Finneran: Baa, Baa Black Sheep
Friday, December 18, 2015
Americans are now sheep, told what to think, told what to say, told to toe the line, or else.
Examples abound---Democratic examples, Republican examples, black and Hispanic examples.
Consider all the little dictators who see in themselves the knowledge and wisdom to tell others what’s “acceptable” and what is forbidden. Some of this is driven by ratings-starved money-obsessed talk radio hosts. They live in a make-believe world of “purity tests”. Truth be told none of them could ever get elected to anything. Their fakery makes professional wrestling look legit.
I must be in need of a re-education camp for I continue to see individuals not groups. And I resist to my core the new dictate of group-think. I’d rather think for myself thank you. In fact, have you noticed how quickly the “acceptable wisdom” changes these days? It’s head-spinning to consider that Presidents Truman and Kennedy would be attacked and evicted from the Democratic party of today. Indeed, even the more recent presidency of Bill Clinton is attacked by today’s “progressives” as insufficiently pure. Of course the problem is that they keep changing the definition of purity. An older FDR Democrat, Catholic, feminist, pro-life, and supportive of the concept of traditional marriage is now seen as a hateful pariah. We’ve taken a page from the Soviet handbook. We only lack, for the time being, the gulags of Mother Russia. Once upon a time the pursuit was of tolerance and acceptance, a live and let live attitude……..now the pursuit is of mandates and dictates. Thus the Little Sisters of the Poor must provide contraceptive coverage in their health policies! So much for tolerance, acceptance, and respect………….
The Republicans are every bit as nutty, seeing RINOS (Republicans in name only) everywhere. The GOP purists would drum Nixon and the elder George Bush right out of the party. And while they might invoke the holy name of Ronald Reagan, they would despise the policies he pursued and the compromises he made as Governor and as President. Republicans seem to think that there is one and only one acceptable thought to have on such complicated matters as immigration, taxation, and foreign affairs. Talk about brainwashing………….
More troubling to my mind is the attempted imposition of groupthink on black folks and Hispanic folks. It’s easier for me to ignore the political parties as collections of sometimes sincere but often dubious folks, ever so eager to tell the rest of us what’s right and what’s wrong with our lives. Not so with racial minorities………..
Fifty years after the passage of the civil rights acts of the 1960s, black folks still seem to be being told what to think. Consider Thomas Sowell, a black intellectual, economist, and author who resists the verbal, mental, and political nonsense of Al Sharpton. For such integrity Sowell is attacked as a sellout, an Uncle Tom. Or consider Clarence Thomas, whose opinions are rarely read let alone understood by his critics, critics who simply see his black skin and therefore demand an obedience to the Sharpton worldview. I don’t pretend to be a keen historian of Dr. King’s faith and thinking but from my allegedly privileged perspective I venture to say that he would be appalled by the assumption that black folks must think and act only one way. He might even ask how is that imposition of groupthink any different than being told to sit at the back of the bus. Might black, brown, and white individuals be accorded the dignity and respect of independent thought?
The most recent version of ethnic groupthink springs from the candidacies of Senators Rubio and Cruz for the Republican presidential nomination. Each Senator is razor sharp. They’re good on their feet, talented and knowledgeable debaters and formidable campaigners. One need not agree with them on everything or even anything. Indeed they disagree with each other, demonstrating a welcome independence of thought. Yet because they share a Cuban heritage, they are deemed “Hispanic” and it is demanded of them that they think a certain way. Purist ethnic bullies label them as “traitors” to their ethnicity rather than taking pride in their talents and achievements. Yes they are Republicans. Big deal. Get over it. And stop playing Baa, baa black sheep with people’s minds.
Americans are not sheep.
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