Timothy Birdnow

During the second Presidential debate held at Washington University in St. Louis a star was born. Questions were taken from a pre-selected group of undecided voters, and one man caught the public eye when asking a question about energy policy. Ken Bone, a technician at a coal plant, became an instant sensation with his mild demeanor, his handlebar mustache and his red Christmas sweater (which he donned because he split the pants in his suit the day of the debate). Mr. Bone touched something in the American psyche.

I figured he would be a fifteen minute guy, and would sink back into the primordial soup from which he emerged. Not so; Mr. Bone became one of the most popular Halloween costumes, and he is still quite sought-after. Yesterday he was interviewed on the Mark Reardon show on KMOX radio (following the Rush Limbaugh Show)

Nothing against Mr. Bone, who seems to be a fine fellow and who has done quite a bit of good with the time given him. (He donated his red sweater to the Izod museum for a ten grand donation to a charity that helps pay for honor flights for veterans, for instance.) He has numerous endorsements, and mostly is donating the profits to charity. He has a quarter of a million followers on Twitter - an increase of almost a quarter of a million since he had six previously and two were his grandmother. His fame does not appear to be abating overmuch.

Bone was quite shrewd about this; he never said and will never say who he wound up voting for, thus avoiding alienating half of his fans. He preaches being decent and reasonable and has not really profited from his time, thus avoiding the pitfalls of substantive fame. Nobody can say a bad word against the man. In an era of acrimony and political cock fighting Bone is a breath of fresh air, a gulf of tranquility in an ocean of storms.

I suppose George Thoroughgood would say he's bad to the bone.

But why is he still around? Most big fads, starting with the tulip bulb craze in Holland in the 1630's, end after a short time. Usually the less substantive the craze the faster it passes. A friendly voice and a fuzzy seater should have died within days. Yet Bone is still around. Why Thinking about it, I really don't like the answer.

Ken Bone typifies some of the most onerous aspects of modernity. His success is very much like the trophies given to little t-ball players, where the whole league gets an individual trophy merely for participating. There was a time when excellence was beloved by Americans, and demanded of us as the price to fame and success. As Patton says in the move of the same name, America loves a winner and will not tolerate a loser. Or we used to.

But that has changed as America has evolved (thanks to the childish thinking and sore loser mentality of the Left) into an egalitarian society, one where excellence is not rewarded or cherished so much as is equality of outcome. We don't give awards to people who win, people who accomplish great things, but rather we award and reward just showing up so that we may all be equal. Ken Bones is the penultimate in this; he did nothing, accomplished nothing, yet is lionized, a celebrity who is famous for the same reason that the Kardassians are - for being famous. Ken Bone is a participatory award.

And that is more true than in most cases. The man went into the second Presidential debate without knowing who he was going to vote for, which means he made no effort to learn anything. For all his likely wonderful qualities he is shallow as a wading pool, because any thoughtful or educated person would know who and what these candidates are by this point. It bespeaks a monstrous ignorance, a mind that has not bothered to understand the deep divide between Americans and why those divides are there. Bone is not ideological, and anyone who is not ideological is not paying adequate attention. If you are an adult in this country you should know what you believe. Armed with those beliefs you should then know what you think, and why. And armed with THAT you should inform yourself adequately to choose a side by the second Presidential debate. Ken Bone did none of this.

So he is as shallow as a puddle after a rainstorm.

Look, not everybody has to be a scholar or a political analyst, but one should know one's own mind. Choosing sides in the war for America's soul is not optional. It is no less than the war waged in Heaven between Michael and his angels and Lucifer and his; it is a battle between moral and spiritual forces with monumental consequences. If you haven't bothered to choose sides you aren't a serious person.

For decades America has been plagued by horrible notions of relativism and non-judgementalism. These ideas were born of Academia and promoted into the general culture by the media, by educators, and by the entertainment industries. We have been told that the only evil is to judge, and that all morality is relative, so we have no right to judge, say, radical Islam. This was and is an assault on Christianity and Judaism, on tradition and morality. It was the way to create the Brave New World that so many on the Left wanted, a world where Man is the sole determinant of what is right or wrong, where any sort of sexual behavior is to be celebrated, where reality can be molded and modified by an act of Will. It is the dream of being God. At it's core is a rejection of God and His moral order. It is a placing of Man on the throne of Heaven and the government to replace the Church. It is an ancient and evil belief system. But few who actually follow it even know they are acolytes of the Darkness, having been seduced by the buzzwords and sophistic arguments endlessly reinforced by the media and others in control of the dissemination of information. Being a good person is, in the view of many of our younger people these days, a function of blind acceptance of anything except normalcy, religion, or the other cornerstones of Americanism. We never, ever promote success because, as Barack Obama stated "you didn't build that!" Any success or accomplishment stems from good fortune or privilege. Accomplishment and success are now seen as an illusion, and relativism means rejecting it.

So along comes a Ken Bone and the public goes wild. Why? Because he is the Seinfeld of American politics, a character about nothing.

Bone does not judge. Bone does not show passion. Bone does not get angry, or demand the truth. Bone is fuzzy and warm. He is the poster boy for the post-modern America.

In Aldus Huxley’s Brave New World we learn early on that the society seeks to remove all passions by relieving the societal tensions that drove people to do great things. Sex was free and easy to take away the pressure of sexual repression. People were given easy, unimportant work and drugs to help take the edge off their problems. People lived empty lives of easy pleasure and no meaning. The Savage, a man raised outside of the plastic paradise, couldn't face the emptiness and eventually committed suicide.

That is what we are creating in our post-modern world. Ken Bone is the perfect model, a man who does not seem to hold strong opinions, who lacks passion, an amiable simple fellow willing to let others ultimately decide the fate of himself and his family.

America was founded by people of passion, settled by passionate Christian believers and can-do types willing to sacrifice and struggle. Modern Americans are like hothouse orchids, beautiful and fragile. The Snowflake phenomenon is a great example; children who can't face reality and must create "safe spaces" to protect their tender sensibilities. Ken Bone is the perfect ambassador to the Snowflakes. But snowflakes melt when it rains or the sun shines; they are fragile and ephemeral. America will be no different if we do not return to a world governed by reality and not our dreams.

Ken Bone is a dream, a longed-for type of person who floats on the surface of the ocean of storms. He shouldn't have lasted this long, and that he has is a testament to the collapse of the American psyche.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 11:53 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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