Gleaned from a comment by Gooserock in DarkSyde's diary about the , YearlyKos book.
It stood out like a beacon in the swirling anger and hatred of the Evil Ones who hold our Kingdom in thrall, because it repeated, at the right time and place, Shakespeare's words,
"The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings."
--From Julius Caesar (I, ii, 140-141)
When we impute motive to others, as DarkSyde is doing in his rant about the Evil Ones holding our government in thrall, it's really easy to get all thrilled about the approval of our cohort. We can start turning phrases that energize the masses through their emotions, and lose the rational understanding in the heat of exhortation.
The Evil Ones aren't evil. I have a suspicion that DarkSyde doesn't believe in Evil, and I heartily applaud Gooserock calling "Halt!" to the slide down the slippery slope of rallying the troops.
It's easy to become Them while trying to pry Them from their stranglehold on our government, and thus our lives.
The battle raging in the progressive ranks about our relation to religion is not about Christ, or Mohammed, or even Tom Cruise. It's about the method of belief in things -- whether we are going to hold on to our reason while we are rallying our troops, or whether we are going to become Them in our need to successfully control Them.
Yes, the oligarchs have taken too much power, and yes, they are foolishly stinging us as we carry them across the river, and no, they don't look far enough, in their passion to power, to realize that we all drown.
But progressives can't cheat, or there is no point to this effort, on DailyKos, or anywhere else. It has been shown many times that becoming fools to fight fools makes us fools.
This is the lesson of revolutions. If we don't hold it as a banner, we'll fall for hatred and expedient battle cries that will snatch victory from our grasp, like tornadoes.
Here's a better path to think along in the search for effective strategies to rally the troops. It may be too complicated now, but "Let's all hate the Evil Other!" is far too simple. Let's work together to make a sane rallying cry, not just a mirror image of irrationality and self-destruction.
"The purpose of government is to restore the operation of Tit for Tat when that Great Game fails."
I'd really like the discussion to form around the understanding of reciprocal altruism and government's role in stabilizing it through legislation by democratic means, assuming, as Gooserock seems to above, that the voters are informed.
That's our function, to restore altruism by informing voters. NOT to inflame voters further. We don't need to appeal to peoples' fears and insecurity, however convenient that may seem. It's the road to the DarkSyde.