The Morning Plow

Apparently, the revolution will be televised. Or at least it will be on Twitter and Facebook for regular consumption.  It looks like we are in a moment that will be looked on fifty or a hundred years from now, as a turning point, or at the very least a line of demarcation.  People will say, "That was before 2020" to point out the significant changes that have taken place after  tumultuous year of pandemic and uprisings.  The desecration and razing of statues, the movement to defund police, the Twitter mobs that swarmed prior innocuous symbols with a fervent call for them to be removed or erased, and the zeal to approve of such things, surely feels like a significant moment.  But, when one analyzes the situation, the reason for all of this is obvious and readily understandable.  In fact, it makes perfect sense.  It is the logical outcome of three distinct, yet interwoven movements, that have originated in the classrooms of America's educational system....

Systemic racism is the often cited term for understanding the anger, rage, destruction of property, and all that falls under the umbrella of the recent protests.  I have written a number of times about my concerns and issues with the term and its deliberate broadness to cover just about anything one wants it to cover.  Systemic racism identifies disparity of outcomes in term of race and links them to institutions and processes.  While these disparities are factual, the conclusion that disparity equates to racism might not be truthful.  At least, it may not paint the whole truth in its entirety.  To me, what gets lost in this approach is the identification of individual instances of racism by specific individuals.  Instead, you condemn an entire system, an institution, implicit bias, or the culture at large.  To which, these institutions try to reform themselves by engaging in a host of ill conceived methods to address an abstract problem.  Anyone...

"So you are the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war." Abraham Lincoln was alleged to have said to Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of Uncle Tom's Cabin .  I wonder if there will be an similarly shared sentiment regarding Derek Chauvin as the murdering cop who started America's second civil war.  Maybe that is hyperbole, but it does feel like a seminal moment.   Another famous quote comes to mind as well.  Thomas Paine wrote in the winter of 1776, "These are the times that try men's souls."  I am not sure if "these times" are the same as Paine's, but they are certainly trying. I am not completely sure what we are currently witnessing in America.  Is this the beginning of seismic political, social, and cultural shift, or is it a short term disturbance?  Right now, it feels more like the latter but I hope for the former.  Don't get me wrong, I am not saying that protests are not justified, or that reforms should no...

Many conservatives like to draw parallels of American progressives to the radical Jacobins of the French Revolution.  The reasons are plenty and obvious.  What once started out as revolution based on the Enlightenment ideals of individual liberty and essential equality, spiraled into illogical madness, competition for power, and a need to ensure conformity and ideological purity to the revolution.  It wasn't long before the guillotine was dripping with the blood of revolutionaries who were now deemed enemies of the revolution.  The Jacobins saw an opportunity not just to rid themselves of monarchy, but to rid themselves of the religious, political, and social constructs on which French society was built.  They renamed the days and months of the calendar, rearranged the work week, and attempted to purge the Church and it's influence.  Eventually, many began to notice that this was no longer about liberty, equality and fraternity, but really about power and c...

David French is one of my favorite columnists.  I appreciate his nuanced conservative positions regarding political, social , and religious issues.  However, his sports takes are usually pretty bad (He thinks LeBron is the GOAT). I subscribe to his Sunday morning French Press newsletter and I enjoy reading it first thing in the morning with my cup of coffee.  What I think I admire most is his willingness to push back against mainstream conservative narrative in a reasoned and circumspect manner.  I know his articles have definitely challenged some of my ideas before, even pushing me to change my stance on an issue. This morning's French Press was definitely one that challenged some of my ideas.  In fact, I read it three times to really understand why I was apprehensive about the article.  One reason may be that yesterday I wrote an article critical of the idea of "systemic racism", at least in the sense that it is white liberals who are in control of the ...

The constant refrain these days among the woke left, the trendy SJWs, and the BLM crowd is that the protests are a result of  the prevalent systemic and institutional racism.  I have some issues with these terms, mainly because I think they are deliberately abstract as to conveniently apply to almost any situation with no specific individual who is responsible.  They are a broad brush that paints well outside any defined lines.  However hard I find it to find a concrete understanding of the terms, Wikipedia provides this definition: Institutional racism (also known as systemic racism) is a form of racism expressed in the practice of social and political institutions. It is reflected in disparities regarding wealth, income, criminal justice, employment, housing, health care, political power and education, among other factors. Broad brush indeed.  But here is the problem with the Left's belief in institutional racism, especially the white-left.  Almost all of...

Words have meanings. (Thanks Sir Obvious!!!)  But words and their meanings are relational to time and context.  They tend to evolve over time and change as a result of a variety of cultural circumstances.  Sometimes this evolution is very organic as opposed to deliberate.  This can be a result of its use in art, literature, or entertainment that gets woven into the vernacular.  For example, when I was young, a thong referenced a flip-flop sandal, however when a person says thong now, it usually is referencing a style of women's undergarments.  I think this song had something to do with it .  At other times, it is very deliberate and not organic.  For example, the word gender has evolved from its original meaning to something quite different through a concerted effort of activists and academics.    When meanings to words are deliberately changed, it is usually in service of creating a narrative to challenge the currently held belief syste...