“The infliction of cruelty with a good conscience is a delight to moralists. That is why they invented Hell.” Bertrand Russell 1872-1070: “Skeptical Essays (1928)
POLITICS
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Stepford Politics.”
”Does a Sarah Palin really matter? Won't there be countless reinventions of mediocrity to strut and rant upon the media stage? The public remains hypnotized by the sham of so called representation while the true goals of the House and Senate are to increase the wealth of the actual ruling class thereby realizing the logical outcome of capitalism--full scale economic global de-stabilization, a seamless power grab at cyber speed.Welcome to the brave new world of new age acceptance; ain't it empowering to know all your carrots were merely sticks to keep you performing your useless tricks? Political correctness, gender equality, double income, Mcmansion mortgage, whole fool diets, minimum slave wages, union busted, baloney education, oh, and sex, sex, sex! Social "gains" that merely ensure the steady erosion of the individual. Wonderful social engineering! Then unleash a climate of fear and confusion to achieve the final answer -- obedience. Welcome to the New Slave World.”
“WASHINGTON – An investigation by the military has concluded that American airstrikes on Aug. 22 in a village in western Afghanistan killed far more civilians than American commanders there have acknowledged, according to American military officials.” (Eric Schmitt, The New York Times 10/08/08)
“The Bush administration this month is quietly cutting off birth control supplies to some of the world’s poorest women in Africa. Thus the paradox of a ‘pro-life’ administration adopting a policy whose result will be tens of thousands of additional abortions each year—along with more women dying in childbirth.” (Nicholas D. Kristof, The New York Times 10/09/08)
I hate it when my students quote the dictionary, but a recent essay in The New Republic (“Death Defying: Heroism’s grip on the political subconscious,” John B. Judis 10/22/08) has compelled me to do exactly that. My dictionary has 14 different meanings of “character.” The two I want to single out are, 4, moral or ethical strength, and, 9.a., a notable or well-known person. Regarding this second definition, the point of Judis’s article is that “heroism,” as it applies to the American public’s opinion of what makes a good leader, is a far more important aspect of presidential elections than “moral or ethical strength.”
According to Judis, unlike parliamentary governments, where the prime minister dictates policy and oversees legislation, the American president functions as both head of state and political leader. Judis cites George Mason, delegate from Virginia to the first U.S. constitutional convention, in defining the presidency as an “elective monarchy,” which only makes sense if we think of how King George W. Bush has managed the office. This would explain why an actor, like Ronald Reagan, was so attractive to the electorate. We care less about policy issues than matters of character. We would much prefer Shane to Jimmy Carter, or Arnold Shwarzenegger (if he were American born) to Dennis Kucinich.
In essentially applying a Freudian psychoanalytical reading to the uniquely American psychological attraction to heroic candidates, Judis argues that stories like McCain’s “resonate with Americans’ deepest fears and hopes about their own mortality.” In other words, our fear of death, what Freud described as our repression of the death instinct, “thanatos,” is assuaged by those who live with risk, overcome danger, and altruistically resurrect themselves after surviving a rite of passage that results in a state of rebirth rather than death. If Dorothy from “The Wizard of Oz” were to run, she would win in a landslide (would that Sarah Palin demonstrate Dorothy’s wisdom). Judis, of course, cites Joseph Campbell’s “Hero With a Thousand Faces,” but he might just as well have quoted Mircea Elliade, or Clifford Geertz on the Christian (supernatural and monothestic) co-option of pagan (anthropomorphic and polytheistic) hero-stories.
Judis’s point is that because our innate fear of death must be constantly repressed, lest we walk around in a paranoid psychosis over our ultimately impending doom, we look for embodied analogues (other humans) that represent what it means to ignore our own fear of death.
What we should take from this is that, in the words of Tina Turner, “we don’t need another hero.” And so as Bush rides off into the sunset, we need to radically reinvent ourselves, which is, after all, a quintessentially American trait; and reject the long held American-Frontier-Western-Myth of redemption through violence which can only undermine the repositioning of America’s place in the post-twilight of empire; and courageously shout at the top of our collective lungs, “Shane, DON’T come back.”
POLITICS
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Stepford Politics.”
