The Proverbial Pendulum
It’s probably safe to say that most people have heard of the concept of the swinging pendulum
with reference to society’s swing back and forth between liberal and conservative points of view
or even clothing styles; “what is old is new again.” Historians always say that a society that
doesn’t learn from its mistakes is bound to repeat them. But isn’t that what all societies do?
Time and again the same mistakes are repeated, over and over again, and those mistakes are
justified by claiming that the circumstances “are different this time,” or that our predecessors
weren’t as smart as “we” are today, or that now we have the ability to recognize and understand
our mistakes so that we can succeed this time. Whatever the justifications, societies will
continue to repeat their mistakes over and over again – it’s basic human nature.
The Tiara Theory can help us visualize this pendulum shift and understand the historical and
future impact to society of this swing.
First a quick review:
Recall that the Tiara Theory explains why, 1: Both the radical left and the radical right
are, for all intents and purposes, one and the same group. Their ultimate aim is to tear
down society; they are the anarchists of society. 2: The two most influential groups in
society are the anarchists and the silent majority; the latter needing to be pushed into
action to effect change and the former, whom are self-motivated and hell-bent on
breaking down society.
These two groups are the yin and yang of society and politics. The Tiara Theory is an attempt to
visualize, understand and analyze the sociopolitical swings within a society in order to be able to
recognize where a society happens to be at any particular time in its evolution. A society that
has the ability to view its developmental progress in an objectifiable and quantifiable fashion
relative to humanities’ pressures that push it from one extreme to another should be able to
control the relative swings between the extremes and thereby moderate the social effects that
tend to eventually destroy society.
Society’s sociopolitical distribution
Left-Wing
Progressives,
Radicals,
Hippies,
Greenpeace,
tree-sitters,
Cultists,
militants…
Anti-Establishment Types
(Anarchists-Fascists)
Right-Wing
Separatists,
Abortion Doctor
bombers,
Religious zealots,
Cultists,
militants…
Also recall that the Tiara Theory says that both of the ends of the sociopolitical distribution for
any society are actually the same group which brings about the Tiara Curve shown below.
Society’s radicals provide a
fixed reference point by which
to compare the rest of society.
For simplicity I use the two dimensional Bell Curve with an arch that ties the two radical ends
together in order to imply the three dimensional aspect of the Tiara shape. This shape I call the
Tiara Curve. The Tiara Curve will allow me to show relative relationships more clearly. One
should keep in mind that while the radical left and radical right are on opposite ends of the Tiara
Curve, they are still one and the same, and therefore the tie between them.
The Tiara Curve
Now add the swinging pendulum.
The diagram below shows the shift of the American sociopolitical psyche as described by The
Tiara Theory overlaid by the depiction of the “proverbial swinging pendulum.” This
demonstrates what all of us realize innately of how a society’s morays and morals change over
time.
Here we can see some major shifts in American society from times that, in retrospect, can be
considered as being liberal or conservatively leaning and some major precipitating events that
culminated with the change of direction in the “pendulum,” or more accurately, the change in
society’s morays and morals.
1910’s - Two World
Wars and the Great
Depression
1960’s - Vietnam War and
spawn of the Hippy Culture
Societal Liberal Shift
2008 – Housing
Collapse, National
Healthcare & Trillion
Dollar Deficit spending
Societal Conservative Shift
Here we can see the relatively liberal nature of American society around the turn of the 20th
century as shown as the blue Tiara Curve. We were a society going through an industrial
renaissance that moved people off the farms and into the cities. This created a growing middle
class that had disposable income that was being spent on new fandangled machines that made
our lives easier. The roaring 20’s with jazz, flappers and risqué woman’s clothing typified this
era and was abruptly brought to an end by two world wars and a great depression that lasted
more than a decade and was exacerbated by the dust bowl. The result was that hundreds of
thousands were out of work and standing in soup lines. Society was moving to from a liberal
leaning one to a much more conservative one as shown by the top arrow pointing to the right. It
was time for us to rebuild our personal and the country’s wealth.
By the end of the second World War, we had changed into a conservative leaning country as
shown by the red Tiara Curve above. America was in a rebuilding phase from about the early
1940s through the early 1960s. At this time, life was again stabilized and incomes were rising
for the middle class and, once again, it had more disposable income and we wanted to spend it.
Human nature being what it is, whenever life becomes easy our society tends to shift from
conservative thinking mindset to a more liberal one as can be seen by the middle arrow above
that points to the left. This shift is exemplified by the Hippy movement of the late sixties and the
protests of the Vietnam War.
