By Lee Duigon
Are we freaking out faster than we used to?
According to a survey of 2,000 British adults, yes, we are.
The survey found that most people report themselves “frustrated” if they have to wait 16 seconds for a webpage to load, or 25 seconds for a traffic light to change. It only takes 22 seconds for them to start cursing their computer or TV set “if a show or movie doesn’t immediately start streaming correctly.” Indeed, 75% of those surveyed blamed their frustration on “digital technology.” I don’t have a lot of technology, but I do have a computer and sometimes it drives me right up the wall.
But electronic doodads are only part of the picture. The survey didn’t get into this point, but I’m sure the explanation of an epidemic of impatience has much to do with children being praised and rewarded for the most minuscule achievements, given trophies just for showing up, given high school and college diplomas without having learned anything, and generally lauded and hailed just for existing. “Wow! You’re fantastic! Good job!” And up on the refrigerator goes another shaky stick figure scrawled in crayon.
We give our kids swelled heads so they grow up thinking they’re a really big deal and everybody ought to know it; but at the same time, they get slapped down. Wait and wait and wait some more, in the doctor’s waiting room, while some bozo who strolls in an hour late for his appointment gets served ahead of you. Workmen who show up late or not at all, businesses where they treat you like an irritating nobody instead of a valued customer, politicians calling you racists and deplorables, self-anointed intellectuals calling you dopes—who can get through the day without being insulted by one or more of these? And it’s harder to bear when you’ve been given an exalted opinion of yourself.
Selfishness seems to be winning out over good manners. And yet we keep on coarsening our culture. Behavior that used to be rare, because it was condemned, is now ubiquitous.
And then there are those who, with the aid of other freaks and, as always, the nooze and entertainment media, are busy freaking themselves out.
In Portland, Oregon, where the mayor orders the cops to stand down whenever Antifa thugs feel like rioting, fans of the Portland Timbers soccer team are making the soccer league increasingly uneasy over their mix of politics and sports. A group of rowdy fans calling themselves “The Iron Front”—they lifted the name from those carefree days of street warfare in the dying Weimar Republic—has been flying a large banner that reads “Portland Punches Nazis.”
Nazis? This is Portland. Where do they find any Nazis to punch? I doubt any of these people even know what a Nazi is—anyone who isn’t them, I suppose.
You’ve got to hand it to the nooze media and their Democrat friends. Invoking the largely imaginary threat of “white supremacy,” and virtually non-existent “Nazis,” as if those scattered handfuls of losers are a serious threat to a country of 300 million-plus, they’ve got thousands and thousands of idiots all stirred up and just dying to punch somebody. I wonder how long they have to wait at a traffic light before their gaskets start to blow. I wonder what would happen to anyone who tried to walk past them wearing a MAGA hat.
It only sounds stupid because it is so stupid, but it’s also dangerous. Being enraged at “fascists” is how these leftids validate themselves. If the media keeps on stoking the fire, someday the pot is going to boil over. Welcome to Weimar Republic 2.0.
As can be seen throughout 20th century history, the Far Left wants people angry. Very angry. Because before they can construct their own Utopia, they have to tear down the civilization that’s already there.
They don’t want us patient. They want us ready to stampede.
I have discussed these and other topics throughout the week on my blog, http://leeduigon.com/ . Stop in for a visit; a single click will take you there. (Here’s hoping the page loads quickly.) My articles can also be seen at www.chalcedon.edu .
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E-Mail Lee Duigon: leeduigon@verizon.net
