Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Why the Collectivists are going nuts about "You LIE!"

"Communists are just socialists with guns." -- A favorite saying of "Mad Bob."


Statler & Waldorf -- Hecklers par excellence.

A heckler is a person who shouts a disparaging comment at a performance or event, or interrupting set-piece speeches, for example at a political meeting, with intent to disturb its performers or participants. The term originates from the textile trade, where to heckle was to tease or comb out flax or hemp fibres. The additional meaning, to interrupt speakers with awkward or embarrassing questions, was added in Scotland, and specifically perhaps in early nineteenth century Dundee, a famously radical town where the hecklers who combed the flax had established a reputation as the most radical and belligerent element in the workforce. In the heckling factory, one heckler would read out the day's news while the others worked, to the accompaniment of interruptions and furious debate. Heckling was a major part of the vaudeville theater. Sometimes it was incorporated into the play. . . In the 1970s and 1980s, The Muppet Show, which was also built around a vaudeville theme, featured two hecklers, Statler & Waldorf (two old men named after famous hotels). Heckles are now particularly likely to be heard at stand-up comedy performances, to unsettle or compete with the performer. Politicians speaking before live audiences have less latitude to deal with hecklers. Legally, such conduct may constitute protected free speech. Strategically, coarse or belittling retorts to hecklers entails personal risk disproportionate to any gain. Some politicians, however, have been known to improvise a relevant and witty response despite these pitfalls. One acknowledged expert at this was Harold Wilson, British Prime Minister in the 1960s:

Heckler: (interrupting a passage in a Wilson speech about Labour's spending plans) What about Vietnam?

Wilson: The government has no plans to increase public expenditure in Vietnam.

Heckler: Rubbish!

Wilson: I'll come to your special interest in a minute, sir.

In an era when it was not uncommon for rotten fruit and vegetables to be thrown at speakers, Australian Prime Minister Ben Chifley once exhorted his audience to lend him their ears, paraphrasing Mark Antony. Immediately, a large cabbage landed on the stage. Chifley replied "I said your ears, Sir, not your head". -- Wikipedia.


Heckling, even of a president, is as American as apple pie. Indeed, it is a fixture of free societies. Suppression of heckling is a requirement of tyrannical ones. Hitler was so obsessed by personal disrespect that he had a British cartoonist put on a hit list during the war for the sin of his savage caricatures of Der Fuhrer. Germans (and Soviet Russians) who were caught lampooning the Great Leader were routinely arrested and shot. No one dared interrupt their speeches. The Communists call this "bourgeois anti-party sentiment." It is punishable by death. Communists have no sense of humor, except unintended and unconscious irony.

The one thing that sends tyrannical regimes into a tizzy is any challenge to their "dignity" and thus to their legitimacy.

To suggest that the Leader is a liar is particularly heinous to a collectivist, simply because collectivism deals in lies big and small -- it is their main meat -- and they cannot afford to have the truth pointed out without punishing it, swiftly and publicly.

Mindful of "Mad Bob's" favorite dictum that communists are simply socialists with guns, the fact that Joe Wilson is being punished by Orwellian public denunciation is a good thing. Let them knock down the rule of law a bit more, let the commissar's pistol ride more comfortably at their hip and they will simply stand him against a wall for his temerity, and his denunciation will come in 5.56 caliber.

There is no greater sin against the cult of personality that supports the tyrannical regime than to publicly disrespect the Leader. None. Thus, the way they are reacting to Joe Wilson's outburst merely reinforces the notion of their herd mentality -- and their tyrannical ambitions.

Mike
III

9 comments:

Happy D said...

Hey Mike how did you get so smart?
I would not have picked up on the deeper meaning of what they are doing to Joe Wilson on my own anytime soon.
Like I said you are invaluable to us.
III

Anonymous said...

And yet the liberals, socialists, and radical "people of color" think it's just GREAT to shout out their 2 cents worth (and that's often all it's worth) because it's speaking "TRUTH TO POWER". Whatever that means.

