The simple question as posed by Glenn Beck since this past June (and here I must paraphrase him cause I can't quote anyone to save my life, and besides which I am too damn lazy to look it up) is:
"America, how did we get here, how did we reach a point where suddenly we must ask ourselves, how did we lose our freedom?"
Well, I might also add, how did we lose not only our freedom, but also our virtue, our manhood and rugged individualism, our American Exceptionalism and our very Constitution itself? And as Beck would couch it, our "faith, hope and charity" as well.
And so I must propose the truly unthinkable on this soon-to-be election eve: How did we so blindly succumb to this creeping socialism, to this secular-progressive gradualism; just as the proverbial frog in the proverbial pot of cool, tepid water does not realize his doom with every notch upward in the burner beneath the pot in which he so serenely and placidly resides so unaware of and oblivious to the true danger he is in?
How did the progressive and secular "libs" and "commie-libs" and "lefty-pinko" liberal socialists and Marxists and Neo-Marxists insinuate themselves into our lives, our government, our nation, our very being? And then usurp our freedom and make us their socialist automatons, serfs and slaves?
No longwinded, detailed explication and pedantic exercise in arcane and esoteric bloviation and pompous"heaviosity" needed here, "just the facts, Ma'am, just the facts." So toward this end, please allow me dear readers, these three basic observations, ideas and principles.
First, is death by a thousand tiny, imperceptible cuts and blows. It started with just one inconsequential program to aid this or that group. Such as the school-lunch program which surely was thoroughly benign and beneficial for those who were too impoverished to provide mid-morning snacks, lunches and then mid-afternoon snacks for their own children. But as all things liberal and progressive and quasi-socialist, the program gradually expanded like the proverbial pot of tepid water which is gradually heated to a roiling, boiling point.
So not only the poor were entitled to school breakfasts, snacks and lunches, but also the middle class and the upper middle class and even the well-to-do as well. And Mom and Dad were easily bribed and bought off, even if many of them had to partially or fully pay directly for these programs - because it wasn't all that expensive, just spare change and look at all the good it did - for surely it truly was a windfall for all concerned because it was just one less chore, one less parental responsibility to perform each and every single day. And in addition, because it was so modern and "with it" and so easy and convenient; and surely, because in the final analysis, at the end of the day, it was just less effort for them and clearly less sweat off their brows.
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Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Baronius
Adler was a liberal socialist all his life? That'd be news to him.
The Declaration of Independence’s reference to the right to liberty would seem to cover the right to think and choose as we wish.
2 - Irvin F Cohen
Dear most esteemed comrade and exalted fellow traveler Baronius
Figures you would answer that way.
Man you just really don't get it..you ain't got a fornicating clue...do you?
3 - roger nowosielski
There goes again, a one-trick pony dead-set on the next trial-run.
4 - Irvin F Cohen
Dear most esteemed comrade and most exalted fellow traveler Nowosielskik
5 - Irvin F Cohen
Sorry bout that, I hit the wrong fornicating button, but to continue,
Get you excrementosi facts straight, that is now, dah-dah, a two-trick pony
or should that be nah-neh-nah-nah-neh?
"dead-set on the ext trial run"
Well, got you to bite, you unintelligent fish, maternal fornicator!!!
Ha-ha-ha!
6 - Baronius
OK, just so I'm following this...you're calling me a socialist because I disputed two points in your article?
7 - Irvin F Cohen
Dear most esteemed and exalted fellow-traveler comrade Baronius,
First off I didn't, still do not and will never call you a socialist because evidently you are clearly not such...rather the proper, more precise and accurate term is...COMMUNIST!!!...And who knows what lies deep within your heart and soul, perhaps could it be...MARXIST?!!!
Secondly, isn't one silly disputation with lil' ol moi, simply more than enough to conclude as such?... [Edited]
8 - STM
Irv: "No longwinded, detailed explication and pedantic exercise in arcane and esoteric bloviation and pompous"heaviosity" needed here".
No, just a nine-page opus in answer to a simple question.
What was the question again??
9 - Irvin F Cohen
Dear most esteemed and exalted fellow-traveler comrade STM
(whatever the fornication that stands for)
Is it that you not only have a rather short attention span, but you also ain't got no fornicating memory either?
You been smoking a little too much weed lately? Like your whole fornicating worthless life?
