighborhood.
My attitude encompasses the entire country, not just FL. Here, I have many wonderful people around me, and a courageous governor. Sorry if I’ve disappointed you.
I know which one this is
The even better example is the Virginia 2021 Statewide election held just one year after the infamous 2020 national election. Republicans flipped the governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general and the State House, all in Blue State. On the few times that I have brought this up on Ricochet to disprove the notion that “we will never win another election,” all I get is cold water thrown and excuses as to why the Virginia election doesn’t count.
I’m no psychologist, but don’t people who give up psychologically doom themselves to a self-fulfilling prophesy?
People can also chase a false dream that will never come true no matter what they believe.
No matter how positive I am, I am never going to be an Olympic Athlete. I was never going to be one, no matter how hard I tried. I don’t have the genes for it.
But, since you are busy casting stones, please tell me what your specific plan to improve the nation is and what concrete steps I can take. I am all ears.
I am a pessimist.
The state keeps growing. Durham’s report should have been a “worse than Watergate” moment but since corporate media is in bed with the state, nothing will happen. We seen the FBI go after parents for protesting the woke indoctrination pushed in schools, Latin mass Catholic and pro-life activists. Both the IRS and FBI are slow walking Biden Inc. Meanwhile you have the media ignoring while pushing a witch hunt against the conservatives’ justices in the SC. Meanwhile, our military is more interested in ESG than RPGs. The CEOs of major companies are cowards, bowing down to the latest DEI directive from some blue haired 24 year old social justice warrior.
I am not suggesting you could become an Olympic athlete. I am only suggesting that you can allay your despair. You can even become happy! Things are not so bad that you must give up all hope. Look around the world. If you have given up all hope here, how would you fare in North Korea, Cuba, China, Russia, Africa, even in Europe!
I have been casting stones? I think you read into my comments something that was not there. If you are asking about my plan to save the nation – It can only be done in small steps on the personal level between you and your circle of family and friends. We have to stand up for moral values and point out the constant falsehoods that are propagated. It is slow, it is not earth-shattering, but it is unshakable. Without that groundswell of support, we really would be doomed.
I guess I’m a deluded dreamer living in denial. I look at the life I am living and the lives of my friends and family and think things are going pretty well. I think 99% of the humans who have lived and died would think we have it pretty good.
I could come up with a list of dozens of things that I wish were different with our society and government, but in what magical kingdom have people ever lived where everything was fair? Where no one was abused and where everyone lived a life of comfort, prosperity, freedom and fulfillment that would make our society look so shabby? We aren’t living in a Soviet gulag, folks.
I know I’m an outlier in this thread, but the doom and gloom here makes me think of the radical environmentalists who think the world is more polluted than it’s ever been, when we actually have much cleaner air and water than we had 2-3 generations ago. People need to have realistic expectations. No one is ever going to get exactly the society they want. Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, AOC and plenty of other leftist radicals complain about how irredeemably right-wing this country is.
You are totally not addressing what I said. See bolded, underlined above.
It is strange to accuse me of no hope when I expect America to survive. Strange indeed.
And of course, you have no plan to save America any more than anyone else here has. It is the typical mantra to stick by your family and friends. That is not how you change the nation’s direction. Hunker down has never worked in the history of the world. That is the call of the 1/3 in 1775 who sat things out.
Over all a well presented post Susan. I do take some exception this part only because there should not be an “except” to the first sentence. The essence of liberty and freedom of speech is in that sentence. Many progressives give the same exception that you consider. Who gets to decide what the “facts on the ground” are? Much of the time there is not agreement on what the facts are, heck just look at the different interpretations of Jan 6th.
Yes, people should be able to believe or say what ever they want, especially politically. Full stop. If we disagree we can attempt to persuade them. This is called politics….
I don’t think the people in this thread would disagree. Missing the point totally, Randy. We are worried about what will happen in the future as the nation we love is being destroyed.
But hey, you are deluded so you are not going to see it. Nothing to see here. FBI is just like it has always been. Things come and go. Yawn.
I blame the 24/7 news cycle for doom and gloom. It is easy for people to get sucked into the maelstrom of negative news spewing from the TV, radio, and now The Internet. As I’ve heard often, if an alien being gathered his impression of our world through watching our news, he would think this was the worst planet in the Galaxy.
An old Jewish joke:
Two Jewish guys are sitting on a park bench reading newspapers. The one guy glances over and sees that the other guy is reading a White Supremacy newspaper published by the KKK. He says “What the heck is wrong with you, are you meshuggeneh? Reading that crap?” The other guy politely responds, “Well, when I read the Jewish newspapers I learn that I am oppressed, poor, a victim, and suffered generations of persecution. When I read this paper it says that I am wealthy, elite, powerful, pampered, and I control the world through banking and politics. You can go on and keep reading that other stuff.”
But I did directly address it in comment #50 – “I’m no psychologist, but don’t people who give up psychologically doom themselves to a self-fulfilling prophesy?”
Giving up hope makes a huge difference in outcomes. It causes people to abandon any efforts for improvement. When there is hope, people continue to struggle, to make a difference.
It was inferred by your assertion that the world is collapsing all around us and your assertion that hope makes no difference.
I never said “stick by your family and friends.” I said
“It can only be done in small steps on the personal level between you and your circle of family and friends. We have to stand up for moral values and point out the constant falsehoods that are propagated.”
Standing up for your moral values and standing up for the truth is not “hunkering down.” Not everybody can reach an audience of millions of people like Red Eye Radio. If 50 million conservatives managed to change the minds of just one or two people, it would be a watershed moment.