Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
Tragic Kingdom
I took my family to Orlando last weekend for a much-deserved family vacation. My wife and I were relaxing on a park bench inside on of Orlando’s many themes parks, enjoying a brief moment of rest while our sons had another go-round on a log flume ride. As we were relaxing, I looked up, and ten yards away, I watched a young woman slap a man in the face.
A loud argument then ensued between them that appeared to be centered on who was going to do what with the small child they had in a stroller. The arguing continued, quite heated, until the man wrenched the stroller away from the women and stormed off, away from the woman and my wife and I.
While I was too far away to hear the precise words of their argument, I’ll lay odds that the phrase “How dare you do this right now, while we’re on vacation!” was used by one or probably both of them during their altercation.
Raise your hand if you’ve heard (or said) that phrase yourself.
I thought so.
This sense of entitlement to a good time is what author and noted self-defense expert Marc MacYoung calls “The Disneyland State Of Mind“. It’s a mindset within us that says we have a right, a God-given, inalienable right to a good time, and anyone who tramples on that perceived right needs to punished for intruding on our fun. As Marc says,
“I’ve repeatedly said that DSOM (Disneyland State Of Mind) isn’t inherently violent, but it’s right next door. The person in this state is young, entitled, excited, fixated on fun, certain and most likely on something. All the elements there for it to flip into rage and violence are there.
…
When the person in the DSOM is triggered he or she will– for that person — become a berserker. There is no other thought than punishing for what you did. Where that is going to stop cannot be determined beforehand.”
Now pick up the Disneyland State Of Mind and drop it on today’s Democrat party. For the last eight years, the Democrats have been in Political Disneyland. They had their God-King, their Lightbringer in power, and wars were going to end and the planet was going to heal and all the sick people and children would be taken care of, forever and ever, Amen.
Democrats were able to live in that Disneyland thanks, in part, to a compliant media who for eight years relentlessly avoided mentioning any scandal inside the Obama White House and Hillary’s entourage. Democrats, the media and the entire left-wing of American politics have been in political Disneyland for eight years, and with their Empress-to-be waiting in the wings, they saw at least another four more years of the Magic Kingdom spread out before them.
Then Trump happened, and the left-wing now feels the need to violent, because their Disneyland was taken away from them. They are angry and upset, and they feel they have the right to lash out at the big meanie Republicans and their big bully leader who took their candy away from them.
Some may laugh at the “Antifa” and other more-violent elements of the “The Resistance”, and to be sure, there are some laughable elements to their temper tantrums. Nevertheless, childish behaviour that results in tragedy is nevertheless still a tragedy. Take care, because the left-wing has has been rudely awakened from their dream sleep, and now they’re upset and ready to lash out in anger at the people who woke them up.
Published in Politics
Excellent piece, Kevin, and a perfect metaphor for what is happening. After all, aren’t we all entitled to the perfect life? And heaven help anyone who gets in the way of that dream.
Interesting observation & comparison. Great post.
I will leave it to others to explain to you why the Democratic party is not behaving like a bunch of spoiled brats. I would do it myself, but…well…um…I’ll get back to you when I think of a logical explanation.
Good post. Thanks, Kevin.
I was always amused by the fans of Obama calling him “Lightbringer” its like they didnt realize that is the Ancient Greek translation of the biblical name “Lucifer” … So there is something we can agree with democrats on …
Perfect metaphor indeed.
It still takes my breath away when I think back on the talk around the office and the steaming pile of refuse that was my FB feed in the first days after the election.
For the most part, the co-workers have lapsed into sullen silence (and on the days they work themselves into a newfound frenzy over the latest “outrage” they’d have shrugged off if our last Dear Leader had done it, well, that’s what headphones are for).
The FB feed, on the other hand, continues to be the longest-running foul-mouthed tantrum I’ve ever witnessed (which is saying a lot, when I think back on a few of the demon-children I babysat over the years).
