The Anchoress
On the endless go-rounds about illegal immigration I wrote a while back:
What if it’s all an illusion, just like the Cinco de Mayo “nationwide protests” by Hispanics was an ‘06 (election year) illusion that had nothing behind it in ‘07 (no elections). What if everyone is being played a little bit, here, being prompted to emotional reactionaryism as a means of reaching into and infecting those Americans of good-will who until the “flashpoint” and the sudden hue-and-cry couldn’t be moved to hate? Moved to grousing, yes, but never before moved to real, unadulterated hate?
Illusionists are clever sorts – they are specialists at making us look at one thing, and convincing us that we know what we are seeing, while they are actually doing something else, entirely. It’s called “misdirection.”
What if the illegal immigration flashpoint was never about immigration at all, but about getting people stirred to “hate.” Who would do that, you ask? Think about it. Who and what does hate serve? What happens to the soul of a nation, when “hate” is the overpowering force driving a majority of people – it doesn’t matter which “side.”
It did not escape my notice that the “spontaneous” demonstrations by Mexican-flag-waving, sign carrying La Raza groupies who were all over the streets in May of 2006 were curiously absent in May of 2007. Back when the conservatives were freaking out by the images of discontented Latinos demanding “the return” of their country, etc, all that radical claptrap, I recall a few blogs remarking on the astonishing number of Mexican flags (scroll down) and wondering who had underwritten them.
Some on the blogs were saying, “this is not real, it’s illusion, it is political theater…pay no attention and go look for the man behind the curtains – THAT is the reality.” I’d assumed that A.N.S.W.E.R was the underwriter of those demonstrations and parades. Turns out it was, according to this article, George Soros.
Didn’t the mainstream media report that 2006’s vast immigration rallies across the country began as a spontaneous uprising of 2 million angry Mexican-flag waving illegal immigrants demanding U.S. citizenship in Los Angeles, egged on only by a local Spanish-language radio announcer?
Turns out that wasn’t what happened, either. Soros’ OSI had money-muscle there, too, through its $17 million Justice Fund. The fund lists 19 projects in 2006. One was vaguely described involvement in the immigration rallies. Another project funded illegal immigrant activist groups for subsequent court cases.
So what looked like a wildfire grassroots movement really was a manipulation from OSI’s glassy Manhattan offices. The public had no way of knowing until the release of OSI’s 2006 annual report.
I also wrote, here:
And by the way, the press has noticed what sets you off, and they’ve been playing to your heat, and you’ve been responding to their bell-ringing like Pavlovian dogs, too.
It can’t feel good to realize you have been played by George Soros and pals, and while you were being played, you weakened your president, lost a good deal of power in Congress (not that your party was using it, but still…) and drew inflexible battle lines flanked by impossible demands and pipe dreams, while – in the end – nothing actually changed. Played by a master, your party became divided, some of you literally became one-issue haters of everything and everyone who did not join in your daily chant; “illegal is illegal.” And in being played, you’ve managed to make a fast-growing segment of the voting populace suspicious of conservatives on the eve of an election wherein literally every vote and every voter is going to count. And where fraud may well be rampant.
I have been loath to write about the ’08 election because the campaigns began too soon. But it is not too early to say that I cannot recall a more urgent or important election in my lifetime. The ’08 election is going to be the one that determines whether the America you love will be recognizable in twenty years. I know I’m not alone in thinking so.
Once upon a time you could say, “who you gonna believe, me or your lying eyes,” with a wry smirk and appreciate the irony. It’s not so ironic, anymore. Now we are in the third act of Hamlet, the King – his conscience pricked – is crying out and the castle is in uproar and Hamlet declares, “believe none of this,” which is good advice. Maybe all of history has been a staged production, but I don’t believe that. Sadly in American politics, circa 2007, very little is real, very few are motivated by selfless love of country, and illusionists are everywhere.
Whoever can manipulate the images, whoever can best misdirect your attention, whoever can mesmerize you with their illusions…that is who will win this election, because too many of us buy into everything we see and hear. Unless we stop falling for it all – for the large-scale productions and the small sound bites. How do we do that? I can only hazard a guess, myself:
Remember that half of what you see is an illusion and the rest of what you see is a passing fashion, and you’ll fret a good deal less, no matter what the issue.
Perhaps the other half of that good advice is to watch less news and television, read fewer papers, spend less time on political forums feeding your rage and paranoia and spend some time – every single day – being quiet and contemplative. I think that’s the only way to counter all of this frenetic noise that leaves you neither time nor room to think and which completely cuts you off from your guts and your instincts. Your guts are there for a reason. Don’t stop using them.
Remember, even the internet – particularly the political forums – contribute to the illusions:
While the internet has a capability of enlarging, the truth is most people surfing the blogs and sites find the ones they like and linger there, in the echo chambers of a few favorite spots, and thus they shrink their worlds. They begin to believe the illusion that because 80 or 800 or 8,000 people frequent the same site and jaw the same sentiments, that there are a whole lot more people agreeing than disagreeing with them. That, in fact, a breathtaking number of people – MOST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD, even – believe what they believe.
In fact, the forums are a little like the Mirror of Erised in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. That mirror shows the viewer what he or she most wants to see – it shows one’s deepest heart’s desire – but recall Professor Dumbledore’s warning: “this mirror gives us neither knowledge or truth“. He warns that men have gone mad before it, mad in their obsessive fascination with the seductive illusion that “the perfect” (which can never be) is somehow attainable.
What I notice happening on both sides of the political spectrum is that left and right are falling into their mirrors and allowing themselves to be seduced by these absolutist dreams – a world where no principals are ever compromised and everything goes along just as each side thinks it should all go along. That’s not reality.
Here is one reality: a president everyone hates goes to the candidates who feed that hate and who hope to succeed him, and he helps them to not hang themselves or the nation upon the noose of excessive expectations, doled out at whim. He does this not for their good, or for his, but for the good of the nation, the country that rejects him, and the sake of the world. That is selfless, mature, honorable and statesmanlike. Take a good look, you may not see such a one again.
Another reality: If you don’t vote in the next election because the candidates aren’t perfect enough for you – they don’t live in that Mirror of Erised where you can gaze on your happy, perfect dreams – then you will get the government you deserve.
And the last reality: You won’t like it.
UPDATE: Peggy Noonan is striking a similar theme:
It’s all very controlled. And it’s unworthy of a great nation. When people say the campaign feels artificial, that’s what they mean. It’s not John Edwards’s hairspray or Hillary Clinton’s makeup. It’s that they give every sign of being afraid to speak and listen to those who haven’t been patted down by thought-cops for unacceptable views.
The Republicans are the same. An invitation to debate on Univision, the Spanish-language network? They have scheduling conflicts. What about the Log Cabin Republicans? No time right now.
How unserious.
Unserious, insulating, energy-sapping and ultimately dangerous.
WELCOME: American Thinker readers. While you’re here, please look around. Today we’re also talking about whether there is a difference between a madman and a Catholic, Katie Couric’s staggering incuriosity, whether the Roomba Robotic Vacuum really works and finally, what it is to sit by a window of a quiet autumn night. Enjoy!
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In