Bending The Map

I read somewhere that one of the last things a lost hiker does before starting to panic is to "bend the map". In other words, they begin to imagine that the small hill on their left looks a lot like the mountain shown on the map and the little bend in the creek up ahead corresponds to a river that points the way home. Of course, none of this is true. It's just that in their state of bewilderment they seek to bend the map to meet the picture in their mind rather than acknowledging the reality of being lost.

Wretchard quotes one of my least favorite authors, Jane Smiley, who writes in Slate,

The election results reflect the decision of the right wing to cultivate and exploit ignorance in the citizenry. ... Ignorance and bloodlust have a long tradition in the United States, especially in the red states. There used to be a kind of hand-to-hand fight on the frontier called a "knock-down-drag-out," where any kind of gouging, biting, or maiming was considered fair. The ancestors of today's red-state voters used to stand around cheering and betting on these fights. [Source]

There isn't a lot of soul searching going on here - just bitterness and condescension.

In the hated NYT a New Yorker laments,

"I'm saddened by what I feel is the obtuseness and shortsightedness of a good part of the country - the heartland," Dr. Joseph said. "This kind of redneck, shoot-from-the-hip mentality and a very concrete interpretation of religion is prevalent in Bush country - in the heartland." [Source]

James Taranto reports in an article titled, The Blue Cocoon about how disconsolate New Yorkers and certain establishment types are feeling about losing the election. Somehow they can't accept that it was the poverty of their ideas that had anything to do with it. No, to them it has to be some sinister conspiracy or just the sheer stupidity of those red-staters.

The Capital Times reports on the depression and hopeless of many of John Kerry's supporters at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, WI

"But as the hours wore on, what she saw on the TV was almost identical to Al Gore's loss, and Kuriakose began to lose hope that her fellow Americans sufficiently shared her outrage over Bush's "misleading statements, his unilateralism, his destruction of international relations." [Source]

I guess I can't blame these people. If Kerry had won I have to admit I'd be searching high and low to see if he "stole the election" and I would probably wonder if the nation had lost it's collective mind.

I suppose that "bending the map" happens to all of us at one time or another. It's the next step that counts when you have the choice of taking careful stock of yourself and your situation or lapsing into fatal panic and hysteria.

Posted by jdmays at November 5, 2004 08:02 PM | TrackBack