Boo-hoo, nine whole pages, boo-hoo...Mommy do I really got to read all that...boo-hoo, boo-hoo...that's so many...boo-fornicating hoo, boo-fornicating hoo... wah-wah - wah...
Look at it this way...look at it on the brighter side...it's a whole page less than my last article of Tolstoyan and Homeric epic proportions.
10 - Alan Kurtz
Irvin, old buddy, is that a trend we can count on? May we look forward to one less page with each successive article? Let's see, at that rate, only eight more articles with any pages at all. And then, nirvana! A zero-page blog by Irvin F. Cohen. I think you're on to something here, Sarge. For writers like you, this is definitely the path to readability.
11 - STM
Irv writes: "Look at it this way...look at it on the brighter side...it's a whole page less than my last article of Tolstoyan and Homeric epic proportions."
Lol. Yeah, mate, there is that. No longer a one-trick pony, then :)
12 - zingzing
see, baronius? this is how the rest of us feel. welcome to the bad side of the right wing.
13 - Arch ConscienceStain
No longwinded, detailed explication and pedantic exercise in arcane and esoteric bloviation and pompous"heaviosity" needed here
And yet, that is what we received.
A helpful hint: Next time, instead of flushing the toilet paper, run it through your scanner and post the resulting images.
At least we'll be entertained.
14 - STM
Arch, I think Irv's having a lend of us.
15 - Irvin F Cohen
Dear [Edited] fellow Blogcritics thread-er-ers,
Again it never fails to amaze me how and to what great lengths and depths you [Gratuitous vulgarity deleted by Comments Editor] take yourselves - as in much too much seriously.
Moreover this last spate of ad hominem attack and minimization of me is truly telling.
Bet yet again, once more, I must plead that if you're going to attack me; that first you read my fornicating maternal essay; and second that you praise or attack it solely on its merits or lack thereof, and say something intelligent, thoughtful and or insightful in that
process. Now I understand that this is asking a great deal of you, perhaps more than you are intellectually, rationally and reasonably capable of, but it'd be a nice start - don't you think?
So if you're going to say something relevant as to the essay, why don't you talk about liberal-progressive "gradualism;" or the constant and steady usurpation of individual, personal responsibility through small and seeming inconsequential bribes; or the right and freedom to think freely or to choose what is in one's own, personal, enlightened interests?
Until then I surely won't hold my breath. [Gratuitous vulgarity deleted by Comments Editor]
16 - roger nowosielski
I had no idea that a period at the end of a title has become de rigueur, the new standard of modern-day publishing. The BC editorial staff is surely breaking a new ground.
I'm certain that Mr. Clavos wouldn't touch this piece with a ten-foot pole. What's perplexing, however, the esteemed editor of this atrocity chooses to remain incognito rather than claim responsibility for dereliction of duties and, generally speaking, substandard on-the-job performance.
But then again, what's a little coma or period when one's presented with a formidable task of editing what in essence beyond salvage. The larger question we ought to be asking - why are such pieces published at all? Little wonder that the BC Politics section is quickly turning into a farce where substance and cogent thinking are being replaced by vulgarity and attempts at provocation without a point, just for the hell of it.
If David Nalle is behind it, shame on him. The least thing he could have done is to redirect this "article" to some obscure section like "Sick Humor." If Kurtz is behind it, I'd say go back to the drawing board and reread Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal." I'm all for experimental writing but you've got a long way to go. So I'd suggest that you work on your skills in the privacy of your own repressed life rather than burden the reader with juvenile attempts.
17 - roger nowosielski
comma ... although the editor must have been comatose. A Freudian slip I'll surely take credit for.
18 - Irene Athena
The title with a question mark at the end...no, no...THREE question marks at the end. That's the way I'd have done it.
19 - roger nowosielski
That's provided, of course, you had a real puzzlement going.
20 - Mark
Irv, you realize that this (excellent) ramble is a rather racist/sexist narrative, yes?
21 - Baronius
Irv - I read(ish) your essay. I commented about two points in it. What more do you want? If you want a comment about the theme of the essay, it's this: you're right. Socialism is easy to slide into, because socialism is easy.
Do you feel better now?
22 - Alan Kurtz
Roger Nowosielski (#16), I see you've joined the insidious club of BC regulars who believe, without foundation and notwithstanding my repeated denials, that I am "behind" the author Irvin F. Cohen. I said it before and I'll say it again. We are two separate humanoid entities. We inhabit individual bodies, have never met or corresponded with one another, and have little in common. We live at opposite sides of these United States: Irvin in Florida and me in CA. He is a scholar of Greek classics and I wouldn't know the epic poet Homer from the epic putz Homer Simpson.
