This morning I was offered the “opportunity” to sell out. I was asked to do something that (if it worked out as my correspondent hoped) would make Alan Gottlieb and his “JPFO Lite” look better than they are.
It would not change anything in any material way. It would not restore principle to JPFO or protect Aaron Zelman’s legacy.
It was merely the opportunity to create an illusion — to have people say, “Hey, maybe Gottlieb’s not going to wreck JPFO after all!”
And what would I get for doing Mr. Manchin-Toomey (and not coincidentally, the correspondent proposing the idea) such a favor?
Why, I’d get influence. No, let’s capitalize that. I’d get Influence — that much-craved prize of wheeler-dealers everywhere. If I just sold my integrity (which, after all, isn’t worth anything on the market), I might gain the privilege of suggesting to the new powers at JPFO Lite that (pardon my French) it might be better if, for now, they just chopped off one of JPFO’s b***s and not both.
—–
The proposal left me so disgusted that I blacklisted the correspondent’s email address then walked away from the computer. But it was also funny. And very instructive.
The funny part was that I don’t actually think the person proposing the deed has any influence with Gottlieb. The two certainly know each other and I’d consider them birds of the same oily feather. But my correspondent himself is probably merely angling for influence with the new JPFO powers that be. Likely he imagined I might be of some small help getting him there.
It’s also funny that he was so blind to the fact that anybody who cared about principles would find his suggestion repugnant.
Did my correspondent actually believe that I could change any unprincipled person for the better or prevent total sellout from becoming total catastrophe through Influence? Or did he just believe that Influence was so desirable that anyone would run panting after it?
In any case, I got a glimpse into a certain type of mind — and afterward I wanted to scrub myself down with scouring powder.
—–
The truth is — and every idealist should tattoo this on his or her brain — that on the vanishingly rare occasions that people of principle have any influence on the powerfully unprincipled, it’s always from the outside.
Always.
When it happens at all it’s because we stood on the fringes pointing at them, calling attention to their misdeeds, and shaming them into better behavior. It’s because we put them under a spotlight. It’s not because we edged our way into their circles, nodded along with their yes-men, and made mild little suggestions about how maybe they could handle this or that little detail differently.
It’s because we subjected them to public scorn to the point where they had to act differently than they intended and wanted to.
When we succeed — and I repeat, it’s rare — they may despise us, they may plot even more blackguardly things in their shriveled little hearts, they may take the very next opportunity to do something even more unprincipled. But they momentarily have to change their behavior because our otherwise useless little consciences and principles created enough noise and light to force them to give in.
—–
On the other hand, there are words for (formerly) principled idealists who imagine they’ll gain anything by joining the nodding crowd and toadying for Influence.
Sucker.
Fool.
Sellout.
Unprincipled.
Collaborator.
Miserable failure.
Is he such a fool that he doesn’t know the quality and integrity and knowledge of your readers, that we wouldn’t know you had obviously been bought out and immediately would have discredited anything you had to say from then on?
We know you wouldn’t do such a thing, but come on…. had he only read your blog the last several weeks, he’d know this would have never flew.
A pox be upon his ass.
“We know you wouldn’t do such a thing, but come on…. had he only read your blog the last several weeks, he’d know this would have never flew.”
You’d sure think so. Whether he reads the blog, I don’t know. But he was absolutely aware of the JPFO sellout and knew exactly what I thought about it. It may be that he’s just so totally bought into the wheeler-dealer mentality that he’s forgotten that any other mindset exists.
In any case, thanks. If I were ever to start helping Gottlieb create the illusion of principles where none exist, my former fans could do everybody a favor by euthanizing me.
Oh and you forgot:
Judas
Quisling
Benedict Arnold
LOL! I did indeed forget. Thank you for the excellent correction.
Oh yeah, also:
Dupe
Patsy
Useful idiot
And Burr.
I honestly can’t imagine an unsupervised adult being so blindly stupid and arrogant as to even approach you, Claire, with such an offer!
Karen, I don’t have to imagine. Offhand, I can think of 535 alleged adults (who admittedly should be supervised) at that level of stupidity and arrogance. And a boatload of wanna-bes. And there’s the guy from the governor’s office who called me today…
As direct and public as you’ve been about where you stand, you’d think they had better sense than try to “bribe” you ― for if you’re broadcasting their actions, maybe next time you might broadcast their name!
