Thursday, October 11, 2012

More Paglia, Camile poses with the shovel.

I find myself both impressed and disgusted with Camile Paglia today. She has an interview at Salon.com, which is I think an extremely important thing for us all to read.

She's got some good points and then she goes and throws it all away on the WRONG conclusion. To wit:

The biggest issue for me is the Obama administration's continuation of endless war, war, war.

That's a good point. The USA isn't winning anything, they're spinning their wheels in a public relations exercise which is directed toward making friends of people who really don't want to be friends with the USA.

Second is the appalling rise in the military and domestic use of drones.

That's something I've been pounding away at for several years now. Drones are a major danger to free society.

The way liberals lay down flat to accept this massive, totalitarian takeover of the American medical system was shocking to me.

Yep, Camile doesn't like Obamacare and thinks it is a totalitarian takeover. Which it is, so good point.

She even straightens out the interviewer when he says something idiotic:

Totally agree on two subjects, Afghanistan and the growing surveillance state. But it seems like those are issues brought up — we raise them, other progressives raise them a lot — but part of why it never comes up is because the Republicans are completely complicit and would likely be worse in both of those areas.

Camile Paglia: Wait a minute, hold it, no! Listen — a huge point I want to make is that the protest against the surveillance state has, with only a few exceptions, been mainly coming from the Right and not from the Left! Talk radio has been seething with this issue for years. A good example is talk-show host Mark Levin's "Liberty and Tyranny," which was a No. 1 New York Times bestseller three years ago and yet got very few mainstream reviews. Democrats have got to wake up! This is why the Republican Party has gained and why the Democratic Party is in disarray — because the Democrats have lost one of their key signature issues from 1960s leftism. Why has the GOP become the freedom party?

That's the first time I've seen -anybody- from the Left come out and say the truth about the Republican party and particularly the Tea Party. The DemocRats are the party of tyranny, and here's a Lefty come out and finally said it really loud and up in their face. Finally.

But then she she comes up with this stunningly stupid thing:

Kenny Lauerman: So then, why not vote for Romney?

Camile Paglia: I cannot cast a vote for a party that cast so many votes in the primaries for the vile Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum! The Democrats may be naive about institutions and economics, but the Republicans seem to be culturally and psychologically naive in imagining for a single second that Newt Gingrich is a deep and erudite thinker! I watched that boomlet happen, and I thought, "What world do Republican voters inhabit if they mistake Gingrich's glib, snickering, tittering snarkiness for depth and learning?"

So she's going to cut off her nose to spite her face and vote Green Party.

...I think that Mitt Romney is a moderate — like Nelson Rockefeller, who as governor of New York poured money into the state university system that educated me. Romney is an affable, successful businessman whose skills seem well-suited to this particular moment of economic crisis. Hence I want to use my vote to make a statement about my unhappiness with the Democratic Party and the direction it has taken.

She doesn't like TWO GUYS in the Republican party, who aren't even running, so she's going to vote for the most totalitarian bunch of pinkos available, the Green Party, as a "protest". Oh. My. Ghod.

This kind of juvenile vote protest crap is what I expect from idealistic punk kids who think anybody gives a shit how they voted. Throwing away your vote just splits the effort against the thing you're protesting and LETS IT WIN.

So despite all the good points and despite "getting it" about Barry and his totalitarian party, and despite all the sound and fury, she's really very stupid about this. She's posing with the shovel instead of filling the sandbags as the water is rising around her ankles.

If that seems a little harsh, consider this gem here:

The TSA's security policies are getting more and more bizarre, from testing people's drinks for explosives to ordering all travelers to freeze on command, but could a frightening policy that was seriously explored by the DHS be resurrected – forcing people to wear taser bracelets that would deliver an electric shock if they got out of line?

That links to InfoWars, but the research was from the Washington Times and a few other places, so I think its safe to say that its the real deal. Homeland Security was and probably still is considering taser bracelets for air travelers. To be fitted at the security checkpoint in the departing airport and worn until reaching the security checkpoint at the arriving airport.

And Camile Paglia is voting Green Party.

Genius really can dwell in the same body with utter, burning stupidity.

The Phantom

Update, welcome Five Feet of Fury readers!

10 comments:

WiFi Lunchbox Guy said...

This is why I said she was a leftie with a classical (rightist) education.
Paglia wouldn't vote Republican if an alien fleet appeared overhead and fried every Democrat on the planet.

The Phantom said...

Wifi, agree with you. Paglia is fundamentally unserious if the trivia she mentioned is what she's really decided her vote over.

I think the truth is she votes for who gives the most money to universities. Because that's where her bread is buttered.

lge said...

"So she's going to cut off her nose to spite her face" -- exactly; that's an apt description.

I think Paglia (like the late Christopher Hitchens) has a "lightning" brain. She flashes with brilliance, but she strikes all over the place; you never know where her mind is going to land on a given subject. There's no consistent, systematic order to her thinking, that I can see. It's very bright, but too random.

The Phantom said...

Hi lge. Whatever the reason, the reality is that faced with a regime that seriously considers taser bracelets for air travelers, she's voting for more of it.

Black Mamba said...

Another thing to bear in mind is that Paglia has been vilified by the feminist academic establishment - nitwits like Naomi Wolf and cynical old crones like Gloria Steinem - since she hit fame in the early '90s. Steinem, who'd like you to know that she's ever so nice and caring, said "Her (Paglia) calling herself a feminist is sort of like a Nazi saying they're not anti-Semitic."

Paglia is completely irrational on contemporary politics, and I'm not defending her. I mean she's clearly worked out how awful the Democrats are, and she is basically a libertarian conservative. Her refusal to vote Republican is cowardly. (Newsflash, Camille: none of the rest of us like them all that much either. They're just faute de mieux.) But she's in an environment where being accused of being right wing is far worse than being called a child-molester. Check out her mentor Harold Bloom's outright hysteria on the subject whenever it comes up (They accuse him a conservatism too, you see. So he feels the need to call Bush "Stalin". That's how scary it is for these people.)

So I guess my point is just that when you've been called a Nazi (i.e. closet Republican) for 20 years you might get defensive (also it's potential career suicide). Under her brashness Paglia is a somewhat prickly and insecure personality, as you can tell from her reaction to Madonna not returning her adoration or her silly but famous spat with happy warrior Julie Burchill from way back when.

The Phantom said...

Hi Mamba!

Upon reflection I think your point about potential career suicide is well taken. A person in her position, that being an ivory tower art wonk, couldn't publicly come out and say she's voting Republican unless she's prepared to duke it out with all her "friends".

However, having committed "career suicide" myself about four times in my life now, I have little sympathy. The fact that the above is true is the reason you have to do it.

Time to put on the big girl pants, you ask me. Or she should just admit she's not doing what she should be doing because she's afraid they'll hang her off a lamp post.

That could have considerable power too.

Jim MIller said...

Phantom - There is also a serious (and common) historical mistake in that Paglia interview, as I noted here: http://www.seanet.com/~jimxc/Politics/October2012_2.html#jrm11826

The Phantom said...

Hi Jim. Nice historical perspective on Afghanistan. I think the Russians had them solidly beaten too until the Americans gave Stinger missiles to the Afghans.

Camille doesn't seem to be clued very extensively on military issues, as you said.

Black Mamba said...

"Camille doesn't seem to be clued very extensively on military issues, as you said."

Well, she is, just not anything dating past about 200AD.

The Phantom said...

Must have forgotten old Alexander then eh? ~:)