Your friend Jim George thinks you'd be a great addition to Ricochet, so we'd like to offer you a special deal: You can become a member for no initial charge for one month!
Ricochet is a community of like-minded people who enjoy writing about and discussing politics (usually of the center-right nature), culture, sports, history, and just about every other topic under the sun in a fully moderated environment. We’re so sure you’ll like Ricochet, we’ll let you join and get your first month for free. Kick the tires: read the always eclectic member feed, write some posts, join discussions, participate in a live chat or two, and listen to a few of our over 50 (free) podcasts on every conceivable topic, hosted by some of the biggest names on the right, for 30 days on us. We’re confident you’re gonna love it.
You are definitely on to something. Yet some popular culture still celebrates the iconoclast to some extent – Harry Potter and Katniss in the Hunger Games are heroes (in fiction aimed at young people) who push against the tide. How to reconcile these ideas? I suppose part of it is the fact that schools tell kids to be unique yet squash nonconformity in both official and unofficial ways. After all, what is more savage than the way teenagers treat perceived outsiders?
And as a veteran you can appreciate how some of our most celebrated military heroes were regarded as rebels in their own time. Think of Billy Mitchell or Smedley Butler. I know at least one USAF Medal of Honor recipient was almost court martialed for the act that resulted in the award.
I know I’m getting away a bit from what your post covers, but the dilemma is interesting.
Quite some powerful rhetoric there.
It is revival or bust! Oddly, it might be the Orange Man and a handful of successful rappers that lead the way to the promised land.
Last Friday our high school staff received word that we will likely be returning to distance learning in a week. As a school psychologist this left me physically and mentally ill. Everyone is so determined to be ‘safe’ that they don’t care about the damage they are doing to students’ academic, social and emotional development. Unfortunately a lot of the teachers are on the cutting edge of keeping ‘everyone safe.’ Meaning themselves. I had a lot of respect for teachers until they started becoming adamant about how in danger they are by doing their jobs. No one closed schools a few years ago when the flu decimated classrooms and 10-15% of students were out on a daily basis. Now, with 30 positive cases per 10,000 population, or 0.3%, we must all be safe!! Close it down!!! Never mind that the number includes people in nursing homes, false positives, or that most cases are asymptomatic (aka – they are NOT sick). We HAVE TO STAY SAFE!!! How could we live with ourselves if we knew we are responsible for someone else getting sick? As if that can truly be determined.
This continued nonsense has been actually traumatic for some – don’t laugh. I was told by the school nurse that she was talking with a high school student on the phone who was crying because his parents would not let him come to school. They told him that if he went into the building he would bring home Covid and kill the whole family. What have we wrought?
This will be our lasting legacy if we let this continue. I’m so sorry to hear about this, and I believe it’s a more common scenario than is reported. I hope we realize how much harm is being done before it’s too late. Thank you for sharing this.
Odd times, indeed!
I absolutely agree with you. And the military analogy is something that was rolling around in my mind, but didn’t quite know how to add. Thank you for bring it up.
I’ll take that as a compliment?(!)
That’s a high school kid. Just imagine the emotional damage being done to the younger kids in grades K-6.
The consequences will be felt far and wide. This is from Italy, where the government has instituted another lockdown. People are pleading for their lives. https://twitter.com/robinmonotti/status/1321785323676991489?s=21
Do mandatory mask mandates originate in the Department of Redundancy Department?
I have already decided that if, G-d forbid, Handsy Joe is deemed president, and then subsequently fulfills his promise to make mask wearing mandatory, everywhere, all the time, that I will not ever wear a mask again. Nor will I pay a fine. I will if required spend time in jail, rather than submit. My immutable line in the sand.
This is what’s missing today. Thank you, and I stand with you!
How truthful should one be on contract tracing lists? Our governor is now requiring restaurants to have guests put their name and phone number or email address down to be contacted if an employee comes down with Bat Flu. I don’t think I’m supposed to contact the restaurant if I become sick.
I forgot about it until we went out tonight. I used my name and a spam email address because I did use my debit card so there’s a record. Thinking about using cash and false information next time.
If you carry a smart phone, all contact tracing is performed automatically. They know where your phone was, and every phone that was in proximity, and for how long. Fake emails, Hah, you silly man. That is for Gollywood, not real life.
Thus the government’s need for a cashless society.
Incredible. I wonder what they’ll come up with next to justify continuing this – or how much further the government will take it?
In one sense I agree. For the Left, the past is a vast field of poison weeds, and once we have uprooted every noxious root we will be free to plant the seeds of virtue in the welcoming soil. The past binds us to sin. There is the necessary harrowing when the society is untangled from its origins, but it’s all for the better.
In another sense I disagree: it is not a matter of we, it is a matter of them. We have not been engaged in a century-long project to destroy the foundations; they have, in the name of advancing some new liberation. I’m not talking about the natural evolution that applies the Founder’s truths to those frozen out from the start, I mean the detonation of the landmarks, the erasing of the boundaries, the ripping up of the guardrails. The delegitimizing of the entire American Experiment, and the elevation of Marxist booshwa to the level of religious doctrine.
We stood for Western Civ and welcomed as allies those who had different policy views but held fast to our exceptional endeavor. We defended the center.
Can you repeat that please?
@jameslileks We have indeed defended the center to protect classical liberalism. But I think there is a more shrug-of-the-shoulders that goes with the political right when it comes to shrieking by the left about inclusiveness and tolerance – because, yes! Who’s against all that?! We can be nice! Where it gets troublesome to the point of crisis is when those words are used as sharp, pointy sticks to keep us impotent. It never ends with being simply tolerant. It ends with forced compliance and acceptance (or renouncing values and truths). We’ve been putting the culture wars in the rumble seat for decades, now it’s what drives the car.
So we should wear masks when we’re in public places and try to avoid crowds. OK. That’s easy. Now why have we given all levels of government more power?
Accommodation is not enough. With the left and an unaccountable government it never is.
Jenna thank you for the wonderful essay on the non conformist being needed.
I loved the portrayal of Muffy’s owner, and the pate and the masks.
Someone on twitter stated last week “There never was a lockdown. Merely a group of Elites who were able to work from home & let lower classes of people spend all day delivering things to them”
Also I too noticed the lady in Italy screaming at her politicians who are depriving her of hr life in order to save her life.
If you have not already joined the group COVID 19, I wish to invite you. It features the odds and ends of that discussion which by themselves might not be significant enough to make into a full article on ricochet, but which add up to quite a bit of knowledge on the situation we are faced with.
Thank you for your kind words, and how right you are about the elites and the lockdown. I wasn’t aware of the COVID forum – I’ll have to check it out when I’m not so depressed about the current state we’re in (and headed).