The latest shift of the American psyche from conservative to liberal began in the early 1970s and
seems to have peeked around 2008, at the time of the collapse of the housing market that
whipped out much the middle class’ perceived riches. The culmination of several financial
bubbles spurred by mismanagement of the economy by local, state and the Federal Government
put millions of Americans in deep financial trouble. I believe that this is the beginning of the
next swing of the pendulum from a liberal mentality to a conservative one. The birth of the grass
roots movement called the TEA Party (which stands for Taxed Enough Already) represents the
growing countervailing force that is pulling the American psyche back from a decidedly liberal
bent.
You will notice that the changes in society are instigated by two different emotions; fear and
complacency. The fear is usually instilled by a sense of economic threat that is brought on by
either war, famine, epidemics or government financial mismanagement and complacency is the
disillusionment brought on by easy living which destroys the human spirit that keeps us striving
to produce, build, work and achieve goals.
By itself the “swinging pendulum” doesn’t tell us much unless we can quantify its swing by
referencing the relative shift in society, which the Tiara Theory attempts to do.
As can be seen in the diagram above, our society has gone through a complete cycle from liberal
to conservative and then back to liberal in about 90 to 100 years. But how liberal is our society
today as compared to, say, the Roaring 20’s? (That’s 1920’s) As I look back on old newsreel
footage of the Roaring 20’s, (not having been around at that time, I can only refer to historical
documentation of events to judge how ‘liberal’ people were at that time) we are treated to images
of a time when women were dancing, smoking and drinking in public. “Flappers” and jazz
music were the rage. The stock market was booming and money was relatively easy to come by
for most workers. The key understanding here is “relatively.” The Tiara Theory attempts to
explain human nature and decision-making in “relative” terms, i.e. relative to other times, places
and social conditions throughout history. The theory juxtaposes various periods of our history in
an attempt to quantify the relative shifts of society. It compares the “relative” amount of
liberalism and conservatism which we look back upon, and observe what that particular period
had, relative to what we seem to have today.
It is my belief that the Obama administration’s radical left-wing, i.e. progressive ideology,
spurred the emergence of the TEA Party which might become the countervailing force that will
cause our society to move back to a more balanced (centrist) position, and eventually to a
considerably more conservative society in 45 to 50 years.
In any society, as social change takes place it initially starts out as the correction to some real or
perceived injustice or wrong that is prevalent within the society. Over time activists eventually
begin to make inroads to correct the injustices. Initially this progress is very slow. In very
controlled societies, like many of those “Eastern Societies” that are ruled by tyrants, oligarchies,
dictators and the like, this initial step can take many decades to mature because of the power that
the state has to crush its dissenters. (This has changed recently with the advent of technology
and social networking wherein individuals can video any aggression of an oppressive
government and immediately broadcast it around the world for everyone to see.) Once the initial
inroads for change are made in a society the momentum picks up quickly and a real national
discussion begins to take place.
Because human nature is a constant, once the “radicals” of society achieve their initial goals,
they don’t stop there, they become increasingly radicalized and their goals continually shift
farther and farther from mainstream acceptance. It’s as though they view their own sociopolitical position on the Tiara Curve as being fixed relative to the general population, so as they
become successful in moving society as a whole in their direction, they to move closer to a
radical position on the Tiara Curve. Eventually, if they are successful in moving society far
enough in one direction, they become the radicals of the left or right, i.e. the “wingnuts.”
We can observe this social progression in pretty much every social movement throughout
history, for example the women’s movement. Keep in mind that individuals and groups are
always struggling for equality or some kind of acknowledgement of their existence, but at some
point in the timeline of the movement’s efforts, there is a precipitating event that marks the
beginning of a movement from an historical point of view. With that in mind, the women’s
movement in America began somewhere around the 1840’s. (Of course there have been woman
struggling for rights throughout history, but I have to pick some point time for illustration
purposes, and so I am using the 1840’s.) At that time, women were “fighting” for the rights to
vote and own property, two inalienable rights recognized by all of society today. Yet at that time
in history the women whom were leading the struggle for change were viewed as extremist
radicals. By the time the Women’s Suffrage movement began, American society was a relatively
conservative society, especially viewed by today’s far more liberal society. So, to be considered
an extreme radical at that point in time would place the woman’s movement towards the extreme
left of society in general, and consequently the Tiara Curve might look something like this:
1840’s Women’s
Suffrage Movement
Society as a
whole
If we were to superimpose this snapshot of 1840 society over a snapshot of today’s society, it
might look something like this:
Contemporary
society (today)
Women’s Suffrage
Movement 1840’s
1840’s society
compared to today
The 1840’s Tiara Curve is shown shifted to the right, narrower and taller than that of today
because I believe that our society at that time was far more conservative than today’s, which
accounts for the right shift. I think that it was also a considerably more ordered society, which
accounts for it being narrower and taller than today’s curve. By “ordered”, I am referring to
society’s general acceptance of certain beliefs, morals and behavior. For instance, the Oriental
cultures, especially the Japanese, are very ordered societies where the family unit is extremely
strong and demands strict conformity from all its members. The Tiara Curve for this type of
society would be very tall and narrow and right shifted with respect to a less ordered society.
