Thinking About Thinking

I had an interesting chat yesterday with a friend of mine. She is married to a retired Anthropology professor, so we know they both have a wit or two. (Big brains are sexy in a man. Remember that.) At any rate, she revealed that her spouse had been instrumental in bringing the liberal Left to Alaska. He had been a Socialist, and was also instrumental in establishing Alaska’s ACLU office.

Now, this man, whom I am proud and pleased to call my friend, is the epitome of Conservative thought and action here. He is a courtly gentleman, proudly and openly Conservative, armed at all times (I asked him once if he wore his pistol in church. He said, “Well, yes, of course. How else would I be able to protect the parishoners in an attack?”), and thoughtfully, profoundly anti-Socialist.

Another liberal who has made the shift rightward by virtue of their own ability to THINK and REASON is my middle son, who once accused his dad and I of being involved in a “cult” because we listened to Rush Limbaugh. By simply paying attention to the dialogue, listening to what he was hearing, and noticing the differences between Right and Left, he was able to make the same kind of intellectual leap that stirred my professor friend to switch sides.

It obviously doesn’t follow that all liberals will eventually be able to think deeply enough to cause them to change their stance, although it would be nice to see. But, like the poor, I imagine that we will always have the leftists with us. The adage about horses and water come most quickly to mind. Many times, a Conservative arises from a leftist’s heart when that leftist discovers he has much to protect. Leftism simply doesn’t provide for LOVE. Marriage, parenthood, and livelihood become established in the heart, and the need to protect those precious things becomes imperative. The only way to really protect them is to shift one’s thinking to something much less socialisltic.

Being able to really THINK about the differences between the two philosophies is a great plus, and almost always results in a shift rightward. For some reason I have not been able to discern at this point, the leftists in my experience are unwilling (or unable) to really THINK about the differences in the two sides. Having the ability to get through one’s day without drinking out of the toilet, walking into walls and each other, or being able to dress oneself is not “thinking.”

Thinking about things requires some concentrated, undistracted time that is not consumed with hand-held anythings. The most pampered generation yet to arrive on the American scene, today’s young people are never seen without some portable device, which many of them revealingly refer to as their “brain.” Using these devices does not constitute much in the way of “thought,” although a fair amount of manual dexterity is a plus. But Blackberries and i-phones are not really brains, and can’t do our thinking for us. That doesn’t mean some people don’t expect them to, or to rely on what the devices provide as “thought” and be satisfied with it.

An unthinking, uneducated mass of people in a country’s population is what could be called the caramel center. Soft and gooey, these people don’t read, don’t think, don’t express anything much besides, “OMG! LOL! TY! TTFN!” Any hope we might have held out for their continued development has pretty much been abandoned by now, as they wander past us, earbuds in place, i-pod in one hand, Blackberry in the other, oblivious and utterly uninvolved in the world around them and without a thought in their heads that isn’t accompanied by guitars.

Excuse the following apparent non-sequitur, but I promise to tie everything together: Most times, articles about Rush Limbaugh are negative. I imagine that a lot of the writers who put forth these efforts are jealous of Rush’s success and his ability to confront the world with the truth they don’t want to hear. But, occasionally, one comes across an article that admires Rush’s abilities in print, and expresses, for the umptieth time, the gratitude most of us feel to have such a thoughtful warrior on our side. In most cases, people’s reaction to Rush and his show runs something like this: “Rush, THANK YOU. For the first time in my adult life, somebody out there is expressing exactly what I believe. I thought I was alone in my beliefs. It’s wonderful to know you’re on the air, speaking for us little guys.”

But Rush doesn’t just do our thinking for us. He has taught his audience to think for themselves. He sets the example by studying for hours before every show, by noticing contrasts or comparisons, by memorizing statistics and trivia, and by becoming not just a radio host with a message, but a real resource for information and encouragement.

People like Rush are the hope of the Right. Learning to think like him, to express those thoughts cogently, and to be persuasive enough to help turn others from the Dark Side are the weapons we can use to fashion a new Right. Building a new Republican Party from the ashes of falure of the wimpy, go-along to get-along Establishment Republicans (called RINOs–Republican in name only) who have co-opted the platform of the party and have become indistinguishable from the establishment Democrat party, is the primary goal of thinkers on the Right. It’s the first thing we must do, before we dash out to design those “Palin/Jindal 2012″ bumper stickers.

Barack Hussein Obama ran on a campaign of “hope” and “change.” All we have left is the “hope,” since the “change” appears to have gotten misplaced in the selection of the new Cabinet. We must hope for the intellectual regeneration of our Republican Party, and the re-appropriation of the platform planks put in place in the Reagan years.

For the Right, our Hope still burns brightly, and the re-energized Conservatives in the Republican Party feel once more like honing their skills and sharpening their wits, and putting together an army of thoughtful, courageous, and dedicated people willing to make sacrifices to restore forgotten freedoms. The Republic will return. THINK ABOUT IT.