January 20, 2010
Quote out of context
A man cannot withstand a story, even if the man is remarkable and the story is simple. The story always wins.
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A man cannot withstand a story, even if the man is remarkable and the story is simple. The story always wins.
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absofuckinglutely.
one of the reasons I hate humans, incidentally.
Thanks, Kelsey. This take on the situation is one I have been harping on for a while for myself; it’s good to see it told so effectively here by Diaz. I think Democrats have been blind for a long time to the fact that logic will never defeat metaphor. It so often seems that Democrats will point out hypocrisy and believe that they have done the whole job of presenting a better view. The story that needs to be told today is that of the way big money can buy the story that does what heroin does: it makes for a feeling of vast power and prospective contentment–even as rats are removing one’s toes.
Oh, Daryl, I’ve been circling around the quote 50/50 split unquote in recent elections, and wondering why it seems more difficult to have something (for the good of all) to pass. It seems so obvious to me. Where do (we?) Democrats stand in the mix of news? Do we need to stand, as it seems Republicans [generally] do, in the extreme? Do we stand in a move toward Communism? or Socialism? With all my conditioning, my thought is NO. But to be heard, and overcorrect, is that the stand we ought take? Or can we be comfortable with “half stand for, half stand against?” Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. And in the grand scheme, When it is 50/50, WTF does that really mean?
Then there is the money thing. Who’s paying for what we see?
I’m at a loss for a sense of direction here too, Rick. It’s the old–How not to become what you despise as a means of overcoming what you despise. As you say, it’s just amazing that the very people who most need what only compasionate public policy can provide can be so easily led to dash all attempts to secure it. But I see it as possible that the power of stories might be brought to the fight in a way that is honorable as opposed to being merely an arm of the usual high-dollar PR campaign. People want to prosper, so you can’t make a demon of prosperity and expect that to do it for you. But you can show the act of helping others as the substance of what it means to be heroic. So many of the stories in America that motivate people are about little people beset by big powers and threats that they must fight against–by way of seeing laws and the Constitution and public policy and even intelligence as an impediment to achieving the state of being we all surely want. The criminals always stand in the crowd, outside the bank they have just robbed, and point out people for the mob to chase down and murder. What we need is to find a way to show the strength of not giving in to fear, and the strength of considering one’s impulses before acting on them. We need more characters like Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird–people who show what it looks like to actually value others rather than just always fearing them while lashing out at shadowy threats.