You would also notice that the women’s movement of 1840’s would line up with mainstream
society today. And this is in fact the case. Today, we as a society implicitly accept the concept
of equal rights, not only for women but for all ethnic groups as well. The acceptance of these
rights for everyone in society has been codified into our laws so that we can never again return to
a patriarchal society.
The Women’s movement was successful in transforming our society and achieving equal rights
for women. But once it had succeeded, instead of closing up shop and calling it a day, the
mindset of the movement continued to morph and to take on more radical positions. Just like
government programs, social organizations evolve to the point where they exist solely to
perpetuate their own existence and the benefits that they are supposed to provide society as a
whole become secondary or tertiary issues.
If we were to consider N.O.W. (National Organization for Women) to be representative of the
women’s movement in today’s society and contrast it to the women’s movement of the 1840’s it
would probably look something like this:
Contemporary
society (today)
Women’s Suffrage
Movement 1840’s
Women’s Movement
today. N.O.W. National
Organization for Women
1840’s society
compared to today
As you can see, social movements never end they simply continue to evolve and become more
radicalized over time. Whereas the goals of the Women’s movement were pretty clear initially,
it still took many, many decades for society to come around and accept their views as part of
mainstream American thought. But today’s Women’s movement goals are less obvious. Since
all of the main injustices against women in the past have been addressed, rectified and codified
into existing law, in order to justify their existence the current crop of feminists have morphed
into ideologs that aren’t promoting the interests of ALL women but are only promoting the
interests of their own radicalized feminists clan. Their actions make their ultimate goals
transparent for us all to see. For several decades N.O.W. has consistently excoriated
conservative women politicians, business women and women whom express a traditional
woman’s role in society, for not toting the feminist line while at the same time ignoring the
unfair treatment of these same women. One needs only compare the treatment of Hillary Clinton
to that of Sara Palin to see the blatant hypocrisy of the current women’s movements and N.O.W.
specifically. Most women’s movements have turned into the equivalent of roaming rabid dogs
seeking out the weak, i.e. non-feminist women, in society and tearing them apart. Of course,
their attacks aren’t solely focused on women, men are still on their hit list but you can see when a
social movement, or government program for that matter, has run its course when they start
eating their own.
I don’t profess to be any kind of an expert on the current Women’s Movements, but it seems to
me that like Unions, they have outlived their usefulness specifically because they have been so
successful in getting laws enacted to prevent the kinds of abuses that they originally organized to
fight against. Yet, too many people earn their livelihood from these organizations and they
aren’t about to walk away from the golden trough. As long as they are able to keep the cash
flowing, they will continue to do whatever they have to in order not to become irrelevant.
But it is these liberals who are creating the heavy handed over-bearing governmental agencies
that are everyday taking away more and more rights from every American. They are actually
building the type of tyrannical government that they see themselves actually fighting against.
One day soon, liberals will wake up and find that they have been wrong all along, and that they
are now under the thumb of a government that they created. And the pendulum has begun to
swing back!
When taken to the extreme, which is where we find ourselves today, demagogy leads us to the
ultimate practice of “political correctness”. Political correctness is really the process by which
the extreme fringes of society, the wingnuts, have been successful in persecuting the rest of the
population for using common sense. By eliminating common sense as the basis, or starting
point, for any reasonable discussion about anything, especially politics, we are left with a void
wherein utter lunacy reigns. Part of this process is to redefine common word usage which we see
today with the “Political Correctness” speech imposed upon us by the left wing ideologues and
enforced by the liberal lapdog media. At this point anyone can present any position or opinion as
being as valid as any other position on a subject regardless of how idiotic, unbelievable or
improbable it may be. This opens the door to a complete rewrite of history and starting point to
push radical ideas.
This process is by no means the sole realm of the liberals as we see it being practiced today.
Throughout history it has been employed by the fanatical religious types in Western Europe and
America, and in fact we can see it being used today in the Middle East by Muslims.