I you really want to understand human nature, just take a look at what happened with Guiliani in Florida. Here in the U.S. we like to reckon ourselves real individualists. And if most Americans were, Guiliani would have probably won in Florida. He was, after all, polling ahead of all the other candidates. Further, he had been spending a lot of time and money in Florida campaigning while the rest of the candidates were off in other states. So what happened?
The people of Florida didn't want to support a loser. Guiliani had vote numbers below those of Ron Paul in every race up to Florida. WHen it came time to vote, the people of Florida said, "Well, I like him, and I did support him, but I'm not sticking my neck out for him. I want my vote to count." The funny thing is, so many people did that, that the votes for Guiliani ceased to count. The people of Florida didn't want to be different from everyone else, so they voted for Romney and McCain. As a result, they have made an exciting race much more boring.
With the win in Florida, McCain is finally what the media keeps telling us he is: the front-runner. Up to Florida, he was nothing of the sort. In fact, after New Hampshire and up to Florida, Romney has had the most delegates. But the news media never said that he was the front-runner. Makes you wonder why they're all such McCain fans. Until Florida, the claim that McCain was the front-runner was an out-and-out lie. Why doesn't anybody say that? Well, their lie has now become the truth -- in a sort of perverted postmodernism where if you say it enough times, people will believe it, and when enough people believe it, it will be true. Works in politics and garnering votes -- but it's a disaster when they try to apply it to empirical reality, like the economy.
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You know, I had a great realization today: Post Modernism is nothing other than nihilism ad nauseum. I mean, isn't it nothing more than the continual deconstruction of every system that offers any assertion (thereby becoming an authority)? And really, you just end up with nothing... Infants can break toys, too...
Oh "When Nietzsche wept" !
I realize that has little to do with your post other than you say "post modernists," but I took it as the opportunity to share.
Exactly. Even Churchill called off the bombing of Dresden, saying, "All we're doing now is moving the rubble around." I've seen the effects of postmodernism in higher education firsthand at UTA, and was appalled. We were really masked from it at UTD.
It's amazing watching Melina. For the longest time, all she would do it take objects out of containers and throw them around. But recently, she has been putting things back if they're out, and she is careful when she flips through her books. At 13 months Melina is more intellectually mature than most postmodernists!
It's like something I wrote recently myself. The primary elections are a popularity contest, and it is the press that creates the popularity. Who wins has little to do with the candidate's problem solving abilities or any of the real issues. It's a vicious circle, which you describe very well.
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