“Walk Toward the Fire”

I love Andrew Breitbart’s quote, “Walk toward the fire”.

I love it because I’m a therapist. That’s what therapists do. Therapists help people take on the “demons”, errors, contradictions or baggage of their own subconscious.

In order to resolve a personal problem, a person must — first and foremost — resolve his contradictions. “I don’t like change or risk. But I do like achievement.” Well, you can’t have both. At some point, you’ll have to make up your mind. “I want intimacy. But I’m afraid I’ll be hurt. I don’t want hurt.” Well, the risk of hurt goes with the territory. In all honesty, people end up hurting each other quite a bit. If you don’t want a life a total isolation, you have to risk it.

In my experience, people don’t like hearing this. I have a way of saying it nicely, but they still don’t like it. And I have learned there are two kinds of people. One, the type who doesn’t like it, and who keeps not liking it. Two, the type who doesn’t like it at first, then later realizes you’re right, and runs with the corrected thinking.

As with an individual, so too with a society. America is a society ripe with contradictions. Some are consistent liberty and freedom lovers. Others are totalitarians at heart, and in their thinking. Many are somewhere in the middle. Yes, the middle still exists. The middle will decide the fate of America. They are the ones who think things like, “No, we can’t have totalitarianism. We can’t be Venezuela. But we have to have a social safety net. Government must do something about some things.”

Sooner or later, you have to make up your mind, middle-of-the-roaders. We appear to be living very close to the time when “sooner or later” has finally arrived.

Either you want a free country, or you don’t.

A free country means people are free to do what they wish. Your not liking it does not validate the concept of government intervention. The ONLY valid government intervention is to punish fraud or the initiation of violence. That’s it. And that’s plenty! No war on poverty. No “new deals”, green or otherwise. No protection from recessions and depressions — something the government can’t provide anyway. The government, when controlling the economy and the rest of life, does not protect the people. The government protects its own.

Sooner or later, Americans will have to be willing to listen to the truth. The truth is “the fire” Andrew Breitbart spoke about.

A leader isn’t someone who tells you what you want to hear. We have Democrats and Republicans for that. They’re liars. We all know that. But why are they liars? Because they’re telling us what most of us want to hear. And most of us keep applauding them for it. THAT’S the fire.

Walking toward the fire means telling people, “You’re wrong. You can’t have it both ways. You will have to live with the fact that nothing good in life is free. You can’t demand freedom for yourself while denying it to others, which is what socialism does. You can’t assume, ‘If I make a million dollars, it’s all mine. But if someone else does — well, they have to hand 50 or 80 or 90 percent of it over.'” You can’t say, “Government exists to give me what I want.” You can only say, “Government exists to protect my freedom. The rest is up to me.” Because that’s how it is, regardless of what the government does or does not do.

Donald Trump is getting close to the fire. That’s why he’s hated beyond anything we have ever seen. That’s the real issue with his presidency. Not the Deep State, not “follow the money”, and all the rest. Of course those are part of it, with the career people who make their money off government and politics. But there are plenty of ordinary, non-political people who HATE President Donald Trump. And they hate you and I for voting for him. It’s because they don’t want to be told that their contradictions and errors constitute the fire. They want to feel good. They don’t want anyone who makes them NOT feel good.

In today’s society, with the snowflake generation most of all, feelings are King. The greatest sin you can commit is to impose logic or facts against a snowflake’s feelings. Of course, logic and facts will impose their will in the end, anyway. They always have, and they always will.

Take it from a therapist. I know how people get when you walk too close to their fire. President Trump, although I was skeptical at first, has become one of my personal heroes for his willingness to do so.

The rest of us must find the courage and stamina to do the same.

 

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