Apologies to The Fair Hair'ed Girl

Living with honor one learns three things, 

Sorrow, "sin", and death it brings, 

Yet day by day our hearts within 

Dare shame and sorrow, death and "sin"   
 Link

American Thinker recently published an essay about the psychology of authoritarianism and totalitarianism.  It is easy to see what is in it for the elite, but why do so many peasants (ordinary people like me and my neighbors) roll over?  Heck, many eagerly rush forward to embrace it.

The Cliff Notes version of the article can be found in this quote

Individual and collective egos tend to look for a footpath to slavery, because the ego functions under the sway of defense mechanisms that block anxiety, shame, and guilt. Their function is to provide excuses to the ego to avoid self-insight while grabbing what it wants.

There you have it, "...anxiety, shame and guilt."  We used to raise children to value achievement and honest self-assessment, to have modesty coupled with earned pride in being able to handle, or stoically endure, virtually any situation.

Now we raise cool "gamers" who relentlessly search the internet for "cheat buttons".  We raise connivers who delight in their cleverness at elbowing others away from a teat.

Selling one's soul is a great bargain for the seller when they believe they are unloading spoiled goods, goods beyond any hope of salvage.

One definition of insanity is analogous to the "map bending" described by Laurence Gonzales in Deep Survival.  Try as we might, at some point the stream of data pouring over us cannot be reconciled with our internal and external maps.  That is when the person realizes they are lost.  It is as if one gear tooth on a cast iron (brittle) gear snaps, and the jolt causes all of the other teeth to snap off in turn.  The motor disconnects from the load.  With no "good work" it over-revs and destroy itself...unless it has a powerful, and attentive internal governor.

I have been a passive observer to the "entertainment" Kubota selects as he attempts to connect with popular culture.  We, his parents, have been of little or no value to him as he seeks "coolness" and to synchronize with his friends.  8th and 9th grades are all about being "cool" with one's homies.

One block of "entertainment" uses the word "fuck" as emphasis, punctuation, adjectives, adverbs and...as a verb.  Sometimes all in one sentence.

Another block of "entertainment" has a Chicago firefighter (unionized job!) losing his job for calling a co-worker a "mutt".  And all parties involved nod their heads with gravity and sadness.

No wonder we are raising a generation of whack jobs.  How can any thinking person rationalize this degree of disconnect?  Not being able to rationalize it, that is, find one's place on the large map, the only other choice is to try to game the reality that is within touching distance.

A husbandryman can only plant and harvest so much before he incurs irreparable damage to his farm or ranch.  In quainter times when we were closer to the soil this was called "not eating the seed corn."

Those who wish to be our overlords crack the whip and demand more than can be given.  The article in the American Thinker suggests that they never really wanted our seed corn.  Their over-arching goal has been to sever us from our maps, to imbue us with "...anxiety, shame and guilt.".