| « | Manageable? Not Manageable? |
»
|
|
Tuesday, December 21, 2004
The Quilt Part 2: The Commando Mentality And Its Enemies
In Sunday's tirade, your Curmudgeon concerned himself with outlining the overall strategic problem of the American freedom movement and laying a foundation for his recent conception of approach. While the idea is attractive, it also has attractive byways that are antithetical to its core concept and ultimately destructive of effect. We'll review the core problems today.
A decentralized, segmented counter-offensive on "quilted" fascism underpinned by the special-interest dynamic faces one hazard more than any other: the desire for centralization. That desire can take several forms. The ones that spring immediately to mind are:
- The desire for a coordinated effort, planned and managed by some sort of central clearinghouse of assignments that will function like a General Staff;
- The desire to be told what to work on, which will be felt by many an ardent freedom activist who wants to "be sure his efforts won't go to waste";
- The desire for ideological validation or tactical guidance, which, though sober and admirably responsible, can both retard one's efforts and tempt one into centralized approaches;
- The desire to interfere in the efforts of others working on other problems.
These influences are the enemies of the "commando mentality" the freedom activist must cultivate to overthrow the special-interest dynamic. Once he has chosen his specific problem, the activist must regard himself as a commando behind enemy lines. He must be guided by his own intelligence, his own knowledge, and most important of all, by his own results, particularly the lessons taught him by his failures.
A commando must remain independent of any central "authority." He must fix on his "target" and remain fixed on it until it has been destroyed. Any tendency that pulls him and his fellows toward some central choke point for command and control must be resisted resolutely, on pain of defeat.
As noted in the previous screed, the freedom commando must choose, from his own judgment of the priorities, his "target": the specific problem to which he'll devote his efforts. He must become or join a pro-freedom special-interest group explicitly dedicated to that problem. It's this step that has the greatest paralysis-inducing effect on most freedom activists, and it's easy to see why:
- Few freedom activists have absolute confidence in their judgment, or in their fitness for the problem they've chosen to attack.
- The sense that one is "neglecting" other problems of comparable importance can be hard to combat.
- The knowledge that others who feel equally strongly about freedom are working on other problems can make one feel "misguided" or "alone."
- Other persons and groups who score successes in their chosen areas can distort one's judgment by creating "attractors." Everyone loves to be part of a success. In addition, there's the undeniable power of a breakthrough in one area at accelerating efforts in other, related areas.
There's no blanket cure for these difficulties. All your Curmudgeon can say about them is that we already know from history that in the American political order, decentralization works. If it were otherwise, the statist interest groups that have sewn the quilt that now smothers us would never have threaded their needles in the first place.
The desire for guidance can be very powerful, even in those whose confidence about their priorities is near to perfect. But the whole point of commando operations is tactical independence and flexibility of approach. As we saw in the ill-fated Carter rescue attempt of the hostages in Iran in 1980, to submit to tactical control from afar dooms the commando's efforts from the outset.
The best antidotes to the yearning for guidance are:
- Confidence in one's own skills;
- Confidence that one has mastered the knowledge base applicable to the task at hand;
- A suitable attitude toward the target: not hyper-adrenalized and not excessively relaxed.
In the world of political outreach, there are several recognized masters, and large bodies of domain knowledge, to which one can refer. Marshall Fritz's Advocates for Self-Government is an excellent source for instruction and materials relevant to pro-freedom proselytization. Michael Emerling's tape series The Essence Of Political Persuasion (available from the Advocates) offers many flexible argumentative and rhetorical tools the freedom commando can apply to his efforts.
Once the target has been selected, more specialized bodies of knowledge become relevant. For example, the commando who wants to address tendentious, anti-freedom journalism should study the offerings of the National Journalism Center. He who wants to attack statist economics should approach the Foundation for Economic Education. If the target is statist environmentalism, there are fine offerings from the Cato Institute, from the National Center for Public Policy Research, and from Dr. Fred Singer's Science and Environmental Policy Project.
Then there is this: success will not come overnight. This can be a difficult realization for the self-directed freedom commando to internalize. After all, you picked your target because it struck you as the most important of the lot, which does lend a sense of urgency to the matter. But excessive urgency will exhaust the freedom commando far too quickly for the good of his mission; it can leave him gasping and unable to continue while the target is still standing, a complete waste of his energy and devotion.
Nearly all problems of statism deserve a determined-yet-calm approach. The Republic has survived many disasters; it can endure bad economics, and bad environmentalism, and bad journalism a little longer. The sole exception to this guideline is the right to keep and bear arms. If that should ever be lost, the game will be over.
If you're fortunate enough to know a soldier who's functioned as a commando, ask him what the most important elements of the commando mindset are. Sooner or later -- probably sooner -- he'll mention absolute trust in one's teammates. The cold, unyielding truth of detached operations, utterly impervious to all our wishes, is that you can't do the other man's job. Success depends on every man being properly matched to his task, properly equipped for it, and concentrating on it to the exclusion of all else.
Other commandos will be working on other tasks within your chosen domain. Other commando teams will be working in separate domains. Trust them to do their jobs. Restrain that nasty urge to interfere, to offer unsolicited advice, to "lend a hand," to offer anything but sympathy or praise. Stick to your chosen task.
There's still more to say about this approach, but it's time for Eternity Road's many intelligent, thoughtful readers to throw a few coins into this fountain. Please send your thoughts about this strategy and its implications, whether as comments or E-mail, so that your Curmudgeon can integrate them into his considerations.
Let's see if we can get this party started.
Comments
Well, looks like nobody’s posting comments, so hopefully they’re emailing you their thoughts. As for myself, I think you’re right on the mark (as usual).
The only thing I can think to mention for further discussion is the role of the Internet in general, and blogging in particular, in all this, with emphasis on their limitations.
Posted by Thibodeaux on 12/28/2004 at 03:03 AM
Comment Form
Commenting is not available in this weblog entry.
