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Country Club Authoritarians

by: Dean Barker

Sun Aug 29, 2010 at 06:59:20 AM EDT
I'm sure the Ayotte folks will love spreading around this story of the dreadful horrors of gated community dictators, but what I'm not sure they'll get is that that's how a lot of people view all major Republican office-seekers.

Put any of the others names in place of Binnie in there; I don't really see a difference.  
Dean Barker :: Country Club Authoritarians
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Country Club Authoritarians | 2 comments
The gated community movement relies on the premise (0.00 / 0)
that volition makes any behavior moral.  If people agree to be abused (as did Army recruits who agreed to keep silent and DADT), then abusing them is just fine.  Same for the voluntary extended servitude known as "stop loss." It's a principle with which we should all be familiar, since it lies at the very core of "traditional marriage" in which a woman agreed to "honor and obey" a man for the rest of her life and society supported his need to impose "discipline" from time to time.  In other words, traditional marriage isn't just the prototype for voluntary subjugation, but for a life-time commitment not to resist. And segregation is fine as long as it's self-imposed and absolutely necessary, if a stratified society is to be maintained.  (What's perhaps noteworthy is the extent to which the "natural order" seemingly needs to be reinforced by the herculean efforts of man).

As it stands, our military is really the last bastion of the old order, of social stratification that's authoritarian, rather than achievement defined.  We may think of the armed forces as egalitarian, but equality only comes into effect AFTER the individual has subjugated himself.  Besides, equality is not synonymous with quality.  It's possible for everyone to be treated equally shoddily and/or be equally deprived.  It's not what the proponents of "separate but equal" originally had in mind, but to a large extent, that's how it turned out.  Now all adult citizens have an equal right to vote and efforts to negate the significance of the vote are equally applied.

It really is very hard to get humans to do the right thing.  There are so many other alternatives besides the popular 'no.'  That's why it makes sense to limit the law to what must not be done.

Movement? (0.00 / 0)
Retreat, I'd say.
[ Parent ]
Country Club Authoritarians | 2 comments

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