But why does it surprise you? The corruptible man thinks anyone can be corrupted if offered the right inducement. (And it may have been a contrived test, anyway.)
The stupid part is that if he waits awhile, either JPFO will wither and what you would have said will make no difference, or JPFO will keep its principle and the same integrity he wants you to betray will bring you forward to tell us about it.
[Not holding my breath.]
Kinda makes me wonder if they realized the Power of Claire. Maybe they didn’t give you your due credit, underestimated that you’d step up and let the truth fly so loudly and clearly, and just discovered how many people read you all the time. LOL. “Let’s get her on our side cuz she’s awesome. She can rally em.”
Duh.
Maybe next they’ll realize you already have influence all on your own.
“And Burr.”
LOL! I suppose so, for the treason. But I’ve always been kinda fond of that little b*stard for killing Alexander Hamilton. Just too bad he didn’t do it years sooner.
LOL, Karen. That evokes some fascinating images. I’m seeing a Certain Person in an oversized diaper …
ROFLMAO, I needed that.
Pat and naturegirl — Thanks for the vote of confidence. But it’s more than I deserve.
I’d be very, very surprised if the proposal I got this morning came directly or even indirectly from SAF. The person who made it is one of those types who just likes to play every angle and hold power (or imagine he holds power) behind the scenes. I do expect he’ll ingratiate himself with the new JPFO Lite and try to manipulate his way into some authority, but I’d bet anything he just came up with this whole “influence” business on his own.
LarryA — Yep, good observation. If JPFO does survive as a vibrant, principled organization under Gottlieb, I’ll be the first to say I was wrong. And in that case, yes, it wouldn’t need any secret “influence” from me because it will be well and honestly run.
But … yeah, not holding breath.
“The person who made it is one of those types who just likes to play every angle and hold power (or imagine he holds power) behind the scenes.”
Sounds kind of like Dick Cheney. 🙂
It reminds me of a box on one of Kent’s “statist troll bingo” cards:
“I’ll work to change it from the inside”
one of life’s great self delusions
To be fair, the Statist Troll Bingo was a collaboration between Francois Tremblay and me: Statist Troll Bingo
[one of life’s great self delusions]
To me it looks like statist propaganda. To believe in the state, one has to think that changing from the inside is not only possible, but the only reasonable way. Needless to say the state promotes this meme assiduously.
@Paul bonneau…. exactly
I am again reminded of that person who wanted you to appoint yourself Queen of the Occupy Movement.
If you were the kind of person who chased after Influence, you wouldn’t be Claire.
Maybe the guy was a classmate of Obama……..
This reminds me. You should seriously consider getting all the articles you wrote for JPFO back. Make sure that only you have ownership and the copyrights of all the articles you wrote. Because, if I have you figured right enough, then you’d won’t want Gottlieb to take advantage of any article you wrote.
Lets face it, he’d most likely use any article you wrote to his “side of the argument” he wants, even if it’s something you won’t agree with.
Actually, Jim B., I don’t want those articles back. I want to see if Gottlieb will keep the most uncompromising JPFO articles on the website. In fact, if he starts deleting archived articles, that would be an early sign of his intentions to wussify JPFO.
The ownership of many articles is “fuzzy” at best, but most are probably legit JPFO property (which, for various reasons, RebelFire was not).
OTOH, if any JPFO writer ever discovered Mr. Manchin-Toomey had his people change our articles, there’d be problems. With all those lawyers he has, though, I expect he knows better than to do any such thing.
Claire selling out? That’ll be the day… No fruggin way.
Just a thought… Those who think they can reform the “state” from the inside are doomed to failure because their very position verifies their belief that the state, at what ever level, actually has some legitimate authority to own and control their lives. Nobody can be both a slave and a master at the same time.
And Jim, I don’t expect that Claire can get her articles “back,” since she wrote on contract and JPFO has copy rights SAF is not likely to relinquish. But she can certainly sue them if they try to use her writing in such a way as to damage her reputation or future income potential in other things.
“Nobody can be both a slave and a master at the same time.”