”Does a Sarah Palin really matter? Won't there be countless reinventions of mediocrity to strut and rant upon the media stage? The public remains hypnotized by the sham of so called representation while the true goals of the House and Senate are to increase the wealth of the actual ruling class thereby realizing the logical outcome of capitalism--full scale economic global de-stabilization, a seamless power grab at cyber speed.Welcome to the brave new world of new age acceptance; ain't it empowering to know all your carrots were merely sticks to keep you performing your useless tricks? Political correctness, gender equality, double income, Mcmansion mortgage, whole fool diets, minimum slave wages, union busted, baloney education, oh, and sex, sex, sex! Social "gains" that merely ensure the steady erosion of the individual. Wonderful social engineering! Then unleash a climate of fear and confusion to achieve the final answer -- obedience. Welcome to the New Slave World.”
“WASHINGTON – An investigation by the military has concluded that American airstrikes on Aug. 22 in a village in western Afghanistan killed far more civilians than American commanders there have acknowledged, according to American military officials.” (Eric Schmitt, The New York Times 10/08/08)
“The Bush administration this month is quietly cutting off birth control supplies to some of the world’s poorest women in Africa. Thus the paradox of a ‘pro-life’ administration adopting a policy whose result will be tens of thousands of additional abortions each year—along with more women dying in childbirth.” (Nicholas D. Kristof, The New York Times 10/09/08)
I hate it when my students quote the dictionary, but a recent essay in The New Republic (“Death Defying: Heroism’s grip on the political subconscious,” John B. Judis 10/22/08) has compelled me to do exactly that. My dictionary has 14 different meanings of “character.” The two I want to single out are, 4, moral or ethical strength, and, 9.a., a notable or well-known person. Regarding this second definition, the point of Judis’s article is that “heroism,” as it applies to the American public’s opinion of what makes a good leader, is a far more important aspect of presidential elections than “moral or ethical strength.”
According to Judis, unlike parliamentary governments, where the prime minister dictates policy and oversees legislation, the American president functions as both head of state and political leader. Judis cites George Mason, delegate from Virginia to the first U.S. constitutional convention, in defining the presidency as an “elective monarchy,” which only makes sense if we think of how King George W. Bush has managed the office. This would explain why an actor, like Ronald Reagan, was so attractive to the electorate. We care less about policy issues than matters of character. We would much prefer Shane to Jimmy Carter, or Arnold Shwarzenegger (if he were American born) to Dennis Kucinich.
In essentially applying a Freudian psychoanalytical reading to the uniquely American psychological attraction to heroic candidates, Judis argues that stories like McCain’s “resonate with Americans’ deepest fears and hopes about their own mortality.” In other words, our fear of death, what Freud described as our repression of the death instinct, “thanatos,” is assuaged by those who live with risk, overcome danger, and altruistically resurrect themselves after surviving a rite of passage that results in a state of rebirth rather than death. If Dorothy from “The Wizard of Oz” were to run, she would win in a landslide (would that Sarah Palin demonstrate Dorothy’s wisdom). Judis, of course, cites Joseph Campbell’s “Hero With a Thousand Faces,” but he might just as well have quoted Mircea Elliade, or Clifford Geertz on the Christian (supernatural and monothestic) co-option of pagan (anthropomorphic and polytheistic) hero-stories.
Judis’s point is that because our innate fear of death must be constantly repressed, lest we walk around in a paranoid psychosis over our ultimately impending doom, we look for embodied analogues (other humans) that represent what it means to ignore our own fear of death.
What we should take from this is that, in the words of Tina Turner, “we don’t need another hero.” And so as Bush rides off into the sunset, we need to radically reinvent ourselves, which is, after all, a quintessentially American trait; and reject the long held American-Frontier-Western-Myth of redemption through violence which can only undermine the repositioning of America’s place in the post-twilight of empire; and courageously shout at the top of our collective lungs, “Shane, DON’T come back.”
1 comment:
Okay, I'm not popular culture literate so I had to google the context of the byline "We Don't need another Hero",as sung by Tina Turner.
The message is (once again) anti-war,anti-violence.
Gee ain't it impressive that the only protests that los Americanos dare to endorse and engage in are all basically acceptable displays of good P.R. for the rest of the planet's inhabitants.
That's because the vainglory of war protest is merely the annual group cheer myth that announces our collective superhero identity.
Hey! Judis I say thanos,shamos;it's really shame on us for NOT standing up for what really matters.For failing to effectively wield our power as a democracy.
Hey how about addressing some truly heinous acts perpetrated on our people by our people?
I'm talking about lack of health care,education,employment for US citizens.
I'm talking about making your voice heard about issues that impinge on your freedom on US soil.
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