What were they thinking?

John C. Wright: Fire Gates

What was the board of directors of the Boy Scouts of America thinking when they selected Robert Gates to be President of the BSA? I mean, considering what he did to the military as Obama's Secretary of Defence (*), what in the hell did the Board imagine he'd try to do the the BSA?

Yet, this is no new thing; and, frankly, I'm more than a little surprised that the BSA has held out against Big Gay as long as they have, unlike the GSA, which long ago was subverted by organized lesbianism (**). For, even when I was a Scout, way back in the 70's (***), it was my opinion that the bureaucracy of the BSA wasn't really opposed to the destruction leftism was unleashing on the nation.

As one of the commentors on Wright's blog noted, the BSA have a hard time getting adult men to volunteer as leaders. This was true when I was a kid (it's the reason our troop folded) and I expect it's even more a problem today. At the same time, like all charitable organizations, landing a sinecure in its bureaucracy is a magnet for the sort of people we call "do-gooders", and worse, "social justice warriors". As with *all* charitable organizations, if both these sorts are not consciously and deliberately excluded, they will eventually take over -- aand then actively exclude those who do not share their twisted mind-set -- and they will deliberately subvert the original goals of the organization. This is what happened to the GSA.


(*) which title is itself Orwellian. The proper titles are 'Department of War' and 'Secretary of War'.

(**) You knew that, right? You knew that when you bought those over-priced cookies (that aren't all that tasty, anyway) you were financially subsidizing an organization whose sole remaining goal is to turn your daughters into miserable man-hating lesbians, right?

(***) My troop disbanded after I and a friend (the son of the previous Scout Master, and brother-in-law of the last Scout Master of the troop) were awarded Eagle rank in 1975. I had also been inducted into the Order of the Arrow a few years previous.

By nature, I'm not a joiner. I joined the Scouts when I was 11, because my "cousin", the one whose life I saved later that year, asked me to join his troop. When I was 12, I wanted to quit, but my father wouldn't let me (though my younger brother quit a year or two after he joined) ... This was probably related to his forcing me to go by myself into various utility offices, when my age was still in single digits, to pay the family's bills: he thought I was "shy" and he was trying to make me not shy.

In truth, I'm not at all shy; I'm reserved, which is a very different thing: until I think someone (or something) is worth my time, I prefer to keep him/it at arm's length. People always seem to want more from me than I can give them; keeping them as a distance is an attempt to minimize their disappointment in me.