Those Who Inspire, Forum politics, Disney, and Geezer

Like all of us, I'm sure, I have a tendency to surf all kinds of blogs and forums. I have my favorites bookmarked, and check in either daily or every other day. The list is endless. Some are about politics, some about guns, or survival, or fitness, or philosophy, or literature, or poetry, or writing- you get the idea.

One thing that hit home today was how this new internet medium, these virtual gathering places, is like having a university, or maybe a daily convention, available at your fingertips from the comfort of your own home, and how you can find teachers and mentors almost everywhere you look.

One of these teachers and mentors was an old boy named Bobby Weismann. He was a prolific poster on several of the forums I'm on, and went by the handle Geezer, since he was a 70+ year old man on forums that are usually peopled with young men. He lived in Idaho, and was one of the greatest sources of simple and uncluttered wisdom I've ever come across. He was a modern-day philosopher trying to educate a bunch of young bucks in the ways of the world.

Just an example of something he'd written, something you can actually see working every day-

As time rolls on, and there are fewer and fewer people of my generation (The silent Generation, born 1925-1945, also the smallest generation.) to encounter, I have begun to notice more and more that there are some pretty noticeable differences between some of our thinking patterns and those of many of the folks younger than us.

I’ll go a little further, and restrict the “we” to those born between 1932 and 1940, just half a generation. We were unique in that we were old enough to appreciate the values of our predecessors, but also old enough to understand that they were lying to those younger than us. Generally speaking, those that came after us accepted the lies and integrated them into their world view, whereas we were too old to be manipulated that easily, and grew up with a healthy albeit usually polite disrespect for all authority. This might explain the huge difference in attitude between WWII soldiers and Korean War soldiers.

Funny sidebar...most of the protestors and demonstrators of the 60s were boomers, but most of their mentors and coaches were of my generation. We held their coats while they got teargassed.

Let’s take the birth of Walt Disney movies as a starting point, since Disney movies and the world view I can only call Disneythink encompass almost all of the points I am going to make.

In any case, causes aren’t as interesting as consequences, so let me jot down a few observations. I will apologize beforehand to everyone I offend. These are generalizations, and while they apply quite well to the bulge in the bell curve, obviously there a lot of folks that they simply do not apply to. I also have to acknowledge that what the heck, Disneythink may be correct. Perhaps Disney, rather than Einstein, is the true genius of the 20th century.

Those born AD, After Disney, the Boomers and younger, work basically from parental and Mainstream Media (MSM) influences. My group, those born BD, Before Disney, the last half of the Silent Generation works primarily from observations. MSM did not exist during our early days. Most cities those days had two or three major newspapers which printed wildly disparate views of everything. Our thinking patterns and belief systems were fully formed before the evolution of the monomedia.

Those born AD believe in happy endings as an article of faith. My group knows that they are exceedingly rare.

Those born AD believe that there is some good in everyone. My group believes that there is some evil in everyone.

Those born AD believe that almost all problems can be solved by better management. My group believes that almost all problems are caused by management.

Those born AD clearly believe that happiness, feeling good, is one of the highest values. My group is pretty sure that pursuing happiness, placing a high value on feeling good will get you in a bunch of trouble at best.

Those born AD tend to believe that there is something wrong with being physically uncomfortable. My group is largely indifferent to physical discomfort.

Those born AD tend to anthropomorphize animals to an extraordinary degree, thus for them the actual facts of natural history are irrelevant and unimportant. My group tends to think of animals as creatures whose behaviors are bound by scientific principles and cannot act “out of character” regardless of the plot advancement possibilities.

Those born AD tend to think that feelings are very important. My group tends to think that behaviors are very important.

Those born AD tend to believe that intentions outweigh results. My group tends to believe that results are intentions manifest.

Those born AD tend to romanticize physical labor. My group wanted to get out of blue jeans as rapidly as possible.

Those born AD tend to believe that reality must be changed to meet social expectations. My group tends to believe that social expectations must be changed to conform to reality.

