The final step off the plank?

Daren Jonescu over at American Thinker has written a well though out summary of the challenges ahead entitled "Watch That Last Step, It's a Doozy"

"As any mature radical will tell you, the great advantage of a gradual unraveling, as opposed to the more colorful sudden insurrection, is that in the latter case, everyone knows what is happening and, if so inclined, may resist, whereas the former method is akin to the stealthy burglar who steals your jewels while you sleep.  You might wake up and carry on with your life for days before realizing you have lost your prized possessions and family heirlooms.  And by then it is too late." 

I immediately thought of the analogy of how to catch wild pigs. 


Mr. Jonescu continues,

...One invaluable tool in the radical's belt, however, is sometimes overlooked.  This is the natural human weakness -- on display every day, everywhere -- for breaking a long process into its discernible stages, and then judging the significance of each stage relative to the whole, so that each stage appears less noteworthy than the preceding ones, as the growing whole proportionately diminishes each new part.  This tendency of our thinking can prevent us from recognizing all sorts of gradual developments, both positive and negative.  It allows us to observe incremental changes in our bodily condition over time without ever deducing that we have developed a serious illness, for example.

In the modern political context, this phenomenon helps to explain the blank stares or rolling eyes one meets when talking to people about the multifaceted catastrophe -- economic, social, and moral -- that looms just ahead of the Western world on its present path.  "What are you getting all worked up about?" is a typical response, and a sure sign you are witnessing the psychological weakness in question.  You, looking at the whole process, see an ever-expanding threat.  They, focused only on the discrete stages -- each one seeming smaller than the last, compared to the whole -- see ever-shrinking dots against an amorphous gray background.  "What's the big deal?"

Anyone truly interested in a return to constitutional principles should give read the entire post.

L.V.