Overstatement
"Charleston is where the Ashley and Cooper Rivers meet to form the
Atlantic Ocean."
That's Dave Winer quoting the special
Charleston, South Carolina Point of View as explicated by Dan
Conover of the Charleston Post and
Courier.
Isn't that how all of us feel about the truths we represent and which we project
on the world? We all participate in the ultimate illusion: that the universe
somehow takes our personal interests into account and that if we can just stare
her down skillfully enough, Reality will bend to our demands. We constantly
seek allies in our quest for this affirmation and naturally there's a good business in
being such an ally.
I remember well the questionable but entertaining child car seats of three or more
decades ago. These flimsy, miniature lawn chairs often featured little steering
wheels that your child manipulated to ensure your safe passage through the
vagaries of suburban traffic. Your toddler co-pilot sat next to you in the front
seat, blissfully unthreatened by uninvented airbags and the uninvented, ubiquitous
knowledge of what tragedy might happen to him. His purpose was to navigate a safe passage
home among the vagaries of traffic and noise and distraction.
Aren't we all like those toddlers and the fans of the Ashley and Cooper Rivers?
We're universally equipped with a point of view and a mechanism for projecting
our egos upon the Great Reality which we can surely learn to steer once we decipher
its special code. Control is the universal need of our species, so vital that
we will sacrifice our present and obvious good for the uncertain promise
of control of our destiny.
Actually, it's not control we seek. It's the illusion of
control and certainty. Any tribe will pay any price for that illusion. Our tribe
is currently paying more
for that illusion, in absolute terms, than has any tribe in the history of mankind.
[snip]
Without the good sense of traditional conservatives, do we have any hope of
waking up?
[Escapable Logic]
