The Persistence of Memory

Describing our sociopolitical landscape is almost like trying to describe Salvador Dali’s “Persistence of Memory” painting to a blind man.

A common belief embedded within every ideology is that it will ultimately prevail, largely because it is thought to be accurate and correct.

If not for an ultimate triumph, an inevitability, what is the point?

Christians believe Christianity will prevail, largely based on faith in biblical teaching and the prophecies contained therein – and it is not alone in that belief.

But the difference is where beliefs like Christianity teach behaviors and values that do make civilization better, more orderly, and more humane. To be good, we are taught do adopt the teachings and behaviors of the world’s only pure being, Jesus Christ.

But the progressive left, to construct their socialist houses upon the sand, must assume that technological progress will mean improved humans, or at least improved command and control of human behavior.

However, the one thing consistent in the historical record is that no scientific, social, or economic advancement of history to date has ever been able overcome human nature.

Why hasn’t this model worked?

Because it is not based on modelling good behavior, it is based upon ever changing fads and flavors of a human ruling class that is subject to fallacies, foolishness, and contradiction. It teaches people it is enough to just “be”, that being good is not a concern.

I think this entire ethos is embodied by something I have pointed out in the past, and it is a quote from Barack Obama before he conned his way into the presidency. In a 2004 interview Obama did with Cathleen Falsani of the Chicago Sun-Times there was this exchange:

FALSANI: “Do you believe in sin?”

OBAMA: “Yes.”

FALSANI: “What is sin?”

OBAMA: “Being out of alignment with my values.”

This exchange is far more revealing than was intended. Note that Obama said, “MY values”, not “God’s Laws”. During his eight year ShamWow commercial, Obama proved that HIS values might not be in good alignment with what God expects – or at least his actions were not.

That is a very important distinction for one simple reason – what progressives call “values” are often social constructs, fungible and malleable faddish beliefs that can change based on the need for them to fit into a certain desired perspective. Progressives allow their morality to exist on a sliding scale so they can be the popular kid in the class, no matter what the issue may be.

Take the comparisons Canada’s Prime Minister evokes when he speaks about (or is it “aboot”?) the everyday working Canucks who drive trucks for a living – he called them a “small, fringe minority” who held “unacceptable views”. He has alleged these peaceful citizens are filled with “antisemitism, Islamophobia, anti-Black racism, homophobia, and transphobia”, but anyone paying attention knows they are simply protesting a lawless government that has broken the country’s own laws as it took away the rights of citizens it was allowed to govern.

Now keep in mind that he just said he will talk to BLM, a movement based on slander, libel and hatred of white people, civil unrest, riots, looting and the suborning of criminal behavior.

This is the irreconcilable contradiction part of contemporary progressive politics.

And it damages my brain to see so many people who are simply comfortable with swallowing anything they are told if it comes from the right ideologue, completely dismissing the obvious that is right in front of them or are just too stupid to realize they are being used as cannon fodder in a culture war they will eventually lose.

Back in 2014, Daniel Greenfield of the blog Sultan Knish, wrote:

“The modernist fallacy says that history is moving on an inevitable track toward their ideology. Resistance is futile, you will be liberalized. Marxism predicted the inevitable breakdown of capitalism. Obama keeps talking about being “on the right side of history” as if history, like a university history curriculum, has a right side and a wrong side. All everyone has to do is grab a sign and march “Forward!” to the future.”

The left often chastises the right that we are on the “wrong side of history”, but true history has no “side” - it is simply the recounting of successive civilizations and societies that are testing their belief of inevitability over and over again until reaching a point of failure, then starting the process over with a different perspective and direction, until such time as they reach another inevitable point of failure.

So, it seems history teaches that inevitability is not defined as that one side or the other will prevail, it is that eventually, both, in turn, will fail. So, in another contradiction, we find the inevitable to be eminently evitable.

There is no “right side” of history, history is just a timeline that records the human process of trial and error.

It is a rare occasion I am left with little to say, but for the past few days the continued arrogance of the leftist cabals and their enablers in the media in the face of such obvious, prominent, and astonishing contradictions and absurdities has just drained about all my energy and intellectual reserves. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to opine, I literally had no idea what to say.

Describing our sociopolitical landscape is almost like trying to describe Salvador Dali’s “The Persistence of Memory” painting to a blind man.

How, on God’s green earth can that even be done?

If you haven’t seen one of Dali’s paintings, I believe it is virtually an impossible task.

The use of reason and logic is futile. That would be akin to using a frying pan as a lug wrench to change a tire.

And yet, here we are, living in a landscape every bit as absurdist as anything from Dali’s paintbrush.