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It’s Time to Play!
I suppose the last thing anybody wants to do right now is to listen to the ramblings of a millennial. I’ll do my best to be brief (and bearable!)
Alas, the Left is at it again: reminding the adults of exactly why so many of us – without regret – gave Donald Trump the keys to the car, instead of allowing four more years of their social, political, and mental pollution. Many of them are people with whom we cannot have a conversation, making it entirely accurate to label them our enemies. Even if we don’t hate them, we have no choice but to fight.
But “fighting” isn’t enough. If this is truly a moral battle, then we have to win. If we have to win, then we are morally responsible for making the necessary adjustments. Of course, this is not going to be easy to agree upon, but I have some thoughts, and I’d be interested in what Ricochet has to say.
I’ve known of this Greta Thunberg for approximately three days. Half of the country finds her – as they find everyone who holds popular opinions – stunning and brave. The other is angry. Rightly so, but conservatives do have a way of living up to their stereotype.
They’re not angry with her, but with the adults around her. The problem is that there are no adults around her, just people of a certain age (what has that age been moved back to? 38?) This is a girl surrounded by people as deluded and unstable as she. It’s the sad reality children face today; rarely do they know adults. But I’m digressing a bit. Greta isn’t really my subject.
The Right has a major opportunity, but, one that I’m not entirely confident that they will see.
There cannot be many examples in our nation’s history in which a political party has faced off against one as unlikable as our current opponents. I don’t mean unlikable in the sense that they may have stood for repugnant ideals, slavers are surely worse. Rather, I mean one which has so little to offer – even in terms of fruitless, “Hope and Change” sloganeering – to anybody who isn’t wealthy and bored.
As @susanquinn pointed out in the comments of one of her posts, conservatives are not used to playing the role of the archetypal Joker. I think it’s time we practice. There are many, many kids who can be saved. I just graduated from a public university and met some of them. We have to learn to speak in a language that they can understand. A lot depends on the Right learning how to be the adults who can play the game.
Published in Culture
Fair enough.
My goodness, your in tough territory! But at least around kids with working brains.
I was a liberal arts major, which is why I asked. My experience around STEM kids is that they understand the fundamentals, so you may well be doing as much as anyone who’s “not young” can do.
Us very fortunate millennials – who are stuck with this bunch – may have to finally do some heavy lifting. You grownups might finally deserve a break!
Oh no . . . it’s started! Now I have to block it from my brain . . .
Okay, @gossamercat, I’ve given this a bit more thought, and, since my former professor, Daniel D’Amico, was brought up above, I figure I can use his class as an example.
The first day of class, he showed us the last 10 minutes or so of Spike Lee’s single achievement, Do The Right Thing. We spent the entire class time trying to answer his question: “Why did Mookie throw the trash can?”
He never told us the answer (or his opinion on the matter.) Since then I’ve come to the conclusion that “Mookie” threw the trash can because he was angry, particularly because he lives in a black neighborhood wherein people of other races own all the property. But I’m digressing.
To explain the creative chaos of the market, he used the example of pornography being the product that advanced the use of video tape, and eventually to a booming rental movie business, which, at that point was already floundering – being replaced by live-streaming. Relating capitalism with movies, music, and every other form of entertainment was very effective.
When discussing price elasticity, he asked if we could think of examples. One student suggested cigarettes. D’Amico shouted “Crack!” with affirmation, and followed with “very elastic.”
The room often erupted in laughter.
Fortunately, being young is not incurable.
Sounds effective. If only I could make neuroanatomy half as entertaining.
But, you know, I’d never have guessed an economics professor could be so good. So, maybe there’s a way.
But your subject is way beyond my capabilities.