How Is That Boycott Coming?
It seems that some folks are unhappy with Glenn Beck and want advertisers to boycott his show.
An advertising boycott against Fox News host Glenn Beck has succeeded in keeping most major sponsors from running commercials on his show even as the controversial commentator's viewership has grown.Isn't that interesting?
Beck attracted 2.81 million viewers Monday, his third-largest audience since his show launched on Fox News in January, according to Nielsen Media Research data provided by the network. On Tuesday, nearly 2.7 million viewers tuned in, his fifth-largest viewership to date. And the conservative host got a plug from former vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, who urged people to watch his program in a post on her Facebook page.
And Sarah Palin's Facebook Page on Beck? Short and sweet.
FOX News' Glenn Beck is doing an extraordinary job this week walking America behind the scenes of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and outlining who is actually running the White House.At last count Sarah had 800,000 Facebook fans.
Monday night he asked us to invite one friend to watch; tonight I invite all my friends to watch.
-Sarah Palin
Which kind of leads me into a topic I have been meaning to discuss. Leaderless political warfare. I'd like to start with a comment I found at Oath Keepers.
#87 bruce Says:I think he is wrong. The last thing the opposition needs is a leader. The left will go after a leader with all their power. Best for now to keep it diffuse. Small unit actions suited to local conditions.
August 27th, 2009 at 9:50 am
There are many of us who believe in supporting the constitution the way it was intended: to HELP us as a country. Our unamerican president sees it only as a nuisance and roadblock to his goals. Unfortunatley, their machine (smoke & mirrors, bag of tricks, etc.) is well oiled and has considerable momentum.
Those who support this site/cause, and others like it, have a common obstacle: We have no central unification. There are numerous organizations & militias, some of them just nut jobs who actually hurt our credibility, but I think to be an effective force, we need to come together somehow under a central figure or organization.
Which brings up a couple of novels by Gordon R. Dickson. The first is a book that includes the story of Amanda Morgan:
The Spirit of Dorsai
I'm not going to go into a long dissertation. The essence is that old men and children defeated a large well armed and well paid army by having a general order and then adapting tactics to local circumstances with minimal central direction.
If you are into reading novels for entertainment as well as education (the following novel was once on the US Military reading list) you might want to read this one first as it also covers the events in Amanda Morgan.
Tactics of Mistake
I reviewed the novel at The Tactics Of Mistake.
So what is our general order? Simple really.
General enough for you? Now how about another analogy? I have one:
In many ways the Republicans are like the Spanish in their dust up with Napoleon. The Spanish Army (The Republican Party Machine) is totally ineffective against Napoleon’s Regulars (The Democrat Party Machine). However, the partisans redeem the war.
Which brings up a a post by Wretchard called 5G.
Somebody believes the left is losing the public policy debate because they’ve got all the flagship institutions. And that’s a liability. Umair Haque, writing in a Harvard Business Publishing article, argues that the right, like al-Qaeda has mastered the art of “5th generation warfare” and is swarming all over the left. He notices that liberals have been losing the debate lately and tries to analyze why. The problem with the left, he seems to think, is that they are responding from a center, sending talking points out to a periphery, whereas the right has discovered how to attack swiftly, from a plethora of directions and in depth. The right is inside their OODA loop and Haque realizes that if this goes on long enough, the left will lose.And how has the right got inside the left's OODA loop? Not by being faster. It is hard to get much speed advantage in an internet age. The right is doing it by giving the left more events than it can handle. Tea Parties are breaking out all over with no Central Command. There will be a march on Washington on 12 September starting at 11:30 AM at Pennsylvania Ave. [map] opposite the White House going to the Capitol.
And what do you know? Glenn Beck has mentioned the march on Washington on his show.
Now back to Wretchard. Wretchard discusses some of Haque's advice on how to counter a distributed movement. And then has this to say.
I think Haque’s advice will ultimately fail because it fails to recognize the fundamental difference between ‘fake’ 5th generation warfare and the real thing. The real thing is bottom up; the fake thing is astroturfed. The genuine article aggregates the wisdom of crowds; the counterfeit hires crowds. The real thing genuinely takes into account the experience of the many and values it. It accepts that “norms” are actually driven by the normal and not pronounced on from above. This distinction in source of initiative is crucial. His “10 rules for fighting a 5G war” will come to nothing without recognizing rule number 1: the people can act directly in public policy. The result of applying this principle is 5th generation warfare. The opposite principle is that an enlightned elite, led by a One are leading the world to change. Applying this principle may result in a slick advertising campaign, but it will never be 5th generation warfare.Which fits in rather well with my diagnosis of the current Republican vs. Democrat struggle. Republicans (the politicians) are losing. And Wretchard is absolutely right. The masses are absolutely disdainful of their leaders. The leaders on the right are as inept as the Spanish Army was it its struggle with Napoleon. It probably doesn't matter for now. When the time is right some one will step to the front of the parade.
This is the crucial realization. The Republican leadership was in fact the first victim of the revolt from below. Only after the “5th generation” war had ripped through the comfortable assumptions of business as usual did it break out to face the left. To think that the current unrest is the creation of Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck would be to make a fundamental mistake. Those figures are simply its beneficiaries — and its beneficiaries by accident.
And may I suggest the comments at Wretchard's 5G? They are absolutely first rate.
Cross Posted at Classical Values
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5 comments:
that was an exellent post by wretchard, it illuminated to me what is going on. this post by you extrapolates more.
the reality is the left thought americans would lay down and take it. they are wrong.
the rebublican elite thought they were our chosen leaders and even when they sold us down the river we would lay down and take it.
they are both wrong. they have made large strategic errors and it will only get worse for them if they try to shut us up with soft fascism.
At the very least Oath Keepers has complicated their calculations. "Loyal troops" can no longer be counted on to carry out orders blindly.
Thus the need for a civilian corps. Even if they could get such a thing passed it would take years to set up.
They needed events to move fast to get in. However, they created an avalanche which is now rolling out of control. In fact no one controls it. And we have a Captain of the Ship who has neglected damage control drills while continuing to try to set fires aboard ship and punch holes below the waterline.
Something is going to give.
the dark side of my sense of humor almost thinks its funny. or it could be the old if you cant cry you mind as well laugh thing.
but I have been telling friends who were middle of the road middle class luke warm non political types that this guy was not who he seemed and would bring radical change and chaos if elected. but no one wanted to here it.
I must be the extremist just for thinking those "bad things" about him I was told in no uncertian terms... ...know they are all starting to be alarmed. I have refrained from saying things like I told you so...
Yes. Drop dead hilarious.
I know exactly what you mean. I got some comments like that during the election season.
It is all good though. The criteria used in the next election will be different. Radically. Heh.
Extremely interesting stuff.
Tea party folks mostly just want to make the government more responsive and less dictatorial, less powerful. That would apply to republicans and democrats, and neither party really likes losing power.
Other people want to secede and run their own political system.
Personally, I want to use technology to make government unnecessary. In other words, don't go head to head with the bull. Force the bull to charge ahead toward everywhere that you aren't.
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