Saturday, July 23, 2016

Quickies: “Change”

     To all those crusading for “change,” marching for “change,” collecting bottle caps for “change...”

     What do you mean? What do you want to change, in what direction and by what magnitude? If it’s something you can do personally, then do it and leave the rest of us in peace. If it’s a political quest, such that you think the government “must” take more power over our lives, stay well away from me: I shoot first and deal with the paperwork later.

     Nothing is quite as ignorant as a demand for unspecified “change.” Those who make such demands deserve to be dismissed with prejudice. They get an unfortunate amount of attention and media adulation, as if they were actually capable of doing something that would benefit others. In nearly every case they’re consuming our time and attention to no constructive purpose, and creating an opening for demagogues eager to snatch away still more of our hard-earned money and our rapidly dwindling freedom.

     Insult them. Be crude. Mock them. Be cruel! Make them feel like the morons they resemble (and probably are). Take vengeance for their consumption of your precious time. Nothing else – nothing within the penal law, at least – has the slightest chance of deterring them.

     Yes, I’m in a foul mood. I got up, looked in the mirror, and realized afresh that I’m old – that the hours of my life are trickling away. And the very first thing I confronted thereafter was a moron calling for completely unspecified “change.”

     Attila the Hun brought “change.”
     Genghis Khan brought “change.”
     Timur-i-leng brought “change.”
     Tomas de Torquemada brought “change.”
     John Calvin brought “change.”
     Hitler brought “change.”
     Stalin brought “change.”
     Fidel Castro brought “change.”
     Mao Tse-tung brought “change.”
     Kwame Nkrumah, Julius Nyerere, Pol Pot, Idi Amin, Mobutu Sese Seko, and Haile Mengistu Mariam brought “change.”
     Ruhollah Khomeini brought “change.”
     Osama bin Laden brought “change.”

     None for me, thanks.

6 comments:

LindaF said...

Dang, you really got up on the wrong side.

I prescribe coffee - LOTS of good coffee.

Francis W. Porretto said...

Well, dear, I've had five large cups of good coffee, two slices of excellent banana bread, a strawberry yogurt, a big hunk of cheese, and all my usual medications -- you know, the ones that keep me from bursting a blood vessel over the ineradicable fact of pervasive human weakness and stupidity -- and I've spent forty minutes doing calisthenics and lifting weights, and I'm still barely a millimeter away from Hulking out. So I'm writing a hand-to-hand combat scene for my novel-under-development, in the hope that I can thereby sublimate some of this fury. Check back later for the results.

richard said...

I understand you are a Catholic, but John Calvin?

Francis W. Porretto said...

Calvin created a police state -- a supposedly Christian police state -- in Geneva. That's why Calvin.

thesonicbadger@gmail.com said...

This piece is another example of why I regularly share your work and quote you liberally on a daily basis. You are heard and you do secondarily influence many more folks in my "sphere of influence". Its why I no longer call myself a libertarian. I am a CHRISTIAN libertarian! Keep up the inspiring work, Francis!

brinster said...

Francis, with Wikileaks releasing those 20,000 emails, our work load has lessened considerably. This almost makes politics fun! This makes Watergate look like a parking ticket. Debbie Wasserman Schultz resigns is just a start. Woo hoo! I might watch the democrat national convention just to watch em squirm. Love is in the air!