I am weary of my inalienable right to a social media feed full of baby pics and kitten videos being totally trampled upon.
Bingo!!!!!
… is, up to a point, entirely reasonable on a family vacation.
By which I mean, it’s not unreasonable for family members to expect each other to behave as if enjoying each others’ company is possible during family vacations; nor is it unreasonable for adults to resent being bugged by problems they can do nothing about while on vacation, or one family member’s petty obsession that publicly embarrasses the family and/or painfully wastes the rest of the family’s vacation time.
Suppose Dad does the family taxes every year. Vacation time is not the time for Mom to cross-examine Dad on whether he filed the taxes correctly, demanding that he recall details of documents that are quite sensibly at home where he cannot see them, and having her prophesy an audit catastrophe if he cannot.
Suppose Mom and Dad have an infant with recurrent ear infections, a problem Dad hasn’t had to concern himself with because Mom has always taken care of it all. Mom and Dad’s first trip away from their infant is not the time for Dad to suddenly develop a morbid interest in his infant’s auricular health, continually second-guessing Mom as to whether she should even have taken this trip to begin with.
Suppose the cheapskate is strong in the family. Generally, this is a good thing. But vacation time is not the time to waste the rest of the family’s time and make an embarrassing scene over a perceived 15-cent overcharge.
Some people do act like spoiled, stupid brats on vacation. Others do that passive-aggressive thing where, if you don’t pretend to delight in their neuroses, dourness, and ancient grudges being let out of their cages to play during vacation time, you’re the one who’s being the “spoiled brat” for “just wanting to have a nice time” rather than being “serious”. In my family, at least, the latter has usually seemed like a bigger risk than the former on family vacations.
What makes you think they didn’t understand that?
When I get too down about the AntiPeople, I just look at this again.
Midge’s real life response is smart and reasonable–family vacations are not the best time to obsessively bring up why your spouse often forgets to lock the patio door–but Kevin’s general political point uses the metaphor well.
The Democrats’ loss to Bush in 2004 was, for them, an unpleasant surprise; they really thought they’d win. But it was still the Age of 9/11, and on some level even the Dems knew that John Kerry had the appeal of a toothache, to paraphrase Jonah Goldberg. When Reagan, supposedly the worst of the worst won in 1980 it was, of course, unwelcome to the Democrats, but they could at least console themselves that it wasn’t a shock. Liberals had no great love of Carter; they preferred Teddy and weren’t surprised that Carter screwed it up. Besides, Reagan would be a one-term joke, right?
But the election that really burned them was 1968. Not because Nixon won, since that wasn’t all that big a surprise by election day, but because it was the end of what had seemed irresistible momentum towards the left. Not only weren’t the Republicans supposed to win anymore, but society was supposed to be rapidly evolving towards total freedom and equality of outcomes, away from families and towards modular love units. Nixon, to them, meant the sudden end of a dream. Like 2016.
I love this phrase, Midge.
I’ve never been an admirer of Kid Rock’s sense of style, but I’ve got to say he has good taste in boots.
I would have thought that Nixon was about as well as the Dems could do with a Republican.
Well, they certainly did pretty darn well by him — first, he signed into law the Environmental Protection Agency, and then, he let the rabid media hound him from office => a two-fer for the Democrats of the day.
Not to mention wage and price controls.
Bill Clinton was about as centrist a Democrat as Nineties Republicans could have hoped for, but I don’t recall that he was regarded that way by most rank and file GOPers.
Nixon was far from being a rightwing radical–so, for that matter is Trump. They are hated for other reasons than sheer ideology.
He was an enthusiastic gun grabber.
I love your choice of words, since Lightbringer is the English translation of the name Lucifer.
What about 1972? I wasn’t old enough to understand the situation, and “history” is worthless in the Vietnam era, so I always wondered: Did that massive victory by Nixon hurt their feelings as much as the Trump victory? I mean, that was a wipeout – 520 to 17 Electoral Votes!
