Archive for November 19th, 2007
Neoheroism
Posted by Bob in Bob, Coaching Session, History on 11/19/2007
Simmons’s words.
“Thanks AFKAN. I might have been too tough on Ian, and I hope he is not too sensitive. I’m sometimes forgetful that most are not like me.”
jogged this thought into print here:
“Bob has been here and done that,” that phrase in “About Bob” was written nine years ago by someone else, and it can’t be improved upon. It also allows me to make a point.
There are a lot of people who are legitimately in psycho wars from doing part of what I did. But obviously they were not capable of being there, doing that, and COMING BACK. Mercs and lot of combat flyers actually ENJOYED what put normal people in the wards.
But in the real world, this is not all that important. That is, it is very critical to ONESSELF whether he is “brave and can take it “ or not. If your big concern is your own image in your own eyes, it is the most important thing in the world. People like the World War II Generation, who gave away EVERYTHING and have only this claim to any bravery at all, depend on it absolutely.
But no war hero ever made the slightest difference in REAL WORLD history.
Truer words was never spoke than a reply to the Greatest Generation types in the 60s who were bemoaning the Peaceniks:
“Before you ask where young people are coming TO, you might ask where they came FROM.”
Like neoconservatives who insist that liberals were right until one particular date when liberalism went wrong, the Greatest Generation cannot AFFORD to face the fact that there was something fundamentally wrong about THEM.
Neoheroism?
The only important thing about me being there and doing that and coming back—sort of, I’m on psychological disability — is that it may help you BELIEVE some points I make. Some people cannot live with the memory of part of my life. Others took it well and went right on, better than I did.
But the point you can use here is made by a man who said two centuries ago,
“Nothing concentrates the mind like the fact that one is to be hanged on the morrow.”
So when I say that the cause is everything to me, I MEAN it. When I tell you being isolated by conservatives and our own comrades really doesn’t affect me, I MEAN it. Otherwise I would be in a ding-a-ling ward over MUCH worse things.
To me, my good name is entirely an asset to what I am trying to do. I want it used to that end. I CARE what you think of me, but my whole life makes it clear what my priorities are. This can make me ruthless TOWARD you, which is the fault that gets me isolated.
I treasure my group. I treasure our leaders. But your opinion of me is NOT my priority.
Not even close. This is not normal.
I am a staffer, not a leader. I am a staffer damned few leaders want around them, because leadership REQUIRES the delicate feel for ego that is too much absent in me. I am a loose cannon, to be set in place and USED by those who have the feel for it, i.e., leaders.
A leader like Ashbrook or Bill Rusher who could USE is not just a rare bird, he is damned near unique.
You of BUGS use me right. The coach has [played as well as he can. He is sending YOU out in the field to do YOUR thing. A coach who is obsessed with your opinion of him is no coach at all.
Win and you are welcome to bitch yourself hoarse.
It is almost impossible for most people to really EMPATHIZE with this. If I say I am isolated, it sounds like I am complaining. Actually it is a natural part of leaders and me doing our respective jobs.
All this, in short, is part of what I always talk about, what the world is REALLY like. My ego is not in it in a way that people understand. The importance of this fact is fully explained above. There ain’t no more to it.
Simmons
Posted by Bob in Coaching Session on 11/19/2007
Thanks AFKAN. I might have been too tough on Ian, and I hope he is not too sensitive. I’m sometimes forgetful that most are not like me. Still this secret plans stuff in essence leaves most people defenseless when the spotlight of the wreckers singles you out. Many years ago Don Black wrote something directed towards posters on his site that I found useful, “if you won’t say it in a Federal court don’t say it here.” I like the Mantra, and if I had a world audience for my show trial it would come first and be repeated as punctuation.
ME:
Simmons shows his professional side. On Capitol Hill, we used to say, “If you don’t want to see it on the front page of the Washington Post, don’t write it down.”
Reguklar conservatives are amateurs and, above all, DUMB. Smart people have to be loners. The main part of professional consefrvztive time is spent with “It’s all HOPELESS” or not.
Sound familiar? So naturally no one else even understands the point I make about the ironic usefulness of media bias.
Ironically, because of its blind, slavering hatred (look at Rosie!) the media actually DID ITS JOB in the case of serious right-wingers. Teddy Kennedy had to ltierally kill somebody before his out-of-control antics were even mentioned.
One percent of that would have made one of us literally front-page news long before she drowned.
The exception really proves the rule. We finally got a couple of BAD scandals. Two fo our congressmen were not only queer, but went overboard. But the press id NOT do its job with them. The media could not “out” a homo. So we didn’t know. Anything else like that on the part of hard-right congressmen would have been, literally, front page news. Try to imagine Reagan getting away with one percent of Clinton’s hetero stuff!
In fact, we depended so much on the media to bare any scandals that we got caught with our pants down — Gee, what an unfortunate turn of phrase! — on the queer stuff. Otherwise the mdedia allowed us the luxury of assuming that everybody on our side was throughly vetted across the board.
Recent Comments