Motus Mentis

6 Comments

1. TheBigHenry says

   For CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, the word “pussy” seems somewhat incongruous. To me, her annoying reportage has always brought to mind the character of a strident c*nt (in the colloquial-British sense of the word).

   Posted October 12, 2016 at 2:06 pm | Permalink
2. peter connor says

   Lavrov might want to check out Trump’s speech this morning…http://voxday.blogspot.com/2016/10/trump-speech-in-florida.html

   Posted October 13, 2016 at 2:07 pm | Permalink
3. TheBigHenry says

   I awoke with acid reflux this morning. In my nightmare, Hillary had touched me inappropriately. Honk if this has also happened to you.

   Posted October 13, 2016 at 4:16 pm | Permalink
4. Jeffrey S. says

   I’m going to read the whole essay, but just reading the excerpts you provide reminded me of this great quote from Victor Davis Hanson about military experience:

   PETER ROBINSON: “Now here’s the question. Whereas the leading figures of Greece all understood the military from firsthand experience, American elites, Northeast, Coastal California, can lead their entire lives without brushing up against military culture, let alone military experience. Is this something new in American military history and is this healthy? Is it sustainable?”

   VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: “We’ve had people who have not had a lot of military — Abraham Lincoln was in the Black Hawk War for a few weeks. FDR was secretary of the Navy. So we’ve had people but what the difference is that this is the first time that we’ve had commanders in chiefs either have not had military experience or they haven’t had anything comparable. What I mean anything comparable, anything from the underbelly of American life, anybody who’s had to take apart an engine, anybody who’s had to build a house.

   “So there are approximate experiences, not the same but there’s a tragic sort of notion that you’re in a dead end job, you have to work with muscular strength, there’s no good and bad choices, bad and worse choices. All of that tragic view is necessary to understand what war is but yeah, I’m afraid that in a very sophisticated technological society we are certifying excellence and this is a larger topic, expertise based on basically an Ivy League credential which is not commensurate with real experience in the real world. It doesn’t tell us really what somebody in Fallujah is really thinking about.

   “What saves the United States when it goes to war is that we have a subset of the population for a variety of reasons enlisted in officer corps that are 19th century in mentality. They live according to the protocols of the 19th century. What do I mean? They’re more likely to believe in a transcendent religion. They’re more likely to believe in nationalism. They’re more likely to believe in a tragic view that you can be good without having to be perfect. So they don’t become depressed or inordinately give us because of an error. They are more likely to have had experience with muscular matters and so military really hasn’t changed since the 19th century. The people who are ordering it and organizing it and auditing it have changed greatly. But so far it’s sort of like it’s stuck in amber and they’ve been a great salvation to the United States.”

   Posted October 14, 2016 at 11:47 am | Permalink
5. Whitewall says

   Jeffrey, even something so simple as our upbringing…boomers I mean…watching and loving tv westerns can be a form of “19th century (in) mentality”. The American Old West resonates among many of us even today. Among the elites, not so much. Just a live scene of a mounted cowboy carrying the American Flag is still a powerful symbol among many of us. The elites also are aware of this power and fear it. They should.

   Posted October 14, 2016 at 12:11 pm | Permalink
6. TheBigHenry says

   I am not sure why Jeffrey S. chose to repeat his comment here after making it in Malcolm’s next post. But I will take this opportunity to comment here, because of this post’s title.

   In my considered opinion, being part of the generational cohort just preceding the “boomers” (i.e., those born after the conclusion of WW II), which Robert refers to, one of the lamentable sea-changes that the boomers enacted was the pussification of the American male.

   Posted October 14, 2016 at 2:16 pm | Permalink