Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Shooting The Elephant

I perceived in this moment that when the white man turns tyrant it is his own freedom that he destroys. He becomes a sort of hollow, posturing dummy, the very figure of "The Man." For it is the condition of his rule that he shall spend his life in trying to impress the "native born," and so in every crisis he has got to do what the "natives" expect of him. He wears a mask, and his face grows to fit it. I had to go shoot the GOP elephant. I had committed myself to doing it when I sent for the rifle, even though I abhorred guns and supported PETA. A man has got to act like The Man; he has got to appear resolute, to know his own mind and do definite things. To come all that way, rifle in hand, with two thousand Manhattanites marching at my heels, and then to trail feebly away, having done nothing — no, that was impossible. The crowd would laugh at me. And my whole life, every white man's life on the East Coast, was one long struggle not to be laughed at. 
~The future mémoires of Andrew Sullivan  (h/t: Althouse)

Commenter Rhythm and Balls wonders if I have a crush on Sullivan and whether my wife knows:

Rhythm and Balls said...





At what age did you first realize your strong attraction to Andrew Sullivan, Chickie?

Does your wife know? Has she supported your search for reparative therapy?

24 comments:

bagoh20 said...

A great Orwell quote.

YoungHegelian said...

Brilliant, Pollo, brilliant.

Whatever opinion GO would have of Tea Partiers, I think he would be much bemused by your quotation-mangling.

john said...

He's not called Excitable Andy for no good reason.

In week 1 of basic training we learned this ditty (with arm movements): "This is my weapon, this is my gun. This is for fighting, this is for fun."

He get's a hard on and thinks he can kill elephants with it. Freudian, that.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

Didn't the natives eat the elephant afterwards?

I forget.

It was a while ago.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

Yeah, BOY-EEEEEE!!!

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...

Sullivan is fantasizing about killing and actual elephant in order to cool his rage. Terrific.

How many innocent elephants will die because Andrew Sullivan inspired leftwing nut-jobs to actually go out and slaughter elephants in a quest to stop the GOP?

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

That was for whatsisname.

Oh, yeah, Sullivan, that's it.

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...

lol - you got me. I thought that was a real Andrew Sullivan quote.

chickelit said...

lol - you got me. I thought that was a real Andrew Sullivan quote.

Sorry about that, April. A few tweaks and the paragraph "wrote itself."

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...

The left are really angry they have to deal with any ideological opposition.

Given the chance, I think the collective left would hunt us all down with an elephant gun.

More Eliminationist rhetoric from the left.

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...

Pollo~

No need to say sorry. You nailed it. So much so, I was whisked away by the Sullivanian rhetorical madness.

Kill the Elephants!

chickelit said...

@April: Send in the tanks? It's starting to sound like a replay of the struggle against the Bonus Army in 1932.

That didn't go well for Hoover.

deborah said...

Genius, chick.

Miss Sullivan is a national treasure, bless him.

Ignorance is Bliss said...


Sullivan may be shooting the elephant, but El Pollo came loaded for bear.

Lem Vibe Bandit said...

What kind of racists are the GOP anyways? Even if we took Sullivan's egregious baseless charge at face value.

If memory serves, this is the first time the republicans have stood up to Obama in well over five years of impasse after impasse, CR's after another. Obama has almost always gotten everything he has asked for.

Lem Vibe Bandit said...

The power of the purse was given to the congress. The congress has the power of the purse.

The congress is not there to rubberstamp the presidents wishes and commands.

Obama is no emperor.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

I had a conversation with a German co-worker earlier this year. ( A real German, who lived, worked, and got his news in Germany. )

He said his problem with the Tea Party was that they tried to assert influence disproportionate to the size of the group. When I pointed out that absolutely every political group did this he laughed and agreed this was true.

It later occurred to me that the reason that the tea party was having any success was because it was using the structure of the US government for its intended purpose: to limit the size and power of the government.

rcocean said...

The liberals have been crying "racist" for 20 years now. You'd think Conservatives would have a better response then "well, there you go again"

Because they're going to keep on doing it - until Republicans do come up with a better response.

deborah said...

rc, if Hilldog gets in will there be claims of misogyny?

chickelit said...

rcocean said...
The liberals have been crying "racist" for 20 years now. You'd think Conservatives would have a better response then "well, there you go again"

Because they're going to keep on doing it - until Republicans do come up with a better response.


After a while, mere name calling loses some of its sting, so I say let them keep on exhausting the meaning of terms on petty things until the average person looks at them and says "get real". There is absolutely no reason to put the onus of answering falsified charges on the the person(s) being smeared.

rhhardin said...

There's no mention of Obama's every word being a lie.

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...

Democrat protection racket media update:
TV network stories blame Republicans, 21-0, for shutdown, not Democrats

Titus said...

This is right up Chicks alley. His ex boyfriend, who he loved and then rejected him because of George Bush and Gays.

It gives chick a huge hardon even if he has a hard time getting one.

Chick, do you actually have a job and work or are you on the internets all day while working?

chickelit said...

Boy, Titus, you and Ritmo sure are protective of your guy.