Shrewd as Serpents, Innocent as Doves

Do you all remember Pottermore? 

If it does not ring a bell, Pottermore was a Harry Potter fan website while I was in college. It was full of HP related games and trivia, and extra Harry Potter stories, all overseen by the author herself. But that is not why people went to Pottermore. No. Pottermore was where you took the most important test of your young life. Not the SAT. Not the ACT. Not Myers-Briggs, or the Wechsler, or whatever ISTEP nonsense was out there.

Pottermore offered to put you through the sorting hat. 

It asked you a battery of rotating questions, many of which had clear correlation to personality, and some of which were much more subtle. At the end of the quiz, you received your house assignment. I think virtually all of my college classmates went through this process at the time, and you could not escape hearing about it for a little while.

As a child, I pretended not to be able to read well after I had acquired the ability--because kids can be real dicks, right? The first major chapter book that I ever read was Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (obligatory rant about American title different because philosopher = snooze fest. Smack publisher. Smack smack.) I was completely hooked and reread the first and following books many times. And of course I was waiting with baited breath for this Pottermore quiz sanctioned by The Author.

I mean, I was Ravenclaw. I was obviously Ravenclaw. I was so obviously Ravenclaw, like, why even take the test??? Right?

Nope. Slytherin.

JK and I needed to have words about her sorting hat malfeasance. I, like Harry, rejected the judgement of the sorting hat and assigned myself to Ravenclaw, and I told everyone else I was a Ravenclaw. I read 150 books a year. I was the lawful-goody two shoes with a then 4.0, a near perfect work attendance record. I tried harder than anyone who tried before, and no one who needed help moving would get a no from me--however little I knew them. Slytherin did not fit my personal brand.

But now after years of experience and some reflection; I think back on that GPA. I knew for which professors I felt safe to write with my classical liberalism and conservatism in my voice and approach. I knew with which professors it was wiser to keep my stances an enigma. And I most especially knew those for which I would have to spin a little bullshit to succeed.

I think back further to the little boy who would not admit he could read until he was certain he would not embarrass himself in his efforts. Who could not stand to practice his piano where anyone could hear for fear it would be good enough. Who got pushed down a flight of stairs in kindergarten, got singled out by his kindergarten teacher on multiple occasions, who got made fun of and his friends joined in, and who learned to guard himself and who learned to use branding and natural gifts to approach the world from a position of strength.

And I think about who I am now, and it has been a while since I have embraced the label. I think I am a Slytherin. I embrace it. And most of all I think it is time to embrace Slytherin's house word: shrewd.

Shrewdness: to be marked by discerning awareness and hard headed acumen. 

Even when I fancied myself a Ravenclaw I also held myself to be a pragmatist with principals--someone who had a vision for what is true and beautiful and what should be...but not blind to the brokenness of the world and that which is. Understanding first principals and extrapolating from them what is best cannot distract from the reality of present circumstances and what must to done to lay the groundwork for moving toward the ideal. You cannot jump right there. 

Electric Works is not getting all the private funding it needs after 60 years of government subsidized suburban building that have been pushing all the money away from the core of the city since our grandparents were young. You hate pork. Fine. But recognize that the dysfunction that was downtown until 10 years ago was the result of decades of pork. We made these unnatural tides, and now we bear the cost of reversing them. Not your votes that made it happen? Welcome to earth, where men pay for the sins of their temporal fathers.

We have ceded the education of our children and the formation of their person-hood to experts who largely disagree with our mores and hate our philosophy. Our children think like them, but instead of looking to understand the philosophy of our opponents, how they won the allegiance of large portions of our younger generation, and why our communication is failing to bridge that divide, we use invective and call them and their ideology lazy, evil, and never engage in a meaningful way.

Conservative institutions are failing to prepare young and old conservatives to engage with and defend themselves with thoughtful and respectful discourse. It feels like the articles I read like to toggle between masturbating and yelling at clouds. There is no strategy. Just declamation and occasional fantasies of accelerationism.

The perfect cannot be the enemy of the good. Most especially when demanding nothing less than perfection cedes ground to evil.

The left outflanked us. Community organization is exactly the right idea. You need to prepare people to help their communities, defend their ideals, and get the most out of their government. We have sat by, cared only about our own, not watched our flanks, and failed to exercise power when we held it. We have filled our discourse with our outrage and our righteous indignation and it has won us nothing.

We CANNOT stick to the tribe. We must go out among the wolves. We must compromise, reason, and be humans in the eyes of our opponents. We need to take the inches where we can get them. The left did not gain their ground overnight, and if we ever make progress it will be but slowly. There will be no stirring Gettysburg moments with the union jack flapping behind us. It will be incremental. Bad policies to slightly less bad policies to tolerable policies. Grinding work. 

We need to be a damn sight better at the image we present to the world. Combative conservatism has got to go. Have courage. Give answer to the truth when the opportunity arises, but stop the name calling, the invective, and the oversimplification. No man is won to your cause by being called a fool, or a coward, or a tool. Stop it. You are masturbating, and you are obscene.

Argue in good faith. Understand where you opponent is coming from, so as to get to the core of his argument. Stay calm. Do not make ad hominem arguments. If they stoop, do not stoop with them. Christians do not belong in the mud. I have met people with whom I have conflicting core principles--these are not the people you will win, but it is possible to win their respect, and make a good showing to any who are watching.

Bluntness, as it turns out, is not a virtue. It is an approach that can be effective in some cases, but is frequently off-putting. Honesty, integrity, and forthrightness can be married with subtlety and cunning. There are wolves out there; no reason to start each engagement with our heads in their mouths.

The Gryffindors have been calling the shots for too long, and they have made a hash of things. I think it is time to start thinking like Slytherins.