Maggie's Farm

White privilege, or really privilege, isn't determined by race, gender, age, or any demographic. It is open to all and is based on attitude and character, as seen in the "De Toqueville Americans".

"My Tribe consists of people who know that sometimes bad things happen, and that these are an opportunity to show ourselves what we are made of. My people go into burning buildings. My Tribe consists of organizers and self-starters, proud and self-reliant people who do not need to be told what to do in a crisis. My Tribe is not fearless; they are something better. They are courageous. My Tribe is honorable, and decent, and kind, and inventive. My Tribe knows how to give orders, and how to follow them. My Tribe knows enough about how the world works to figure out ways to boil water, ration food, repair structures, build and maintain makeshift latrines, and care for the wounded and the dead with respect and compassion.

There are some things my Tribe is not good at at all. My Tribe doesn’t make excuses. My Tribe will analyze failure and assign blame, but that is to make sure that we do better next time, and we never, ever waste valuable energy and time doing so while people are still in danger. My Tribe says, and in their heart completely believes that it’s the other guy that’s the hero. My Tribe does not believe that a single Man can cause, prevent or steer Hurricanes, and my Tribe does not and has never made someone else responsible for their own safety, and that of their loved ones.

My Tribe doesn’t fire on people risking their lives, coming to help us. My Tribe doesn’t curse such people because they arrived on Day Four, when we felt they should have been here before breakfast on Day One. We are grateful, not to say indebted, that they have come at all. My Tribe can’t eat Nike’s and we don’t know how to feed seven by boiling a wide-screen TV. My Tribe doesn’t give a sweet God Damn about what color the looters are, or what color the rescuers are, because we can plainly see before our very eyes that both those Tribes have colors enough to cover everyone in glory or in shame. My Tribe doesn’t see black and white skins. My Tribe only sees black and white hats, and the hat we choose to wear is the most personal decision we can make.

That’s the other thing, too – the most important thing. My Tribe thinks that while you are born into a Tribe, you do not have to stay there. Good people can join bad Tribes, and bad people can choose good ones. My Tribe thinks you choose your Tribe. That, more than anything, is what makes my Tribe unique."

I'm not sure who wrote this, maybe Bill Whittle, anyone?

hawkeyedjb said...
I've just watched Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others). It shows the purity of socialism, implemented to perfection. The film involves an East German writer - apparently loyal to the State - and the Stasi functionaries who are assigned, at the orders of a government minister, to surveil him. The story tells the horror of a socialist police state in which one never knows which among his neighbors, his friends, his lovers may be the agent of the state that betrays him. ….The perfection of the ubiquitous snitching and eavesdropping are the highest achievement of the socialist state. The sheer numbers of people dedicated to ratting on their fellow citizens is astonishing, but also allows one to understand the lack of economic productivity in a society in which human resourcefulness is so wasted...….. This is socialism, in its highest form. In the end, two people finally turn against what they have been taught is their highest duty. The main character never gains understanding of the totality of the socialist state until he is free, after the fall of the Berlin wall, when he comes to realize his own naivete. He thought that his loyalty - or the appearance of it - had spared him from scrutiny, but he finally understands. He speaks to the former minister and says "To think people like you once ruled a country." Those people are socialists, the purest embodiment of socialism: thugs, brutes, informers, characterless and soulless bureaucrats. It is socialism, beautifully and horrifyingly portrayed. It is a horror show. It is one of the greatest films I have ever watched.