[Grovenet] A comment

[Walt Wentz]

>.three or four young men in
>it...the passenger side front seat guy yelled:  "If it ain't white, it
>ain't right!!"  And the car kept moving along.
>
>So...this is where we are today, in 2008? 
>
>I felt sorry for the young man.  How could this be?

Mike:
In the weekly war vigil, watching the traffic for a couple of hours, 
I get plenty of opportunities to view the full spectrum of political 
reactions... and politics is seldom a result of thoughtful analysis, 
but rather of personal angst. Young males full of teen hormones 
instinctively run in packs, and feel compelled to "impress" each 
other with rebellious behavior. As likely as not, this young turkey's 
parents denounce racism, so he feels compelled to flaunt it.
Of passersby who give negative reactions to the peace vigil, I'd say 
males outnumber females by at least 10 to one, and young males give 
the vast majority of those negative reactions. Usually these are 
limited to the classic gesture of the middle finger (probably the 
limit of their debating skills) or an unintelligible bellow out a 
rolled-down window as their pickup speeds on by.
I can reassure you, though, that we only get about three negative 
reactions an evening, as opposed to a hundred positive ones. And most 
negative reactions are delivered at high speed--this avoiding any 
need to defend their opinions in person--but never yet have we gotten 
a real  discussion, even from those few pedestrian "patriots" who 
have accosted us face to face. A middle-aged gent in a black leather 
jacket that I met Thursday evening was entirely typical. He simply 
reeled off all the "official" rationales for the war at high speed, 
hardly giving me a chance to get a word in edgewise, and skipping 
hastily on to the next  routine every time I did speak up.
Eventually he stomped off in a huff, snarling, "You just don't have 
any REASONS!"
"You never listened to them," I replied mildly, but by then he was 
half a block away and accelerating rapidly.
I've noticed that as the war news gets uglier and more discouraging, 
the level of negativity also goes up. It's a matter of "cognitive 
dissonance"-- people don't want to confront the real world's 
contradictions to their beliefs, and so they respond to them with 
anger or rejection.
So, don't be discouraged, Mike. The young turk you encountered was 
merely being human. If he were cornered and forced to justify his 
outburst, he could probably only mumble some ancient platitudes 
picked up from the gutter. If he has any native intelligence, 
eventually he will begin to actually look at the world, and to think 
his own thoughts. But, if not, there will always be a home for him 
among the earnest and unquestioning audience of the Republican Noise 
Machine..
Walt Wentz