Tuesday, February 19, 2008

In Defense of Sincere Egoism

All right, you people. Pretty Lady is Fed Up. Extreme times call for extreme actions, and Pretty Lady is no coward. Prepare yourselves. Pretty Lady is going to defend Hillary Clinton.

For she finds it absolutely absurd that so many of you should be propounding the notion that Hillary's notorious 'choking up' incident was mere Political Manipulation; crocodile tears, as it were. The implication of this position, as you very well know, is that Mrs. Clinton has no actual, human emotions at all, but is simply a power-hungry automaton, with ironclad calculation and control over her every word and gesture.

Good heavens, people. Get a clue.

For it seems to Pretty Lady that a simply enormous number of people are willing to push an infinite number of their fellow human beings over the cliff of Non-Humanity, simply on the basis of an ideological disagreement or two. They attribute the most deliberately scurrilous of motives to others on the basis of exactly no thought at all; the notion that Human Beings are, largely, Human, never seems to have occurred to them.

This gives them, of course, a built-in excuse for all their OWN lapses in perfect judgment, rationality and consistency, since THEY are, in their own estimation, Human; but those Others out there are, patently, Not. And so they must be judged and condemned by the standards one would apply to a hopelessly outdated computer program--trashed, in other words.

So let Pretty Lady set you straight. Hillary Clinton is all too Human, in her words, actions, thoughts and feelings. She is a sincere egoist; she is power-hungry, self-righteous, controlling, manipulative, and lacking in self-awareness. Her emotions at the prospect of being denied the prize her ego demands as its birthright are all too real; Pretty Lady has no doubt that her 'choking up' was quite genuine. The very definition of the ego is that it rails bitterly against any hint that its wishes are not sovereign.

This sincerity does not, of course, mean that the ego should have its way, in any circumstance.

For Pretty Lady feels that she has failed, verily, in pointing out what the ego actually is. The ego, darlings, is the source of all misery. It is the perception that one's individual identity is separate from, and in competition with, all other manifestations of consciousness everywhere. It is the source of war, poverty, cruelty and suffering; it is at the root of Death itself. It is the true enemy; all other apparent enemies are but projected shadows of its malignance.

So for all of you out there who yet maintain that Hillary is insincere in her egoistic emotions, Pretty Lady tells you: she is as sincere as you are, when you state that Others must be blamed, so that You may be innocent. She desires as potently to be Right, that others may be Wrong, as you do. She is fully Human; her flaws are your own.




7 comments:

MacLaren said...

Very good observation.

"it should be mine... I deserve it... it NEEDS to be mine! Waaaaaaaaah!"

Down ego - DOWN!

BoysMom said...

Pretty Lady--my shirt has arrived. It is gorgeous.
I ended up with the black t-shirt with the blue mandala on it.

I am so pleased. The shipping was reasonably quick, considering where I live and how long everyone else takes, so they must be very fast at printing the shirt off.

Of course, I haven't tried washing it yet, but it looks like the design is well applied. It appears to be of good quality and construction in general: it is something I would puchase off the shelf.

Desert Cat said...

(Do I dare say this?)

I do hope you get your wish AG. Hillary will galvanize her opposition like Obama could never dream of doing.

Pretty Lady said...

Boysmom--that's excellent news! I was about to do a post asking for feedback. One of my other customers got an order with a few mistakes in the printing, but he called and they re-did the order for free. I'm so glad yours came out so well.

AG and DC--The reason that I support Obama is that I believe, after paying attention for quite some time, that he makes an effort to move beyond his ego, both in a personal and political sense. I say this because:

1) He is willing to admit it when he has made a mistake (unlike HRC.)

2) He is honest about his beliefs and positions, even when they are potentially politically unpopular (unlike HRC.)

3) He listens to the opposition, makes a sincere attempt to understand their point of view, and does not demonize or dismiss them out of hand (unlike HRC.)

He is also a brilliant man, in and of himself, and collects brilliant advisers around him. He currently works with a woman who is a specialist on the circumstances and motivations behind genocide; she is advising him on the situations in places like Darfur, and also on the necessary steps to pull out of Iraq without triggering a greater bloodbath there than we've already caused.

I can't see this man ever taking a foreign policy decision without consulting experts in the politics and culture of that country, and without having a long-range plan to deal with the consequences.

HRC is old-school politics. If she gets elected, we will have more of the same sleazy machinations, manipulations, distractions and name-calling. Our foreign policy will consist of the same self-rightous sabre-rattling. Underlying causes of terrorism, such as pandemic poverty in Arab countries which leave the young people unable to marry, and thus ripe for some activity to give meaning to their lives, will go unrecognized and unaddressed. Our international credibility will continue to be abysmal.

The ego cannot solve the problems which it creates, because it exists in order to create those problems.

Obama offers us a hand out of this mire. I'm for taking it.

Pretty Lady said...

P.S. It seems that I'm not the only person writing this essay today.

BoysMom said...

I don't think Obama is particularly economicly sound. Although certainly Clinton and McCain are not, either. I do think he's more honest than they are, but I'm afraid that's not necessarily saying a whole lot.

What I haven't heard any is of the three say: Guess what, like all Americans, the Federal Government not only has to spend no more than it takes in, it also has to pay off its debts. I've heard lots of talk about spending more on the military, on the poor, on health care, etc, but nothing about the debt. A little here and there about a 'balanced budget' but nothing about debt repayment.
I don't support any of those three. I'll have to see who the third parties put up before I make a choice.
Perhaps I should write in 'Pretty Lady'. (Okay, actually, Pretty Lady's author, since I've very carefully made sure I've got her name right, just in case someone asks about the t-shirt, you understand.)

k said...

My first experiences with real life politics were in Chicago, famous for machine Democrat votes that exceeded 100,000 from one cemetary alone.

Hillary comes from Chicago machine Democratic politics.

I never, ever forget that.