Responding to the Staid and Fearful

George Rebane

RR readers who comment on these pages have a record of discussing and debating the most critical and germane questions that face our country and society in these times of fracturing polarity (albeit not always in the most churchillian manner).  I am a declared conservetarian (q.v.), and over the years of this weblog I have outlined in detail my credo, my semantics, and my prescriptions for the orderly evolution of America’s governance in this ‘last great century of Man’.  In a recent comment stream, a reader again contends these prescriptions, not on their existential merits, but on their provenance which for him is qualified only to the degree that the proposed be limited to that practiced in the past.  Here I offer a short counter to such constraints and criticism.

The ability to see futures without exemplars from the past is admittedly and obviously a gift not shared by the many.  Most people, perhaps fortunately, can only see the future as reflections in their rearview mirrors – if it isn’t there to be seen, then there’s no such possibility of it yet to come.  Then there are those relatively few who live on the edge of the arts of the possible, and who traffic in ideas and enterprises that have neither been nor yet to be.  Both cohorts of Man serve needed functions which, when tempered, benefit and power the advancement of civilizations.

The former of the staid cohort function as brakes, shock absorbers, and even anchors to dampen, absorb, and integrate the possibly chaotic and non-coherent novelties that those of the latter, living on the bleeding edge, can see, build, and seek to introduce into the established orders.  Fate, the gods, and my parents assigned me to the bleeding edge cohort, of which long ago I became a credentialed, accomplished, privileged, punished, and blessed member.

So, when people of my ilk do their work, it is almost always in the untrammeled domains where few or none have trod, and where reward always lies behind a mountain of risk.  My life’s journey through this terrain is recorded by the scars on my back and the coins in my purse.

So when I have outlined the desiderata of governance from a conservetarian perspective, it is not an exercise of just ‘cut and paste’ of the elsewhere and from the elsewhen.  Seeing something strange and new, the question of the staid always belies their fearful admonition to never go where we have not been.  I neither hail from nor have I lived in such lands.  As a native Estonian, I take pride in the innovations in education, technology, and governance that that little nation has always had the courage to adopt and practice.  As a naturalized American, I continually bless the memory of our Founders’ dedication, intellect, foresight, and courage to bring forth a land then unknown to Man.  All Americans are daily blessed by our Founders not being deterred or stayed in their enterprise by those who asked them for proof of existence and success for such a new country they gathered together to bring into the world.

Comments

[Ozz]

You consider to be the seeing eye dog for humanity? How many hundreds of thousands of self proclaimed prophets and visionaries have preceded you? How many were remembered after the fact as being real? In our immediate past there have been many. Timothy Leary, Maharishi Yogi, Stalin, Martin Luther King, Joseph Smith . . . each representing a different point on the compass and none were even close to accurate in hind sight. Based on the annals of history, my educated guess would suggest that you are simply another cog on the wheel of humanity. Just like the rest of us.

[Todd Juvinall]

OOZE you are a moron. If you can't read or understand what you read I suggest you stop drinking to excess and get out of your momma's basement and get some fresh air. I can't understand how you can be so dumb. Your babbling now anyway so please put a lid on your insanity.

[Gregory]

"You consider (sic) to be the seeing eye dog for humanity?"-Ozz

More blithering idiocy from "Ozz". That's not what Rebane wrote.

[George Rebane]

Ozz 153pm - Mr Ozz, it is a lasting pity that you continue to demonstrate no understanding of what is written in these pages. Nevertheless, sally forth!

[Scott O]

Being a conservative (conservatarian, then) as well, I find it amusing that the 'progressives' (progressively what?) like to simply dismiss my views as being that of an old (and yes, white!) man afraid of the future, immigrants, new ways and change.
Of course that is hardly true as I find myself and many of like mind to be endlessly looking about at the changing world and figuring how to best align past proven values to the needs of a world in a constantly updating mode via new technology and societal mores.
The human condition has been changing since we began, but the pace has quickened quite rapidly. The left (progressives, whatever) have blundered into a state of change for the sake of change without a bit of reflection on the consequences. Deciding that the ideas of old dead white men no longer have any value, off they hop into the brave new world with fresh, new thinking to try to keep up with the fresh, new tech.
Sadly, as they lack the education to appreciate the truths of millennia, they further confuse themselves with nonsense such as humans being able to legally declare themselves to be something they are not.
Ideas such as that end up causing even more problems not only for the delusional ones but also for society as well.
Humans have evolved over time somewhat in some ways, but we still exhibit the exact same foibles and weaknesses noted thousands of years ago. We have now such a myriad of fun new ways to practice these sins and the progressives are found scratching their heads and wondering how best to deal with it having only a pitiful few tools in their bag of mores.