ZenPundit
Saturday, June 11, 2005
 
NEOCONS, THEOCONS, THE LEFT AND THE WAR

Dan at tdaxp has begun a mighty interesting discussion of American politics and perception within the framework of the GWOT. I'll reserve my comments for later but here's a slice of what Dan has to say:

"To put it slightly differently, Your enemy is not stupid. He knows what he is doing. He sees the world he lives in. He feels where it is going. And he wants to make it go someplace else. A corollary: If your enemy is stupid, he wouldn't be your enemy. He would be an irritation.

In the same way I believe the American left does know better. The "Neocon / Theocon Axis" is not just convenient for two factions. It is a powerful motivation axis with decades-long staying power.

The "Neocons" and "Theocons" have different histories, but share common beliefs: suspicion of government social activism and belief in horizontal controls. For different reasons neocons and theocons want to control individual behavior through cultural norms. They are a real Fourth Generation Political Movement that is ready to peaceful use PISRR and the three stages of insurgent struggle (a href="http://tdaxp.blogspirit.com/archive/2005/04/24/4gps1_node_takedown_and_the_politics_of_personal_destruction.html">Stage 1, Stage 2, and Stage 3) to get what they want in a decades-long struggle. Additionally, the Christian right have fused fourth generation struggle and family networks in an originally and extremely powerful way. "

Very intriguing !

I'll have some analysis later tonight but right now I'm off to fly a kite with the kids !
 
Comments:
I haven't read the links yet and I would love to hear your thoughts, but it seems to me that "theocons" or at least social conservatives have taken a mighty beating in the last decade. Popular culture has never diverged more from what "theocons" believe in than it does today. The gay marriage issue would be the most current example of this.

Off to read the links.

Barnabus
 
It is fascinating how both the neocon and theocon movements have developed over the past couple decades. While the claim is to have smaller government, less vertical control, etc., in many instances that is a matter of convenience. They are quick, for example, to institute more vertical control when it comes to what someone can do in their bedroom or who they can love. "Trust the individual" until it comes to looking at what they read and who they talk to (there are many slippery slopes in the Patriot Act, for instance).

In some ways there are many similarities to those damn 'liberals,' the only difference being which issues the right chooses to set mandates/controls to. I guess I just like to point out instances of hypocrisy.
 
It is fascinating how both the neocon and theocon movements have developed over the past couple decades. While the claim is to have smaller government, less vertical control, etc., in many instances that is a matter of convenience. They are quick, for example, to institute more vertical control when it comes to what someone can do in their bedroom or who they can love. "Trust the individual" until it comes to looking at what they read and who they talk to (there are many slippery slopes in the Patriot Act, for instance).

In some ways there are many similarities to those damn 'liberals,' the only difference being which issues the right chooses to set mandates/controls to. I guess I just like to point out instances of hypocrisy.
 
All: First, I apologize for the unprofessionalism in the article. In Mark's excerpt alone, I did not properly start a huperlink tag (hence the garbled "Stage 1" link) and the wording feels weird.

Barnabus: Society feels worse for theocons than in the past. This is an example of how effective their agitation-propaganda has been. Teen pregnancy may be at the lowest level, ever, religosity may be at the highest level, ever (as The Economist writes, mere church attendence may not be a good proxy for this as churches have historical functioned as social clubs), of the last five Presidents only one was not notably religious (GHW Bush, whose similarity to Dean and Kerry in the arena of personal faith is notable), &c. Part of winning a 4th Generation Political Struggle is building up a network by highlighting horroro stories. Theocons have been adept at this.

(The proceeding paragraph does not mean that theocons are being dishonest, or that their cause is invalid, or that they don't want to make real changes.)

Homosexualist marriage may be an example of "useful idiocy." It is a self-inflicted Isolation (the "I" in PISRR) attack by the Left on itself. In the 1950s it was the Right whose mistakes were tools for the Left. The situation is now reversed.

Vonny: Irving Kristol (considered "The Father of Neoconservatism") has written against small-government as an ideal.

The Patriot Act contains very little vertical controls, and those it does have are mostly technical (in the banking sector, etc).

Another politician who "knows better" is Patrick Buchanan. To paraphrase him, Liberals want government stong enough that we don't need families. Conservativies want families strong enough that we don't need government. He is exactly right. The American Left favors "license" (horizontal freedom) while the American Right favors "liberty" (vertical freedom). When one realizes that liberals and conservatives are using different definitions of freedom, one sees that neither side is hypocritical. Both are protecting some kind of "freedom" against some kind of "control."

-Dan tdaxp
 
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