You know, I've been fretting and stewing about something the past couple of weeks.
After the big guy's mother died, I got a personal message from a
bona fide primitive, saying that in case it wasn't a coincidence, he wanted to thank me for pulling (temporarily) Big Dog's wonderful story.
I didn't save my response to him, but it was along the lines of "no, it wasn't a coincidence."
And maybe some other stuff too, but I forget.
Soon thereafter I heard from him again (this is
snip from his message, not the whole message):
.....I never said you were all bad. We disagree on politics. I disagree with plenty of people on politics. I disagree with people on DU with many things. That doesn't mean I don't get along with them.
I know you've (the collective "you've") said prayers and sent wishes to DUers who have befallen misfortune. I pay attention.....
As long-timers here might recall, during the first few years of conservativecave, franksolich assiduously tried getting along with certain primitives, flattering them, courting them, wooing them, smooching them.
One example--although there's probably been four or five dozen--was that of the defrocked warped primitive, who's meaner and uglier than a snake. The archives from the early years of conservativecave are packed with instances of franksolich buttering up the defrocked warped primitive, saying nothing but the nicest of things about her.
It availed me nothing. The more I lathered the defrocked warped primitive, the more I cuddled and kissed her, the more hate-filled she got towards decent and civilized people.
So I finally gave up on the defrocked warped primitive.
Is it possible for decent and civilized people to get along with the primitives?
I used to think "yeah, sure, they're human, too."
I no longer think that--that it's possible to get along with the primitives.....and that the primitives are human too.
This sharp divisiveness goes way back to November 1980.
Before then, people got along with each other no matter their politics; politics was but a minuscule characteristic of their association. Everybody found a whole lot of other reasons to like everybody else. One's politics didn't make any more difference than if one had blue eyes or brown eyes, or collected stamps or collected doilies.
"I'm voting for Ford." "Well, I'm voting for Carter." (This from 1976, the election preceding.)
After which one went on to more important topics, such as whether or not cherry pie was better than apple pie.
But that changed, as I said, in November 1980.
I remember it well.
There was so much rage and anger and Hate expressed by the losing side that they didn't want to have anything to do with those on the winning side, no matter how good of friends they'd been before, no matter that they had vast areas of mutual interests and tastes. If one had voted for Reagan, those who'd voted for Carter treated one as if a leper.
I finally gave up, circa 1988 or something, trying to get along with Democrats, liberals, and primitives.
This, despite that franksolich is a nice guy, one of the nicest guys one can ever hope to meet; eminently approachable, always tolerant and indulgent, freely acceptive of all coming his way.
I
used to think decent and civilized people can get along with primitives.
I no longer think that, and think now of the wisdom of Lord Baring, governor-general of British East Africa during the 1920s; "the primitives need to feel the lash, and harshly so.
"The lash
might turn a tiny number of them into decent and civilized people, and the lash
might turn somewhat more half-civilized. But as for the other 99% of them, the primitives need to feel the lash simply because they're ugly coarse brutish primitives."