With some minor edits (in brackets) and some highlights, this is an excerpt from a diary I wrote in my early days (November 2004). The diary in question, overall, is meh, but this this part might as well have been written this morning.
It’s not for me to decide if it’s the diary equivalent of an ageless tweet, but I’ll put that question out there for all you wonderful people.
Any time you surf the diary list, you are scanning the roll call of devastation to the values of the Republic.
Personal responsibility for affronts great and small are exculpated by identity and affiliation, even feted as virtues when done by those in power, while even the [most] imaginary and unsubstantiated allegations is just and honorable grounds to afflict those persons on the out. It is one thing to acknowledge tacitly the realities of power; it is another matter altogether to return to cults of personality in our near past...and the trappings and customs of oriental despotism, up to and including obeisance rituals and sequestration of leaders, to protect them from their subjects.
The chilling effect on culture, science and civil discourse in a milieu where affiliation with power and privilege trumps all other considerations. Further, the willful, even gleeful attacks on culture, science and civility as values that offend the majesty of the powerful and privileged, and thus their hangers-on.
[...We face the prospect of a] world ruled [...] by people who do not know the facts, [...] do not care to know them, and do not care to know how to find them if they ever do change their mind, should such information question [...] group objectives and values.
[Such persons are] not only hostile to external criticism, but contemplation from inside, as well. This invariably leads to reduced likelihood of any given decision avoiding bad consequences, no matter how safe or insignificant the stakes. A person who is determined to ignore self-interest cannot possibly make [...] choices that are good for themselves, never mind for others.
Remarking on this weakness only drives such persons deeper into their retreat - the company of equally-unreflective persons, parroting in unison the group agenda, a very intimidating but ultimately a very stupid super-being composed of many millions of persons.
The Nazis had a word for this creature - a Volk. It's not a pretty sight once its incompetency to distinguish between good and bad, between useful and useless, between self-interest and self-destruction becomes manifest.
Alas, we are seeing an emerging Volk mentality here in the United States. And based on historical anecdote, that's bad.