Saturday, December 28, 2013

Camile Paglia agrees with The Phantom

Nice to see somebody famous for being smart saying lots of the things I've been saying for years and years.

She starts by pointing to the diminished status of military service. "The entire elite class now, in finance, in politics and so on, none of them have military service—hardly anyone, there are a few. But there is no prestige attached to it anymore. That is a recipe for disaster," she says. "These people don't think in military ways, so there's this illusion out there that people are basically nice, people are basically kind, if we're just nice and benevolent to everyone they'll be nice too. They literally don't have any sense of evil or criminality."

The results, she says, can be seen in everything from the dysfunction in Washington (where politicians "lack practical skills of analysis and construction") to what women wear. "So many women don't realize how vulnerable they are by what they're doing on the street," she says, referring to women who wear sexy clothes.

When she has made this point in the past, Ms. Paglia—who dresses in androgynous jackets and slacks—has been told that she believes "women are at fault for their own victimization." Nonsense, she says. "I believe that every person, male and female, needs to be in a protective mode at all times of alertness to potential danger. The world is full of potential attacks, potential disasters." She calls it "street-smart feminism."


On the same Drudge Report page with this article today is another one entitled "Female Marines Not Required To Do 1 Pull-Up". Under the Obama administration the Marines have been ordered to stop pretending that the chicks can keep up with the boys, and just take any female no matter how utterly unsuited for the physical reality of military service.

Go Camile!

The Phantom

4 comments:

black mamba said...

Neo-Neocon on the vexed question of why the hell Paglia won't just man up and vote Republican, or at least stop pretending to be some sort of leftist.

http://neoneocon.com/2013/12/28/and-speaking-of-camille-paglia/

The Phantom said...

My comment on that vexing question can be found here:

http://phantomsoapbox.blogspot.com/2012/10/more-paglia-camile-poses-with-shovel.html

I see that Neo-Neocon assumes some unreasoned feeeeelings in Paglia's voting record. "But I don’t think “reason” really had a lot to do with any of this for Paglia, although she would probably strongly disagree with me."

Watching Paglia operate on paper and on TV leads me to believe that was a rational decision, not an emotional one. She doesn't strike me as the kind of person who does things out of emotionalism, or flippantly.

Paglia has a mind like a razor strapped to a rocket. Sharp and FAST. Paglia did that math really quick and decided that being ostracized from The Arts wasn't worth it in 2012.

Can't really blame a girl for knowing which side of her bread is buttered.

The Phantom said...

Actually Mamba, as I re-read my piece posted here it was YOU, Black Mamba, who mentioned the career suicide thing. I put it down to burning stupidity and genius inhabiting the same body.

D'oh! Credit where its due, Black Mamba has more Real World smarts than The Phantom.

black mamba said...

"D'oh! Credit where its due, Black Mamba has more Real World smarts than The Phantom."

Well now that's the laugh of the century. Who would you rather had a look at your busted engine? Feh! Happy New Year, though, Phanty dear.