But let anyone else who doesn't belong to their "exclusive" club (i.e., a white male capitalist)stand up and speak REAL "truth to power", and that person's automatically labeled a "racist".

[Side note: I'd have LOVED to have seen the MSM et al sputter & stutter if a person of color had stood up and done the same thing during the president's infomercial. I'd be giggling like an asylum inmate.]

Even though Rep Wilson's not from my state, I think I'll go & send him a congratulatory email.

Many have said that the message was spot on, but the timing was off (during the speech). I ask this. . . .When WOULD be the right time? After the speech, when many have turned off the TV & radio? During all the after-speech commentary (yawn)? NO! The timing of Rep Wilson's shout-out gave it maximum punch and exposure, for as short as that message was.

As as for all the complaints about "respecting the dignity of the office of the president" BS, two rebuttals;

1-Where was all that "respect" during Bush II's speeches? Seems to have been a lot of shouting and interrupting during his regime. Can't have it both ways, hiding behind First Amendment protected free speech to have YOUR say, but spouting about dignity to shush your opponents.

2-Respect must be EARNED, both for the office, and the man who occupies that office. So far, I have seen NO actions from Mr Obeyme that have EARNED my respect for the current office or its holder.

B Woodman
SSG (Ret) US Army
III-per

shiloh1862 said...

Be willing to bet that Wilson will be experiencing the full force of the IRS and DOJ soon.

Pickdog
III

Anonymous said...

The IRS and DOJ would do well to leave him alone. He is quickly becoming an icon with the conservative movement. Further exposure to their BS ways wouldn't do them any good at all.

Rep. Wilson isn't from my state either but is the Representative for some close friends. It wouldn't hurt if we could throw him a few bucks for his campaign as a congratulations for his voice.

Renegade
III

Anonymous said...

Wilson's comment was spot on.

This does not mean that he is not an extreme asshat hypocrite because of his support for the 2003 Medical Prescription Bill, but I digress.

The banter within British Parliment is truly entertaining. Congress and the Senate should have more of it but I suspect that would cause an increase in CSPAN viewership which is probably not desired by the cockroaches known as Congressmen.

As Mike says, "they hate the light..."

Cory

Anonymous said...

I would have loved it if Rep Wilson hadn't backed down so soon, apologizing for speaking the truth and calling it merely "emotions that got away." He must be applauded for taking that first step, but next time we need to take that step and hold the ground.

riotwire
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jon said...

And yet the liberals, socialists, and radical "people of color" think it's just GREAT to shout out their 2 cents worth (and that's often all it's worth) because it's speaking "TRUTH TO POWER". Whatever that means.

the phrase "speak truth to power" belongs to the quakers:

Our title, Speak Truth to Power, taken from a charge given to Eighteenth Century Friends, suggests the effort that is made to speak from the deepest insight of the Quaker faith, as this faith is understood by those who prepared this study. We speak to power in three senses:

* To those who hold high places in our national life and bear the terrible responsibility of making decisions for war or peace.
* To the American people who are the final reservoir of power in this country and whose values and expectations set the limits for those who exercise authority.
* To the idea of Power itself, and its impact on Twentieth Century life.

Anonymous said...

Jon,
there may be a little we can learn from the Quakers, but not much.

I tried the turn the other cheek thing in my early teens, result, the bullies came back to me more often, I was a risk free target.

I hadn't studied honey badgers at that time, a twenty pound furry critter that can through sheer agression chase a pride of hungry lions off their kill.

For humans in a confrontation with lions, charging them head on will generally make them run, with a honey badger, you'd be well advised to get up a tree and stay there till he gets bored.

I admire the respect some Friends still hold for the individual, but despise Friends those who have mistaken collectivism for the aims of their faith, and got into social(ist) work etc.

Borat said...

Jon,
Followed the link to your blog,

"I like; it's nice"

Borat