Neocons Part 1

"For the neoconservatives, religion is an instrument of promoting morality. Religion becomes what Plato called a noble lie. It is a myth which is told to the majority of the society by the philosophical elite in order to ensure social order... In being a kind of secretive elitist approach, Straussianism does resemble Marxism. These ex-Marxists, or in some cases ex-liberal Straussians, could see themselves as a kind of Leninist group, you know, who have this covert vision which they want to use to effect change in history, while concealing parts of it from people incapable of understanding it" Wikipedia

This is the sort of topic that I am reluctant to write about because I haven't studied it enough to remember names and dates and details. Google has made me stupid. To meet my own standard for rational opinionating (I guess that isn't a real word but I'm letting it stay) I have to use more words that people want to read.

Unlike most topics I have strong feelings about or that relate to things that are important in my life, I don't believe I have a single book related to neoconservatism or written by a neoconservative. I don't know why this is unless it means that I know all I need to know already. This is an arrogant statement. But maybe arrogance is what is needed when critiquing the hubris of the disgraced clowns of the neoconservative movement.

In the hypertextual way I approach information, while reading something I'm interested in, watching TV or a movie, listening to the radio or talking with people, I'll come across a topic that looks interesting so I'll check that out and when I see the next interesting topic, I'll follow that for a while and so on and so on and so on. Isn't this what everyone does? Maybe not. I come across the term neoconservative often. Wonder why I never went down the rabbit hole?

I don't know much about neocons. So what? Neocons don't know shit about me, either. So what's the difference? The neocons don't know they don't know me. They think they do. They think they know everything.

Remember the quote from Donald Rumsfeld:

Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns -- the ones we don't know we don't know."

That's "known knowns", "known unknowns", "unknown unknowns"

hmmm...is that all Donnie? ...Think that covers it?... Are you sure you haven't missed something?... Take a minute to think about it? You're sure?... Maybe you should phone a friend. It's ok... Better to be sure than sorry....Oh, you have phoned your friends...who'd you call Donnie? ...ALL of them? ... Little Paulie...ok...who else, Donnie?...Dougie and Scooter...mmm...uh, don't you have any other friends, Donnie?... and you called Billy...is that Irv's boy?...can't you think of anyone else, Donnie?...don't you know any different people?...you called Dickie P. and Dickie C. both?...Dickie C.'s mommy said he couldn't come to the phone because he is in his undisclosed location...ok...don't you want to ask the audience? I think that might be a good idea...I think asking the audience is a great idea...Look at all those people out there, Donnie!...all kinds of people...come, on...ask 'em...please, pretty please...Donny...this is important...I'll bet they know...no, they didn't all go to Yale...but they are smart, Donnie...

Google "group think" or "groupthink" and "wisdom of crowds" so I won't go off a a tangent now.

Donnie and his friends missed something big. They couldn't even imagine the possibility of what they missed. Because Donnie and his friends are really smart boys. Uh, yeah..What did we say when we were kids? "You think you're so smart." Meaning, "You smug jackass. You aren't half as clever as you think you are."

Donnie missed, "unknown knowns", all the things they were sure they knew but didn't know jack about. The known and unknown unknowns? Well, a lot of these things were known knowns to a lot of the other kids. But, you know, Donnie and his friends thought they were sooo smart.

Neoconservative - Smug jackasses with big vocabularies who know nearly nothing because they know it all.

Have you ever noticed something that you could describe, but you didn't know it had a name? I first noticed the strange mysterious evil force that I later identified as "neoconservatism" around thirty years ago. It was the dark force that got poor southern whites to vote against their own best interests. It was the abomination of the Moral Majority and the arrogant know-what's-best- for everyone-else pompous Pharisee, Jerry Falwell, later day Johann Tetzel, and his ilk who corrupted the church and Christianity by selling indulgences for Republican votes and deceiving multitudes of Americans who valued being "Christians" who was able to manipulate millions of good people into abandoning every last teaching of Christ to focus on the sins on everyone else. Pope Leo X (I think it stands for Strauss?) would have been proud!

Somethings happening here......what it is ain't exactly clear...

I couldn't stomach this abomination, so I stopped going to church and started thinking about ... mmmmm...LIFE'S CONTRADICTIONS!

My friends, look up Plato's noble lie. Maybe The Republic if you are ambitious. Related ideas have been expressed by Leo Strauss (not the jeans, please), Irving Kristol and other prominent republicans, as well as Batman and Commissioner Gordon in The Dark Knight. Ask yourselves, do you want to be told condescending lies "for your own good" by a self selected elite who think they know what's best for everyone else? Who exempt themselves from the rules they demand that you follow? Or do you want the truth so that you can make informed decisions according to your own judgment and values? Do you want to be a sucker?

Looks to me like a lot of people want to be suckers.

I'm not talking about a big mysterious conspiracy to hide the truth. I'm talking about deliberate manipulation of public opinion by those with the means, motivation, and know-how to do so. Like with advertisements and other propaganda. Give the deception a little nudge now and then. Mostly it has its own momentum.

There are attempts to suppress information, sure, but I doubt that these are all that successful. There is a huge amount of information out there to discover and evaluate. Somebody is usually trying to tell the truth, but it get drowned out by the voices of deception. The agents of deception do this by filling the heads of the citizenry with distracting, deceptive and amusing infotainment from outlets like Fox News and Rush Limbaugh. The deceit is spread through representatives (who are often themselves victims of manipulation) who have either so little integrity or so little inner conviction that they are able to say The Big Lie with a straight face so often that it becomes The Truth for a huge number of people.

They control the faithful by manipulating them to abandon the good sense and reason God gave them and replace it with a dumbed down truthiness that flatters and reassures the dupes of their superiority and righteousness. "Christians" have taken the bait in the form of absolution for accountability and personal responsibility for their own sins and shortcomings. Instead of focusing on their own hearts as Jesus instructed, they are handed easy, convenient scapegoats. "Good Christians, pay no attention to your own sins. Look instead at this homosexual! This homosexual represents evil that we must not allow to take over our country. America is a heterosexual nation. The righteous must come out and vote on Tuesday. A vote for Republican Candidate is a vote for God and a vote against Satan!"

More about Neocons, God, Jesus, Christianity, American Politics. All the taboos. When I get around to posting it.

Nothing is as it seems.

Next: Everything my mother told me about the communists taking over the country without firing a shot was true. Except one. She told me to look for them over there <<----, when when they were actually over here -->> hanging out with her and Daddy.