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    前兆
    Redundancy of the week goes to Camille Paglia's Salon.com editor, who summarizes her column thus: "The assassination jokes and 'liberal' conspiracy theories on talk radio could be an ominous sign of things to come."

    Paglia herself says that her worries stem from listening to talk radio:

    With the national Republican party in disarray, an argument is solidifying among grass-roots conservatives: Liberals, who are now in power in Washington, hate America and want to dismantle its foundational institutions and liberties, including capitalism and private property. Liberals are rootless internationalists who cravenly appease those who want to kill us. The primary principle of conservatives, on the other hand, is love of country, for which they are willing to sacrifice and die. America's identity was forged by Christian faith and our Founding Fathers, to whose prudent and unerring 18th-century worldview we must return.

    In a harried, fragmented, media-addled time, there is an invigorating simplicity to this political fundamentalism. It is comforting to hold fast to hallowed values, to defend tradition against the slackness of relativism and hedonism. But when the tone darkens toward a rhetoric of purgation and annihilation, there is reason for alarm.


    I've never been a talk radio listener, so I can't really determine whether Paglia is accurately perceiving what she hears there. But the read I've gotten--from the Tea Party demonstrations, from my working-class relatives, from news sources, from blogs--is less aimed specifically at "liberals," who have always been in the cross-hairs of much of the American public, than at insider politicians and their hangers-on, who any sensible person knows are on both sides of the aisle. Of course liberals and Democrats are taking most of the heat right now; they are, in fact, in power. They control the presidency and both houses of congress, and they got there by campaigning on pharisaical displays of outrage at conservative and Republican nastiness and making promises that they would change the way things are done. Now that they're in power, of course, it's still politics as usual, only more so: favoritism (whether bestowed on an individual tax evader who happens to be in line for a cabinet post or on a labor union), fantastical levels of spending, and a war policy that has changed very little (despite all the rhetorical arabesques). Paglia baffles me by continuing to insist "what a fresh new breeze Obama represents in Washington." We all saw her susceptibility to charisma in the Clinton era, but at least then she had a rueful sense of self-awareness about it.

    Speaking of people who get Camille exercised, Julie Burchill is interviewed in the Guardian--hilarious and well worth reading as always:

    Bindel: You describe yourself as a "militant feminist". What does that mean to you?

    Burchill: "A girl who likes to have fun" ... and a lot of other stuff obviously. Someone who realises that women's human rights are more important than cultural "sensitivity". Like it's sensitive to cut someone's clitoris off! Someone who doesn't give a toss about the approval of others - men and women.

    A woman that cheeks and insults men, righteously and politically, but also for kicks and fun. I like men and get on much better with them one to one than I do women, who can be a bit emotional. But part of what makes a man a man is that he never takes offence! When you see sad-sacks like, what was his name, Neil something [Lyndon, author of No More Sex War: the Failures of Feminism]. "Men's Lib" - that's the opposite of a man, to me. Just shut up and take your lumps. And then we can all have a laugh.

    Obviously, having had the father I had I have very high expectations of men. On the whole, in the west, where feminism has made its mark, I think they've done great. It's so lovely that even in prison, men who aren't touchy-feely have to be stopped from beating up rapists - not just child molesters, but rapists of grown women. It's a shame that educated middle-class leftwing men can't take feminism on board so effectively.

    Bindel: I much prefer women to men. A lot of them are emotional cripples. Have you not found that? Are we such different feminists do you think?

    Burchill: I don't want to hear about every last thing someone is feeling. I think most men have it about right. All men should be like my dad!


    ...

    Bindel: Is your Christian faith still important?

    Burchill: I would rather be a Jew. I find it hard to think of myself as an Anglican while the head of the church is a cowardly suck-up like Rowan Williams. I'm hoping that Dr John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York, will get the gig next. He's my absolute hero.

    Bindel: Why would you want to be a Jew?

    Burchill: I love everything about the Jews. But I probably won't become one, as I like the view from the outside. I will probably just remain a Christian Zionist; it's a long and honourable tradition.



    Via Alice.
    Posted by Sean on 2009-05-13 11:33:43
    Eric Scheie (mail) (www):
    "Political fundamentalism" is a useless, argumentative, and simplistic term -- ironically intended to mock simplistic conservative ideology, but which Paglia uses in a simplistic manner. Paglia should take more care not to conflate talk radio callers (activist "regulars" often steeped in WND paranoia) with genuine grass-roots conservativism -- least of all the Tea Party movement.
    5.14.2009 8:33am
    Sean Kinsell (mail) (www):
    I think the comparison she's making with religious fundamentalists is based on the idea of scriptural inerrancy and direct interpretation--in this case, applied to the Constitution and not the Bible. But yeah, the word fundamentalist has become inflammatory in and of itself lately, and I'm not sure that any medium taken in isolation really captures the overall grass-roots thinking of any constituency.
    5.14.2009 8:59am
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