Clint Eastwood and Disrespect

Nelson Hultberg

The political left in America is outraged at Clint Eastwood's recent presentation at the GOP convention. The shock and disbelief of Rachel Maddow at MSNBC and the Blitzer gang at CNN is heavy with condemnation of this inimitable American icon.

The establishment media response has basically come down as follows: "Weirdest thing I've ever seen." "What was he thinking?" "Have the Republicans gone daft?" "The Democrats must have sent Clint to the GOP so as to sabotage their convention." "This was inexcusably disrespectful."

Yes, indeed, it was disrespectful. But what kind of humans allow themselves to be enslaved by a Marxist mandarin and his bureaucratic henchmen with a smile on their face and kind words about their enslavers? Craven humans, that's who! Obedient victims who, as Ayn Rand told us, "sanction their enslavement." And unfortunately that is what the American people have become, obedient sanctioners who are willing to give up their freedom with a smile on their face and kind words for the usurpers in Washington who are so zealously destroying the freedom and sanity of our lives.

Did Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Adams, and Patrick Henry play nice-nice with King George? Did they remain respectful to the tyrants who were ruining their lives? They most certainly did not. They declared the English tyrant to be a corrupt and criminal despot. They rallied their countrymen to spring up in rebellion. They stood up for their fundamental rights, as all courageous men and women do when faced with despotic bullies. They did what the valiant Chinese student did in Tiananmen Square when he stood in front of those monstrous approaching tanks.

If Jefferson, Adams, and Henry were alive today, they would have been cheering Clint on with vigorous enthusiasm. But what do we see from today's mealy-mouth media? We see a rush to defend the tyrant mandarins in Washington and smear the rebel Eastwood. We see squawking and crying and yelps of protest. But what we really see is what lurks in the subconscious of the establishment media - fear that their Emperor is as buck naked as Dirty Harry portrayed him. This is why the vacuities at CNN and MSNBC are so outraged. Eastwood pierced deeply. He showed Mr. Obama and the empty suit Biden up for precisely what they are.

This is what disrespect is, and why it is so important when a people are confronting tyrants. Those who obey their masters and play nice-nice with tyrannical regimes live miserable lives as doormats. Those recalcitrant rebels who boldly proclaim their disrespect for the despots of history have a chance to live in freedom. They might still get squashed; the tanks might still roll over them. But they at least know that they stood up for freedom and honor in their time. They know that they did the right thing, the manly thing, not the craven, accommodative thing. When bullies are breaking the cardinal laws of life and exploiting their fellow man (which is what the statists in Washington have been doing for over 80 years now), then there is only one course of action for honorable men - disrespect - courageous, colorful disrespect.

This is what Clint Eastwood did on August 30, 2012 in Tampa. He did the honorable thing - the manly thing. He heaped contempt on the statist mandarins in Washington. He did not lay down and play nice-nice with them. He did not try to compromise with them. He did not pacify them so as to be popular. He excoriated them with his words and his attitude.

In his advice to America's young men, the twentieth century poet E. Merrill Root wrote, "I would ask you again to dream and dare, and thus to ride again the stallion of manhood whose back is known only by those who with a brave heart grasp the mane of life and ride bareback and shouting even in God's thunderstorm."

Reality demands this from man, but the collectivists are at war with it. Thus their feminizing of our men today. This is not by accident. The collectivists want a neutered man; it makes their drive for world domination all the easier. What is horrifying is that large numbers of obedient men now welcome this travesty. To be forceful, unflinching, and self-reliant in face of life's vicissitudes no longer appeals. Modern psychology tells us that the virile Clark Gable / Clint Eastwood persona is unhealthy for society. Dustin Hoffman is to be preferred. Softness is correct; toughness is detrimental. But this is decadence masquerading as progress.

The crucible of life demands that men strive to fulfill their natures, that they stand heroically in face of adversity, that they defend the female and family with gallantry in face of the subtleties of evil. The real man welcomes this and refuses to apologize for his toughness and masculinity, his stoic steel will. For him egalitarianism and collectivism are living death. Early in life he knows instinctively that he hates the amoeba-like image of man with which Marxian-Freudian collectivism is trying to poison his soul. He loathes what the professors in college teach him. The real man senses early on that, in the words of General MacArthur, "there is a constant conspiracy against the brave" in this world. The herd mentalities of humanity wish to neuter manliness, for it stands in their way of collectivizing the world. Thus it must be purged from our lessons to the young. The real man resolves to fight this. He chooses to be in life what in essence he must be - a warrior for truth, a rock of granite, a seeker, a builder, a hero.

Clint Eastwood has exemplified such traits all his life. The weasels dislike him, and the naked emperors try to smear him with sociobabble. But there is a strain of man out there that knows his kind are the Atlases who hold up the world, that America was exceptional because she unleashed such men to climb as tall as they could dream. What we need so desperately today is for these kind of men to rise up and show massive disrespect toward the despots of Washington. Hoorah for Clint Eastwood.

Nelson Hultberg is a freelance writer in Dallas, Texas and serves as the Director of Americans for a Free Republic, www.afr.org, an educational organization founded to promote sound money and fair taxation. Mr. Hultberg's articles have appeared in publications such as The Dallas Morning News, The American Conservative, The Freeman, Liberty, and on numerous Internet sites such as The Daily Bell, Financial Sense Online, and Safe Haven. He is the author of a soon to be released book, The Golden Mean: Libertarian Politics, Conservative Values.