The phrase “Peace in our time” made it into Obama’s second inaugural (spell checker wanted to make that “inaudible”) address. They’re so narcissistic that history begins with them – they know nothing of the founding documents, WW2, Magna Carta, or the bible. This why they despise western civilization, they’re completely ignorant of it and alienated from it.
They dont know of anything that happened (or was written) before 1965. (with the possible exception of the hobbit)
Oh! great point, the democrats where embarrassed at the polls. In order to salvage pride it became necessary to prove that Nixon cheated in the election and won playing dirty. Thats why they keep making the comparisons with Nixon and Watergate – because to them it is an analogous situation.
Wow! I think you’re onto something, here, Kevin. Eight years of theme park rides, cotton candy and sitting in Princesses’ laps. No wonder they’re having a tantrum.
The Democrats are dangerous. They feel entitled to lord over us and can’t accept any other option. It will degenerate into violence. That is how civil wars begin. In fact, I think the civil war has already begun. Violence and rudeness are becoming the norm in certain areas. The youth are poisoned in college. They will end up sorting it out the hard way in a decade or so.
1972 was treated like it was Year Four of Fascism, like it was already Nazi Germany and could hardly get any worse. At the same time, ’72 was the year that sizable numbers of blue collar whites changed their general stance to conservative. Before there were Reagan Democrats, there were Nixon Democrats, and they made 1972 the landslide it was. Most of the union guys had nothing against McGovern as a person, but hated McGovernites for reasons that became all too familiar to Democratic voters.
In case anybody is avoiding the media, at the California Democrat Convention on May 20 (I leave off the “-ic” just for spite), outgoing Party chair John Burton raised both middle fingers and said “all together now: **** Donald Trump!” I won’t post the pic here, as it is not CofC compliant, but here is the Democrat State Party Conventions’s (!?!?!) enthusiastic response.
Decade? Cops are already being assassinated and I predict deaths involving “Antifa” before the year is out.
As my good friend and quasi-mentor Michael Bane said recently, we are one mag dump* away from a shooting war inside the United States.
Up until I read that Marc MacYoung piece, I thought Mike was wrong.
Now, especially after yesterday’s fit of childish peevishness at Notre Dame, I think he’s right. We have a privileged class that is in danger of loosing their privilege, and they are not going to give it up with out a fight.
=====================================================
* For those that don’t know, a “mag dump”, aka “spray and pray” = shooting all the rounds in your gun as fast as you can, usually in a panic, without thought to accuracy or consequences.
aka: My Facebook feed
Great article and thank you for introducing me to DSOM. We are witnessing the product of an entire generation led to believe that the rule of “having my way” – without a wit of concern for anyone else – is as engrained as having a zip code and not merely the attitude of spoiled brats. However, the generation of which I’m referring isn’t the one that’s graduating this spring (as this story in my hometown demonstrates).
I don’t condone the walkout of the Notre Dame students. But these students have been showered since birth with messages from their parents that they are to live without any concern for anyone else who doesn’t wholeheartedly agree with them. I have quit going to commencements altogether because of the appalling behavior of parents and relatives who behave without even the least amount of decorum. Frankly, the fact that the small sampling of education-normative fundamentalist students simply got up and walked out silently without throwing fruit at the podium could be a small but significant indication that the next generation may be able to reclaim some of the civility that my generation discarded to the god of nonconformity.
And it is still childish behavior, too.
The predictive outcome has been repeated throughout history…mankind’s normal state of existence. That is something a few decades of prosperity and peace (and the failure to teach history) have used to wipe away the fragile, dry erase board that serves as the brain of today’s fragile snowflakes. They may soon get to see Darwin Awards issued on a grand scale. Yes, older generations can share in the blame, but ultimately they they are responsible for their world. BTW, there is no better teacher of history and man’s failures than The Holy Bible. Let us not forget that much earlier generations had it as a text in school.