The Truth of Art - "That Lying Son of Bitch Johnson" Division.

Christopher Fountain points out the following:

Lowlife imitates art

Fired drive-through bully explains:

[Rachel], you should know that I never planned to say the things I said to you that day, and how I said them. I planned to peacefully participate in the August 1st YouTube post where Jackson Pearce asked people to simply order a large water to show support for the gay community.

But when I got to your window, after seeing all the people in and outside the restaurant that came to support Chick-fil-A, I lost it. I just lost it. I couldn’t believe the number of people came out to support a corporation that associates themselves with anti-gay groups, like Exodus International and the American Family Association.

(From Forrest Gump) Boyfriend Wesley explains to Jenny why he had to smack her around:

Jenny? Things got a little out of hand. It’s just this war and that lying son of a bitch Johnson and…

Actually, that's an interesting explanation on the part of Adam Smith.

Look at what he says caused his "near-psychotic break" - "But when I got to your window, after seeing all the people in and outside the restaurant that came to support Chick-fil-A, I lost it. I just lost it."

What Smith is saying is that he was surprised at the number of people who disagreed with his position. Perhaps he was surprised that there were such people or that they were sufficiently motivated to turn out, but whatever the real reason was, the genesis of his break was his surprise that there were so many people who disagreed with him.

It makes sense that in a fit of cognitive dissonance, he would "break" as he tried to make reality conform to his mental structure of reality by seeking to explain away what he was seeing, i.e., everyone else was deluded or evil or ignorant or whatever.

So, he suffered a "break."

The real issue is why was he surprised?

The answer is, obviously, that the other side has been marginalized to such an extent that liberals can go through their life without confronting the uncomfortable reality that there are real people who disagree with them and that these real people aren't the caricatures of evil they expect. And, so, when that happens, a person like Smith begins to treat real people - even innocuous, minimim-wage employees - according to the caricature.

Prudence, according to Joseph Pieper, is the foundation of ever virtue. Prudence is nothing more than the habit of the intellect that recognizes reality itself. Without prudence, we can't hope to exercise the other virtues, such as justice or love.