Heroes and Villains

The Z Man November 01, 2021  

One of the difficult things for people to grasp about liberal democratic politics is that the process is just an extended morality play. While the pretext for public discourse may be a particular public policy, the motivation of the participants, the ones with some chance of success, is to display their piety and thus win the crowd. The resulting policy, if there is one, which is rare, is never the point of the process.

The simplified version of this in America goes like this: The progressives begin the process by going on stage and identifying an enemy or a victim. Sometimes they do a combination with an enemy and a victim. In the case of the enemy, the point of the presentation is to sow fear in the hearts of the people. In the case of the victim, the point is to play on the natural sympathies of the crowd.

Once the crowd is properly excited, the conservatives waddle onto the stage to play their standard role in the drama. They will say the alleged enemy is not real or that the victim does not deserve sympathy. The crowd, of course, will boo and hiss. This will lead some of the conservatives to break ranks and join the other side. The remaining holdouts get pelted with rotten vegetables as the curtain closes the show.

“The real point of the performance is for the players to display their piety in an effort to win the crowd.”...........To Read More.....