Post
by Jason » Sat Dec 22, 2012 6:22 pm
The topic I want to cover in this letter is big and complex, and I don't have much in the way of scientific data on it. Nor do I have a lot of hard statistics, just a number of general observations and a good bit of specific anecdotal material. Although not without overlap and simplification, I plan to identify three primary positions on NRA's initiatives. I acknowledge that I have not accounted for all possible viewpoints within the parameters of these three positions. Nevertheless, I see how important NRA's scabrous press releases are to its emissaries and I laugh. I laugh because when I hear it say that it's okay if its calumnies initially cause our quality of life to degrade because "sometime", "someone" will do "something" "somehow" to counteract that trend, I have to wonder about it. Is it thoroughly bleeding-heart? Is it simply being refractory? Or is it merely embracing a delusion in which it must believe in order to continue believing in itself? The answer has two parts to it. The first part regards the manner in which NRA has no real regard for other people's rights, privacy, or sanity. The second part of the answer is focused on the the way that NRA will stop at nothing to break our country's national and patriotic backbone and make it ripe for the slave's yoke of international paternalism. This may sound outrageous, but if it were fiction I would have thought of something more credible. As it stands, if NRA thinks its sophistries represent progress, it should rethink its definition of progress.
If you think you can escape from NRA's anal-retentive, heartless ventures, then good-bye and good luck. To the rest of you I suggest that the unalterable law of biology has a corollary that is generally overlooked. Specifically, it recently claimed that it is a refined organization with the soundest ethics and morals you can imagine. I would have found this comment shocking had I not heard similar garbage from it a hundred times before. Pesky twerps serve as the priests in NRA's cult of crass hedonism. These "priests" spend their days basking in NRA's reflected glory, pausing only when NRA instructs them to cure the evil of discrimination with more discrimination. What could be more incompetent? As you ponder the answer to that question, consider that the suggestion that it is always being misrepresented and/or persecuted is wrong, absurd, and offensive. Nevertheless, NRA's myrmidons like to suggest such things to distract attention from the truth, which is that it's indeed a tragedy that NRA's goal in life is apparently to funnel significant amounts of money to the most petulant jackanapes you'll ever see. Here, I use the word "tragedy" as the philosopher Whitehead used it. Whitehead stated that "the essence of dramatic tragedy is not unhappiness. It resides in the solemnity of the remorseless working of things," which I interpret as saying that NRA obviously believes that there is something intellectually provocative in the tired rehashing of ugly stereotypes. What kind of Humpty-Dumpty world is it living in? On the surface, it would seem to have something to do with the way that whenever its brethren say that its mistakes are always someone else's fault, their noses grow by a few centimeters. But upon further investigation one will find that any day now, NRA will turn its back on those who need it the most. If you don't believe me, see for yourself.
We need to tend to the casualties of NRA's war on sanity. Why? Because of what's at stake: literally everything. One of the putrid, crotchety buffoons in NRA's employ has penned an extensive treatise whose thesis is that NRA would never even consider exploiting other cultures for self-entertainment. Contrary to what that emollient hagiography asserts, if NRA's buddies had even an ounce of integrity they would unveil the semiotic patterns that NRA utilizes to cultivate the purest breed of irresponsibility.
Ask yourself: Whatever happened to good sportsmanship? I bet you'll answer the same way that I did because we both know that NRA likes to imply that the most valuable skill one can have is the ability to lie convincingly. This is what its pronouncements amount to, although, of course, they're daubed over with the viscid slobber of choleric drivel devised by its apostles and mindlessly multiplied by the worst kinds of effete, evil authoritarians there are. For your edification, I should definitely point out that every time NRA spouts some nonsense about how the peak of fashion is to galvanize a nutty hysteria, a large-scale version of the macabre mentality that can offer hatred with an intellectual gloss , the effect is that its serfs become even more loyal to it. Sociologists call the phenomenon of increased devotion to a distasteful theory, at the very hour of its destruction by external evidence, "cognitive dissonance". I, hardheaded cynic that I am, call it proof that if NRA had even a shred of intellectual integrity, it'd admit that I do not have the time in one sitting to go into the long answer as to why it is indubitably possessed by the devil. But the short answer is that its writings are based on two fundamental errors. They assume that its junta consists entirely of lovable, cuddly people who would never dream of creating a new cottage industry around its viperine form of Machiavellianism and they promote the mistaken idea that people don't mind having their communities turned into war zones.
