Ammo Grrrll asks the question WHO IS WISE? She writes
The ancient Jewish text, the Talmud, asks, “Who is wise?” and answers, “Who learns from everyone.” (As a topic for a future discussion, it also asks, “Who is rich?” and answers, “Who is satisfied with what he has.” Is that a laugh riot, or what? We can’t have THAT in the socialist paradise of Cherokee Lizzie, Class-Envy Bernie and Disparate Impact Barry, now can we?)
But, back to the notion that everyone has some wisdom to impart. Apparently, in the Olden Days, “credentials” were not as important as they are now. So, Sarah Palin would not have been mocked for taking awhile to graduate from an aggregate of colleges, not one of which was Harvard or Yale. Boise? I mean, is that even a thing? It must be in Utah or Montana or some other redneck Western state full of armed white guys clinging to God and guns. And Scott Walker would not have been ridiculed for failing to finish college either. Bill Gates, fellow drop-out, gets a pass; he’s a liberal and a billionaire, so he can say, “Bite me.”
So, wisdom comes from a variety of sources according to the ancient texts.
Case in point: A friend of mine learned something from a pimp.
This particular pimp just had a small stable of girls, a part-time job really. Unusually ambitious for someone in the pimping profession, he wisely kept another lucrative job on a union automobile assembly line as well, which is where my friend met him. Guess pimping doesn’t usually include double overtime and dental insurance. Anyway, he gave my friend the following advice which stuck with me forever. Even though I was not present at the conversation, I’m going to put his words in quotes to clarify who was speaking. That may not be kosher stylistically according to the Journalist’s Handbook, but there are no journalists any more anyway, so deal with it. My friend recalled the conversation very vividly.
“Marc,” he said to my friend, “Only a lowlife, ignorant pimp needs to beat his girls. The smart pimp knows how to control his women with words. What I do, see, if the girl is beautiful, is pick at her, and belittle her and destroy her confidence. I point out all her flaws and make her so unsure of herself that she is dependent on me for her self-esteem, which I dole out with an eye-dropper.”
“With an average or kinda fat, ugly girl, I do just the opposite. I tell her she’s beautiful and build her up and again, she is dependent on me for her self-esteem. She’ll do anything for me to get confirmation that she’s a fox and not what she sees in the mirror.”
I got to thinking about the Left and how they operate in exactly the same way. If you have bothered to pay attention in school, work hard, accumulate some savings, avoid drug or alcohol dependence, not been a criminal, possibly even been married to the mother or father of your children, the Alinsky-schooled Leftist belittles your success with “You didn’t build that!” Hell, it’s only your “White Skin Privilege” that got you ahead! (If you do not have white skin, then any success is because you are an Uncle Tom, Aunt Jemima, etc….see, Condi Rice, Justice Thomas, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Dr. Ben Carson, Mia Love, the list goes on including many non-famous achievers. Surprisingly, the non-famous are people, too.)
I believe one of the reasons that the super-rich, especially of inherited wealth, are so often leftist is because they REALIZE that they have not earned their wealth. That it is just a result of the “lottery” Dear Leader speaks of. And he should know.
On the other hand, if you have not done one thing right in your life – if you have made one disastrous life decision after another – and someone assures you that you are still “beautiful,” that nothing that has happened to you has ever been your fault because the system is stacked against you, then you will follow that leader to the ends of the earth.
Rush Limbaugh has a running theme that asserts that we never get out of high school. That the nerds and outcasts among us still long to sit with the Cool Kids in the Lunchroom. The former fat kid who is now an important, if portly, governor still dissolves into happy tears from a phone call from Bruce Springsteen.
It is a powerful form of social control. And, like the clever pimp, the government doesn’t even need to “beat” people to exert that control. Why, play your cards right and you, too, could get invited to Gwyneth’s mansion to have your picture taken with Dear Leader! Not that the Beating Option is off the table entirely, of course, as Lois Lerner or the Cake Bullies can attest. All political power is ultimately backed up by brutal force. Brow-beat and harass nuns for objecting to paying for abortifacients? Just another day at the office.
But granting access to the “VIP Room of Life,” being the arbiters of Cool, the gatekeepers guarding the trends, the fads, the politically-correct speech code, is less trouble and less dangerous than facing down angry mobs. Sometimes, “in the course of human events” and all that, angry mobs – even nuns! – can be pushed far enough to fight back. And decide for themselves what is Cool. May the time not be distant.
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