Those born AD tend to believe that strong beliefs have the power to change reality and very strong beliefs can complete rewrite reality. My group tends to believe that reality is objective, external and independent of our belief systems.

Like most folks, I believe that my belief system is correct, and those systems that differ in significant degree are flawed or kind of weird. That’s just the way people are, nothing personal in it. After spending some 55 years out of my 70 plus observing it and trying to understand it, I still think Disneythink is weird. I don’t understand it and sometimes I am quite frightened of it. Even though most of the folks on this forum present very little Disneythink, there are a few points that are almost always present in anyone born AD, such as the belief in happy endings, and the belief that problems can be solved by better management.

In a relatively few years all of my bunch will have died out. We are the last witnesses to a time that will never be seen again. I don’t know if y’all should be relieved or sad about that.

I do know that some of your peers will rewrite history so that all those things that I witnessed will disappear from the record, just as the record of WWII is now being rewritten by people who believe that it is more important that you feel a certain way about things than that you know what actually happened.

“It is best to win without fighting.” Sun Tzu


Smart man. Sadly, Geezer died last year of cancer, and left almost 13,000 guys on a single forum mourning his passing. It's amazing to see how, even a year and a half after he passed, he's still quoted and talked about on that forum.

Think about that. An old man sitting at home managed to influence the minds and hearts of thousands and tens of thousands of younger men, and made their lives somehow better. So much so that they still talk about him like a favored grandpa who's passed on.

That would have never happened even a short fifteen years ago. No one would have ever heard his words, been inspired, or even known he existed, but now he is immortal in the words he put down on a computer.

Amazing.

Irlandes

So there is another man of this type on different blogs and forums who goes by either Irlandes or Anonymous Age 66, who's also one of those older guys with a lifetime of wisdom who's willing to share what he's learned so others don't make the same mistakes he did. The man has stories and advice and an attitude that, were you to see him in person, would make you want to sit down crosslegged in front of his chair like a kid and demand that he regale you with tales and anecdotes. And then you'd sit there entranced the whole time. That's how this man writes.

I honestly wish I had the power to write like that.

Mostly Irlandes has posted on one particular forum I'm on, DGM, but back in April he suddenly stopped posting there. For months there was nary a word and quite frankly, everyone on the forum thought he had died, since he was 66 years old and living in a remote mountain town in rural Mexico and had stopped posting so suddenly, which seemed out of character. Every once in a while there were "Where's Irlandes?!" posts that nobody knew the answer to.

Well, after he'd left, DGM changed. It's weird, but close-knit forums can suffer when there's a shift in who's posting, when old members leave or new members join, and even a single forum thread can completely shut down a forum altogether. I've seen it happen. On one occasion on a different forum, a single member who joined late in the game utterly changed the whole feel of the forum to the point that nearly every senior member, including me, left for good. We just didn't like the place anymore.

Well, with Irlandes gone, DGM got kind of aimless. It was like the heart of the forum had stopped beating. Nobody posting much, attitudes started shifting, less enthusiasm, more negativity. It was getting kind of bad.

Then yesterday, Irlandes just suddenly started posting again! Without a single word of explanation, either. Just started up posting again as though he had never stopped.

And it was amazing. Suddenly, the forum has lit up again. Members who had quit posting stopped lurking and started contributing again, there is a more festive and positive atmosphere, and the forum feels, well, alive again. The heart of the forum has returned.

It's bizarre, how one person can change the mood of a group, just by their presence. How anger and negativity can be dispelled in an instant, or how things can go from happy and fun to fatiguing and disheartening just by a particular person walking into the room, or their name being mentioned. I think this kind of goes hand in hand with the Psychic Vampire thing I once talked about.

There's some kind of great lesson in there, some kind of blue collar trailer-park philosophy that I can't quite get my mind wrapped around. Some sort of unification theory about old teachers and group dynamics and deep wisdom being passed along and Disneythink and the world just feeling wrong, and a need for some sort of undefined liberty to be freed from it's shackles, but I find it difficult to put the pieces all together to make the big picture.

Funny, how this whole post started just because I was happy to see Irlandes posting again.