The Dog started out to write a dairy deriding the "Howler Monkey’s of the Left", but as happened so often in his life, Mrs. Dog saved him from a major mistake. Talking it through with her, she pointed out that there were issues were the Dog was, um, errr, Howler Monkey-ish. That got the ol’ hound thinking, what is the root cause here (since the Dog is a 6 Sigma Black Belt for work, it is kind of natural)? The answer, in the Dogs somewhat (okay, not even a little) humble opinion is that it is a lack of being able to spot when one is being a Howler Monkey that is the problem, not the actual, real and reasonable (at least to the person posting the diary) concerns that they are writing about.
With this in mind, the Dog is offering some simple ways to figure out if you have written a Howler Monkey of the Left dairy. It is just the Dog’s opinion, but having been there more than once this calendar year, the Dog thought that it might be helpful. If it is, great! It is it not useful, well, sorry, the Dog gave it his best.
So, what are the signs of a HMoL dairy? There seem to be a few. First off the tone is really angry, and not in a good-get-me-motivated way. If you find that your dairy is premised on being betrayed, that is a probably a good sign that you are in a tree, covered with fur and are howling. This is not to say that you are necessarily wrong about the betrayal, but be mindful that others might not see it as betrayal or that the issue is as important as it is to you.
Another aspect of these types of diaries is that they tend to assume that we are in someway monolithic in our concerns and our prescriptions for addressing them. We are after all the left, and worse, Democrats. Getting Dems together and keeping them that way is like trying to herd cats, hopped up on crank, through LA, during an earthquake, in the rain. That has always been true and seem likely to continue for the foreseeable future. Knowing this means that you should always be thinking of how to persuade the readers to your point of view. Assuming their support is more likely to get you a lot of snarky comments and that little animation of the two heads running around yelling "Oh Noes!", and no one wants that.
The final aspect of these dairies is that they assume that if there is not immediate and aggressive action, then horrible things, irreversible things, will happen. That is a understanding, though it sure feels that way. In politics very little is forever. In fact our system is set up to make that so. If you are concerned to the point of becoming a Howler Monkey, then it might be worth taking a step back and thinking it through. If you are going to be active in politics (and it is the most concerned, and often most active among us that go HM) then you have to be ready to lose. It is not that you should ever plan to lose, or go in thinking you will, but it is a zero sum game most of the time, so someone is going to lose. It might be you. That does not make it the last battle or the end of the world. It is just the end of that phase of the fight.
There is nothing wrong with caring passionately about the political issues that face this country. If anything we need more of that. So, there can be nothing wrong with trying to make people aware of the issues that you follow. It is just that the Dog thinks that you will be more effective and happier with the response if you try to keep from getting to the HM side of the equation with your dairies. If you find that you failed (as the Dog is sure he will fail at least once in 2009) then don’t get despondent if your diary does not go over well. Just take it as a learning experience and try to figure out how to get the ignorant and apathetic rest of us off our asses. In the end, that is the reason that you posted, right? If you miss once, try something different.
There it is, the way to recognize if you have become a Howler Monkey of the Left. What do you think?
The floor is yours