Declarations of Disaster, Declarations of Invasion

What's Next? Do you know? Not sure I do

Hello again Friends,

A strange feeling sits on our shoulders as we ponder how to approach current events in Kinney County. Events we would seem to be too wrapped up in to comment on with any semblance of objectivity.

Kinney County Judge Tully Shahan, Image from July 5 News Conference, Courtesy: “The National Desk.”

Indeed, if one were watching the right livestream yesterday, you might’ve seen yours truly playing hot potato with a microphone and trying to keep things sort of organized, civil, and adult-like during what some would call an historic event in Kinney County.

We say it a lot, but for those who do not know, or haven’t been with us for long— the county seat of Kinney County is the town of Brackettville— and it is basically a two-stoplight Texas village. The town is home to an estimated 1700 folks. People estimate the county as a whole totals 3600 scattered between two towns, a retirement community, and the various ranches.

Last month, more than 4,000 illegal aliens came through the county, on foot, presumably mostly up from Eagle Pass, where they must have evaded Border Patrol, DPS, and the National Guard. Their passage is captured and documented on Operation Drawbridge cameras— a network of cameras hidden around the county which we’ve talked about a lot.

Anyway— we’re backing into the lead here, which is a journalistic sin. One we’ve been carping about at some people recently. Ugh.

We could type up a bunch of stuff, going into the nature of the declaration made here by County Judge Tully Shahan. We could type a bunch of stuff about what National Political figures like U.S. Congressman Chip Roy, Former Trump White House Official and Director of U.S. Customs and Immigration Services Ken Cuccinelli, and former head of U.S. Customs and Border Protection Mark Morgan might have said and what they might’ve meant. But there’s already a lot of words out there. A lot of video too.

We’ve got some links up. Other people are already chewing and digesting what has occurred. But we already can predict what at least one of the main throughlines will be— one of the primary angles some of the coverage will take.

At least a few will write articles suggesting that gullible rubes in Kinney County have been taken advantage of— led down the primrose path by crackpot Republican renegades from Washington. Silly rubes.

That’s a pity, but truth is, that was always going to happen.

In antiquity, Aristotle laid out the art of rhetoric and debate into three avenues. Ethos, Pathos, and Logos.

Ethos refers to an appeal based upon an individual’s expertise. Not the case here.

Pathos refers to the use of emotion in an argument. Sad tales. Tugs upon heartstrings. Stirring calls to action. Mockery and shame.

Logos is about logic and the structure of arguments. The cold crushing weight of inevitable thought and structure that identifies your favored solution.

Obviously in this case, the throughline in play that we are describing is a sample of pathos. Presumably the best and most effective arguments will use all three. “I am an expert on the border for these reasons: X, y, z.” “Things are bad— let’s hear about these disastrous happenings: A, b, c.” And finally— a conclusive sequence of proposals and possibilities: A plan of action that seems likely to yield results.

Sadly for most debate these days, people seemingly can’t seem to agree on what the facts are. Or if the facts even matter. Or what’s to be done about these facts anyway.

That means that as useful as arguments of Ethos and Logos once were— Pathos is what rules the roost now. If facts no longer matter— if logic barely holds a fraction of its old sway— then it is emotion that rules.

Sigmund Freud is widely discredited among most midwits who’ve taken a psychology class or two. Like a chattering pair of gum-toothed morons that sit around watching music videos all day:

Midwits will chuckle and mutter about penis envy, and oral fixations every time the Austrian’s name comes up.

Freud may not’ve had the keys to fully understanding Human psychology— but he was far and away beyond your average midwit. Even today, many of his thoughts and suppositions somehow manage to capture imaginations— helping people grasp onto possible explanations for unknowable behavior in others, and also showing up in all manner of literary and artistic themes.

His description of the id— a juvenile mental construct that focuses on the basest drives and instincts and must be reigned in and regulated by the super-ego and ego, is somehow a perfect distillation of what is left of rhetoric when dominated by Pathos. The “higher” standards of ego and super-ego are jettisoned, and all that is left is the feral drive that responds only to basic stimuli.

You see it all the time in all kinds of areas that are up for debate. Gun control, the border, green energy, drill baby drill, etc. Not sure what’s to be done, since we can’t even seem to agree on the most basic questions of what’s right and what’s wrong. It’s like we’ve all taken crazy pills. Or no one is willing to consider each others’ perspectives and find something that can work for everyone.

Friends we’ve known for decades, who confess freely to being die-hard Austin socialists tell us privately that they don’t know what to do. Join the club. It may be that no one of clear conscience knows what to do. Some things seem impossible to compromise on. Some things seem unthinkable to contemplate. And yet, everyone’s standing across the chasms of difficult-to-reconcile thoughts and positions.

What is one to do?

At the end of the day, when confusion is King, and one is forced to struggle between the arguments of Pathos on all sides— and can no longer trust the presentations of Ethos or Logos, one must settle upon what their own eyes can see, and what their own ears can hear. And they must exercise the gray matter between and behind them all.

On that stage in Kinney County Tuesday— between all of the Sheriffs, County Judges, and others, was without exaggeration 100’s and 100’s of years of experience in living on, working with, and existing on the border. All of them saying that the current crisis on the border is unlike anything that’s happened in their experience.

Who are you going to believe? People who live with the day to day? Or people in comfortable surroundings many miles away, trying to tell you that everything is fine.

Everything is not fine.

Thanks for reading. It may be that the declaration here in Kinney County winds up of small consequence. One hopes not. Time will have to tell, and it is impossible to know anything with certainty from the eye of a storm.

As always, we should point out that this newsletter is something that predates our employment with the county, and something we produce as independently as possible from our day job at the Sheriff’s Office. Some may be tempted to think this particular edition is criticizing events. If so, so be it. The seeming of objectivity may have been achieved.

Readers must use their own judgement and discretion no matter what we present them. We hope they’ll apply the same discernment elsewhere and decide for themselves: Are they being misled by Pathos? Or are they being convinced by Logos and Ethos? Catalogue recent decisions and thoughts. When was the last time you changed your mind? For good or bad?

Have a great day— we’ll see you again soon. Until then, keep those toes tapping and your head up and eyes on the horizon.