Not sure about that. In fact, I think it’s just wrong. It’s like feudal tenure: lesser nobles held sway over their inferiors, but were themselves vassals to a superior noble (up to the king). Even the “masters” in our government are themselves subordinate to some other “master”. (Now, just who owns Obama’s leash is the really interesting question.)
But I do agree with MamaLiberty’s paragraph on the copyrights to Claire’s articles.
It is rather surprising that anyone would think that the author of the “Freedom Outlaw’s Handbook” would sell out at all, let alone for something as ephemeral as the promise of “Influence”. Leaves me scratching my head in wonder.
Oh, and Kent’s Statist Troll Bingo is brilliant!
Queen of the Occupy Movement
Claire? ROTFLMAO
Occupy Wall Street and its iterations consisted of people who couldn’t manage a decent campsite telling us how to run the world.
Claire would have harried the children into the wilderness and taught them how the world really works, starting with which end of a shovel makes a latrine.
OK then… den mother of the Occupy Movement. [grin]
“To sell your soul is the easiest thing in the world. That’s what everybody does every hour of his life. If I asked you to keep your soul – would you understand why that’s much harder?”
Howard Roark
And that’s where ego steps in. It’s not hard at all to keep your soul ― if you value it!
The man who lays no value on his soul has no ego, no self-worth, no self-esteem.
Go Girl !!!!!!!
After you sell off your integrity, there’s nothing left…….that any honest, moral person would be interested in.
It’s like lying. Tell one lie in your whole life, and you will forever be viewed as a (potential) liar…..and there’s nothing you can do to fix that.
NEVER compromise your integrity……..unless you plan on running with rats the rest of your life.
Hey Claire,
Thank you first and formost for who you are and what you stand for. It’s nice to have you on the principled liberty team. I am honored to be a least a very small part of it with you.
I would ask that you might take a look at A.G.’s work that he has done in Washington state. He has authored Initiative 591, the PROTECT YOUR GUN RIGHTS initiative. First off, it’s his sales pitch to being a battling inititive to an anti-gun Bloomberg astroturf initiative (I-594).
Funny thing is, is that ALL of the protections presented for a popular (mob rule) vote, are that those same protections that already exist in Washington state’s constitution and other laws. What he has added, is in new section 2 as follows.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 2. A new section is added to chapter 9.41 RCW to read as follows:
It is unlawful for any government agency to require background checks on the recipient of a firearm unless a uniform national standard is required.
Now I could go into all the reasons this is just stupid, but suffice it to say, the following is my latest argument against A.G.’s attempt to set an example in WA state, that we no longer wish to have 2nd Amendment or 10th Amendment protections.
BY THE WAY FOLKS. You know that UN Small Arms Treaty that we all heard so much about here a while back? Yeah, that one. You know it hasn’t gone away, right? Yeah, there is NO EXPIRATION DATE ON A TREATY! Yeah, it WAS signed but hasn’t been voted on in the Senate…YET!
All they need is the right makeup in the Senate, either tomorrow or in the future, and it becomes the new UNIFORM NATIONAL STANDARD (UNS).
Yeah, the very same UNS that I-591 (the PROTECT YOUR GUN RIGHTS initiative) in WA State says is OKIE DOKIE. Now you know and have been warned, and excepting anything other than the 2nd Amendment as a UNS, is for slaves.
Thank you Claire for the consideration.
Brian — Thank you for the kind words and the discussion about I-591.
I-591 is such a puzzler. It seems desperately needed as an antidote to the godawful Bloombergian I-594 (supported mostly by WA’s tech billionaires + the usual suspects). And Gottlieb and Washington Arms Collectors are positioned as fighting an underdog fight for 591. It almost makes me want to go out and V*TE!
But I’ve also noticed that language that would force WA to comply with some “uniform national standard” — just like the standard he already tried to force on us with Manchin-Toomey and yeah, just like some standard that might be imposed via treaty. That bit of language is otherwise completely unnecessary to the initiative. Definitely weird.
Very Gottliebian. While A.G. has surely done some good, he wouldn’t know a principle if it bit him on the backside — and he does seem to keep coming ’round and ’round and ’round again to things that smack of collaboration. He really wants UBCs. Wants them badly. This is, I believe, the third time he’s done something to try to get UBCs imposed or at least open a door for them. Appreciate you pointing that out.