It's true that we are the same age and are both military veterans of the Vietnam era. But Sarge was a Marine who served with distinction and was wounded in combat. I was a hapless airman who trudged around a missile site in the boonies of South Jersey, guarding our air defense ballistics from the prying eyes of teenagers in their parents' cars, making out after midnight in the surrounding woods.
Ironically, there is considerably more proof online that Irvin F. Cohen exists than that Alan Kurtz does. Consider, for example, this gallery of photographs from Irvin's childhood through 2002. Moreover, we know his exact street address, what his neighborhood and condo development are called, the year his complex was built, his unit's square footage and what he paid for it. We can even see a list of his neighbors and their addresses. Plus there are Google street and aerial views of his residence! (Can't say I like the pink exterior wall paint, though, Sarge. I mean, I get it that the place is called Hawaiian Gardens, but pink walls are simply nowhere near macho enough for an ex-jarhead like you.)
Anyhow, Roger, you get the idea. As horrifying as the thought may be, there are actually two such awful creatures on this planet as Irvin F. Cohen and Alan Kurtz.
23 - roger nowosielski
In that case, I'm glad for you, Alan. But I certainly wouldn't put the two of you in thr same category of "awful creatures." Apparently, the wounds that "Sarge" had suffered caused a permanent damage, In your case, a good shrink, a bottle of wine, and perhaps some company, not necessarily in that order, would do you wonders, of that I'm certain.
I would close with a more appropriate epitaph, but I'm afraid a nasty case of flu had made me rather dimwitted and careless about my literary production, including this here comment.
24 - Irvin F Cohen
Have we really come to this? Is it that "Big Brother" is now watching me? No, why? Because Big Brother is me... Alan Kurtz, it's all a setup...I am a creation of the great scammer from California... look at how and to what great lengths I, I mean he, it gets so confusing when you're taking on two personas, one your own and the other that of an alter ego, I the Marine warrior, combat-wounded Marine Veteran of the Vietnam war who literally saw and helped... bullshit... actually created rivers of blood, and then as a student studied in both Paris and Rome, studied the Classics of all things and did fairly well at it, oh that I, this California Jewish schlemiel and nebbish could, nay, wouldst be Irvin F. Cohen, this hero I had to create because of my many multitudinous and uninspiring shortcomings in life... my life which reads like that of an insipid, trite and banal underground man straight out of Dostoevsky...but because I could not be Irvin F. Cohen, this heroic, dynamic, smart, certainly smarter than me, alter ego, super hero, larger than life fictional character, and I emphasize the words "fictional character" here, my desire, my creation, fabrication and machination entirely... well it had to be done so I, Allan Kurtz created Irvin F. Cohen... there I confess it... there, there... I said it at last!!! I am Allan Kurtz, I am Irvin F. Cohen, my alter ego, my twin brother I never had, my hero, my alter ego, my twin brother. Please slap me in the face! So that I can blurt out the dirty, ugly sinister truth, I am Allan Cohen, I am Irvin F. Kurtz, I am Cohen the Kurtz, I am Kurtz the Cohen.
Got it now?
Next point, do I detect a rather large ration and humongous passel of typical, de rigueur, commie-lib, commie-symp intellectual, philosophic and ideological fascism here? Are you such fascists that you would deny me my intellectual right to think and to write and opine my thoughts and ideas and have them published in this essay herein, and also to deny the editor his freedom of both speech and the "press" too, to publish this essay as he sees fit? Are you such fascists as to deny me my intellectual freedom and freedom of speech, and the editor his as well and his freedom of the press solely on your true-believer, totalitarian, ideological, fascistic grounds, so glibly and matter-of-factly in your threads... do you not see how fascistic you are?
I guess not. How truly sad that be.
25 - Irvin F Cohen
Dear most esteemed and most exalted comrade fellow traveler Baronius,
If what I said in my essay is so well-known and well-understood, and so intellectually relative and so easily reducible to your snide, shallow and empty threads...then my question for you is,why ain't you said it?
Sorry comrade Baronius but your commentary is just simply unworthy...why?...because your comments are childish and puerile, insubstantial, shallow and petty. That's why.
So I challenge you sir, defend your point of view...with at least a modicum of intellect, and with intellectual arguments with an iota of substance!