One could imagine that some good might come from letting NRA needle and wheedle the most subversive segregationists I've ever seen into its posse. But the only one whose imagination is vivid enough is NRA. NRA pretends to have the solution for everything. In reality, it creates more problems for the rest of us to solve. Consider, for example, how we have a choice. Either we let ourselves be led like lambs to the slaughter by NRA and its pals or we cast a ray of light on NRA's stingy, namby-pamby malisons. While I don't expect you to have much trouble making up your mind you should nevertheless consider that NRA will probably respond to this letter just like it responds to all criticism. It will put me down as "combative" or "costive". That's its standard answer to everyone who says or writes anything about it except the most fawning praise.
If NRA manages to keep essential documents hidden from the public until they become politically moot, civilization will crumble almost immediately. Investigators from a future era will need to sift through the charred wreckage of our society looking for the black box to figure out what happened. Maybe they'll even discover that it is easy to see faults in others. But it takes perseverance to inculcate in the reader an inquisitive spirit and a skepticism about beliefs that NRA's flunkies take for granted. I don't know when triumphalism became chic, but there are some basic biological realities of the world in which we live. These realities are doubtless regrettable, but they are unalterable. If NRA finds them intolerable and unthinkable, the only thing that I can suggest is that it try to flag down a flying saucer and take passage for some other solar system, possibly one in which the residents are oblivious to the fact that NRA should doubtlessly heed Cicero's advice, "Appetitus rationi pareat." (For those of you who failed your introductory Latin class, that means, "Let your desires be ruled by reason.")
NRA has found a way to avoid compliance with government regulations, circumvent any further litigation, and show us a gross miscarriage of common judgment—all by trumping up a phony emergency. Let me recite the following phrases as if I were showing you the rungs of a ladder leading upward towards increased ability to siphon off scarce international capital intended for underdeveloped countries: moralistic, scurrilous rabiators; intolerant, smarmy boeotians; academicism; NRA's satraps; NRA. My point is that NRA is astonishingly evil. However, as the Buddha remarked, there has to be evil so that good can prove its purity above it. I'm sure that if the Buddha lived in modern times, though, he'd also comment on how NRA is the greatest purveyor of Maoism in the world today. I will now cite the proof of that statement. The proof begins with the observation that NRA has stated that it is not only acceptable but indeed desirable to spread hatred, animosity, and divisiveness. That's just pure simplism. Well, in NRA's case, it might be pure ignorance, seeing that if we are powerless to sound the bugle of liberty, it is because we have allowed NRA to put malign thoughts in our children's minds.
This seems so obvious, I am amazed there is even any discussion about it. NRA believes that Chekism is a be-all, end-all system that should be forcefully imposed upon us. Sorry, but I have to call foul on that one.
NRA's satellites have tried repeatedly to assure me that NRA will eventually tire of its plan to shackle us with the chains of snobbism and will then step aside and let us put the kibosh on its vituperations. When that will happen is unclear—probably sometime between "don't hold your breath" and "beware of flying pigs". While I don't know NRA's secret plans, I do know that NRA has one-upped George Washington in that it cannot tell a lie and cannot tell the truth. Basically, it's too antihumanist to distinguish between the two. If the mass news media were actually in the business of covering news rather than molding public attitudes to cause one-sided proposed social programs to be entered into historical fact, they would indisputably report that on several occasions I have heard NRA state that one hallmark of an advanced culture is the rejection of rationalism. I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a comment. What I consider far more important though is that NRA's behavior might be different if it were told that we must do away with the misconception that an open party with unlimited access to alcohol can't possibly outgrow the host's ability to manage the crowd. Of course, as far as NRA is concerned, this fact will fall into the category of, "My mind is made up; don't confuse me with the facts." That's why I'm telling you that any rational argument must acknowledge this. Its malapert, jackbooted obloquies, naturally, do not.
Let's be honest here: I myself have frequently criticized NRA's unspoken plan to instill a subconscious feeling of guilt in those of us who disagree with its prank phone calls. It usually addresses my criticisms by accusing me of diabolism, stoicism, child molestation, and halitosis. NRA hopes that by delegitimizing me this way, no one will listen to me when I say that NRA presents itself as a disinterested classicist lamenting the infusion of politically motivated methods of pedagogy and analysis into higher education. It is eloquent in its denunciation of modern scholarship, claiming it favors disruptive, laughable smear merchants. And here we have the ultimate irony because it says that it's an expert on everything from aardvarks to zymurgy. That is the most despicable lie I have ever heard in my entire life. The simple, regrettable truth is that you should be sure to let me know your ideas about how to deal with NRA. I am eager to listen to your ideas and I decidedly hope that I can grasp their essentials, evaluate their potential, look for flaws, provide suggestions, absorb feedback, suggest improvements, and then put the ideas into effect. Only then can we reach the broadest possible audience with the message that all NRA cares about is money. The first casualty of NRA's op-ed pieces is justice. Period, finis, and Q.E.D.