Vested in the herd

Many (most?) of us, like Bookworm, began our life journey somewhere on the left of the political spectrum and subsequently moved right(eously) toward conservatism and libertarianism. When others make the same journey, at whatever point in life, we revel in their stories, much like Christians witnessing the coming-to-faith of others. I, for one, once proudly described myself as a ‘democratic socialist”, in the fine, delusional European traditions of my upbringing. Of course, that was so very long ago, when I still had a lot to learn

 

In political discourse, of course, it gives us a great advantage to have once seen the world through the eyes of the Left and to have understood, through our own life experiences, the deep, deep flaws in their visions. Very few on the Left can say the same about conservatism. For some of us, the tipping point was one event, such as 9-11. For others, it was a gradual erosion of our assumptions (the success of Reagan’s ideas proved to be my tipping point). For all of us, though, it involved some degree of collapse in our comfortable world of abstract assumptions under repeated smacks from that 2 x 4 called “reality”.

 

Some of our regular visitors to this blog will disagree, I know.

 

Mike Devx links to an article that describes playwright David Mamet’s relatively late-life conversion to conservative viewpoints in the Weekly Standard.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/converting-mamet_561048.html

Favorite outtake:

One of Mamet’s favorite books has been Instincts of the Herd in Peace and War, published during the First World War by the British social psychologist Wilfred Trotter, inventor of the term “herd instinct.”

“Trotter says the herd instinct in an animal is stronger even than the preservation of life,” Mamet said. “So I was watching the [2008] debates. My liberal friends would spit at the mention of Sarah Palin’s name. Or they would literally mime the act of vomiting. We’re watching the debates and one of my friends pretends to vomit and says, ‘I have to leave the room.’ I thought, oh my god, this is Trotter! This is the reaction of the herd instinct. When a sheep discovers a wolf in the fold, it vomits to ward off the attacker. It’s a sign that their position in the herd is threatened.”

 

And Charles Martel alerts us to another breakaway from the herd, Australian anthropogenic global warming scientist/advocate David Evans, who revisited his views on AGW and found them deeply, deeply wanting, in an article published in Canada’s Financial Post (via: Hotair.com).

http://opinion.financialpost.com/2011/04/07/climate-models-go-cold/

Here is Evans’ money quote:

The whole idea that carbon dioxide is the main cause of the recent global warming is based on a guess that was proved false by empirical evidence during the 1990s. But the gravy train was too big, with too many jobs, industries, trading profits, political careers, and the possibility of world government and total control riding on the outcome. So rather than admit they were wrong, the governments, and their tame climate scientists, now outrageously maintain the fiction that carbon dioxide is a dangerous pollutant.

 

Ah, the “gravy train”. But, remember, it was the so-called skeptics that were supposed to have been corrupted in the pockets of “big oil” and other sources of big money. I do confess considerable pride in that virtually all the points raised by Evans in contravention of AGW “theory” had already been addressed in depth by contributors to this very Bookworm Room blog.

I believe that we need to salute people like Mamet (and especially his rabbi) and Evans precisely because they had the intellectual courage to break with the herd late in life, after they had already been heavily vested therein. We know from our own experiences and those of others how quickly and viciously the Leftwing herd turns on those that repudiate it (we saw this happen with the American communists, when many fellow travelers defected upon the revelations of Stalin’s mass brutality). Both Mamet and Evans also took enormous financial and personal risks for their intellectual honesty.

 

For many other members of the herd, though, this period when the mythological dreams of the Left begin their collapse (AGW, socialism, the welfare state, multiculturalism, “green energy”, high-speed rail) will be especially traumatic, as they are too vested in the herd to imagine living outside its protective ring. I recall in an interview with a horse whisperer (Buck Bannaman?) that mares punish their rebellious foals by banning them from the protective circle of the herd. To those foals, there is no greater anguish and sense of vulnerability than to stand outside the herd.

 

I suspect that for many on the Left…and especially on the eco-Left…the collapse of their mythological world views will have huge and traumatic consequences, some of which may prove very ugly and destructive.