It's called 'Will.' The Nazi's used the concept to the hilt even making a movie Triumph of Will. There are two kinds. One the torch lite massed parades of thousands both troops and massed civilians all acting as one to the sound of one voice. It was an out growth of the plato, hegel, kant and Nietsche philosophy setting aside reason, especially individual reason, You see the exact same thing every four years at the conclusions of each day in a Republic and AND a Democratic Convention. The ultimate foot ball rally for war. Alexander Nevsky and Battleship Potemkin by Sergei Eisenstein and Triumph of Will by Leni Riefenstahl are the early 20th century examples and depict the same 'mass hysteria' as any Insurance Company Rally of the late 1900's

The second kind is a national will no longer found in the USA - a hard belief in the superiority of the Constitution and the democratically and freely elected representative form of government The Republic and this kind came about because of the collective use of individual reason. We don't have the second any more We do have the every four years natinal charade but then we don't have freely and democratically elected open elections anymore where the vote does count. Just momentary mass hysteria. pitting one branch of socialism against another no matter they are interchangeable mass manufactured parts. themselves of little moment.

The kind we are missing is the Will To Win after years of a lack of national leadership and a lack of faith or reason in the offerings of the party system neither it's left wing nor it's right wing.

One can watch the closing of a convention and easily, mentally,transpose the figures of those early Eisenstein and Reifenstahl movies over Democrats and Republicans alike.

What is left is not conviction of reason nor triumph of will just emptiness and the true heroes are those sweeping up the leavings in a cold, dark, empty auditorium. The only honest part of these conventions. Sweeping up the leavings.

Something like the feeling in a stomach that has just vomited an excess of rubber chicken dinners.

A re-enactment of a long series of meaningless conventions and even more meaningless leaders.

Not the State of Mind needed to successfully prosecute a war, a football game or a debate.

Just Carville and and Lakoff grinning from the the wings Boehner and Reid driving silently back to the chambers of congress and dissolve to a cartoon of that picture ....the caption. P.T Barnum is alive and well we fooled them one more time.

The auditorium now almost cleaned holds the odor of hopelessness - that is your state of mind. One More War. One more step in a dark tunnel which will never show a light much less an end. The state of mind is 'emptiness.' The troops in Vietnam had the proper frame of mind as they geared up mentally 'Don't mean nothing. Don't mean a thing. It's just a thing.'

Our legacy to the nation with the contempt we felt for the nation...and that is your state of mind today as it searches for non-existence. It's the Triumph of Despair. Hard to ruck up and win wars whose outcome 'don't mean a thing.'

JohnPE going back to the original question one would have to define 'we.' We as in Obama standing alone with using the plural form of describing his royal status as in etat ce'st moi? Or 'we' the government's current executive branch? The whole government? The State Department standing alone? Never mind the general public and the preponderance of the majority of citizens? Perhaps the media is the 'we?' On the other hand it could be the 'we' who are the collective Chamberlains of our times? The same 'we' that our against nuclear because it can reach out and touch you anywhere in the world? The 'Swedish' variety 'we'?

So many choices so little information...so little time.

Or maybe we who now stand on the sidelines watching those who committed. us to do battle in the past and then turned against those of us you sent to those areas. Those of us committed now or in the past who look back to our own country and say "you got what you voted for what you asked for? Deal with it. Live with it or - die with it. The chickens are returning home ready to roost - in your neighborhood? You are now standing on the front lines. It's what you asked for - is it not?" Watch that flock scatter squawking as they run." No where to run the consequences of your actions are 'here.'

I think pop some corn top off the beverage of choice and watch the extended version of National Charade presents street theater at it's most ludicrous.

Good post!!!

I have, to be honest, never read nor heard it framed or reframed in quite that fashion before. pluralism = collectivism but those folks usually are anti-weapons The rest describe the RINO mentality - deliberately is a new one and no clue as to it's meaning could be neo-feudalism, ne?-aristocracy or half way between constitutionalism and anarchy. This one is hard to pin down as it keeps changing .....I might ask where do you view yourself on the vertical or horizontal descriptive spread of systems? What do you view as 'the center in both up down and left right? How do you define war? Certainly not in the terms of a soldier I think a bit more political than any combatant would choose.