We frequently see in life and in the arts the recurring theme that people tend to create what they fear. Panicky investors cause the crash; abuse victims find ways to relive their traumas over and over; Batman was born in Bruce Wayne's fear of bats. This uncanny phenomenon was on full display in the last election, where the liberal media was so afraid of a Trump presidency that their incessant negative coverate contributed enough free press to make Trump the focal candidate. In the first presidential election featuring a woman candidate, during the time of the Feminarchy, the focus should all have been all on her, with the opponent almost an afterthought. Instead, all the emotional energy pointed at Trump. Without the media's obsession with hating Trump he could not have won the election. They created what they feared more than anything. (Not that Trump was an unwitting passenger along for the ride. He played them real good, to be sure.)
Making something taboo can make it irresistibly attractive. Parents intuitively know this. When my young daughter repeats a profanity (hey you aren't perfect either) I try to ignore it or gently ask her not to say ugly words like that. What I don't do is get angry, showing that the word evokes an emotional reaction out of dad. She'd save it away and return to it at some inopportune time. Kids have good memories and they're kind of evil. I use taboos constantly in the form of reverse pyschology. If I want her to eat her food, I say, "you probably won't be able to eat all that," or, "you don't like hot dogs, right?" She's likely to want to do the opposite of whatever I want her to do. People are like that, it seems.
Even at that young age we have to engage in taboo management, and that certainly continues as they get older. We all knew sheltered kids who got carried away one they reached the freedom of adulthood. The kids in high school drank because they weren't supposed to, then got to college age where they could legally buy alcohol, so many smoked pot instead. Weed start getting legalized, and they started snorting cocaine. The point of illicit drug use is that it should be illicit. Portugal legalized everything and drug use fell. (I wonder what edgy Portuguese teenagers are up to these days.)
Societies seem to operate a lot like children. People tend to imbibe in activities considered to be rebellious, and a smart society steers those urges into productive (or at least, nondestructive) activities. A lot of guys ride motorcycles or drive big trucks. The more they're told motorcycles are dangerous or trucks cause pollution, the more allure they have. It's doing what you aren't supposed to. Men and women often have affairs. Men do so because they are men, but women love the intrigue. For many, that's how they get the excitement of breaking the rules. Some actions are more and less harmful than others, but we're always at risk of being harmed by our own obstinate nature and attraction to the taboo.
Everything about the left is a contradiction, and taboos are no exception. They believe they are the rebels, that they are standing up for their virtues in spite of what society is telling them to do. But the hippie revolution was like fifty years ago. Their belief system is now the reigning orthodoxy! We won't belabor the point too much, as this blog has already considered the idea in Liberal Inc, but it's amazing that these people are saying exactly what their teachers are saying, what their HR reps and diversity officers are saying, what the corporate media outlets are saying, what the NGOs are saying, and what the president of the last 8 years was saying - and still believe they are anti-establishment activists fighting an oppressive system. You have to hand to to their ideology. The most powerful cult is the one where the practitioners are certain they are not in a cult.
The Liberal Inc post left on an a optimistic note because The Cult has been left in a terrible strategic situation. Another angle that should have been followed up in another post was to consider the notion that there is now a market potential for taboo. This is terribly obvious in hindsight and we have to thank for it - believe it or not - Kanye West. Last week he started a tear on Twitter that hasn't stopped.
Kanye is being honest, I'm sure, but there something else to all this. The left have become the church ladies, telling everyone what is immoral and shaming transgressors. They've created the taboos. It's taboo to maintain normal gender roles, question global warming, oppose immigration, and - most of all - to support Trump. Nearly all celebrities and careerists in general have avoided expressing support for Trump because...well it's taboo, and they'll lose their social status and possibly their careers. But Kanye is paying attention. He's noticed what the rest in his cadre have not.
If you break the left's taboos, they will come down upon you with great vengeance. But if you can withstand the onslaught, your stature grows. Trump blazed the path, and it's why he's now the most important, most powerful, and most talked about person in the world. He fought the dragon and was not destroyed. Now he is a dragon too. He is the alluring taboo. Roseanne Barr has expressed support for Trump and now has the biggest show on television. She is dragon energy. Kanye sees the direction things are moving and is striking an early claim. His recent Twitter eruption is not accidental. It's planned. He's being as honestly provocative as he can. He wants his name blasted out there. He wants the media bump that only leftist hatred can fuel. When politicians like Maxine Waters and rappers like Snoop Dog denounce him and threaten violence, it only adds to the public exposure he's intentionally building. He sees that society is being drawn towards Trump's fearless bravado and away from the nagging church ladies of the left. And when Trump finally has achieved significant mainstream popularity and approval, everyone will remember Kanye as an early adopter, because he generated so much publicity about it while it was taboo.
I suspect there's also a level of personal challenge too it. He sees that everyone else was afraid of the dragon, but Trump strode up and fought it to the ground. Now he wants his shot. Can he take on the vicious dragon and emerge victorious? He's decided he has to find out. The glory comes in fighting the early when it is risky. The first few people who climbed Mt Everest have their names immortalized for all history. The rest are just numbers.
In the week since Kanye came out swinging for Trump and for free though, support for Trump has doubled among black men. In just one week. Kanye did that, because he saw the trend and got out in front of it, and helped it catalyze it. If the trend continues, Kanye may end up being considered as one of the most influential black people in decades. Or he may be consumed by the fire. Fighting the dragon is risky, which is why almost no one does it.
On a similar note, Dennis Rodman declared to TMZ that Kim Jong-Un had a change of heart after reading Trump's The Art of the Deal, which Rodman had gifted him. (Is this timeline not incredibly bizarre?) Remember when Rodman was the taboo? He was the player covered in tattoos who dyed his hair crazy colors. Kids liked him mostly because he was the guy their parents didn't want them to like. Probably Kim is drawn to him for the same reason. Rodman is dragon energy and so is Trump, and, in the most unpredictable twist of world history ever, they've co-ordinated to bring peace to the Korean peninsula after 60 years of hostile standoff that followed a very nasty civil war. Dragon energy is strange, magical, and powerful.
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