Letters to the Editor
William Timberman
Published Letters: 3298 Editor's Choice: 7
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Late night free-association OT talking blues
[Read the article: Follow-up to this morning's post re: Chris Matthews Show]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Reading Tom Englehardt's recent piece on Outsourcing Action in an Imperial World provoked a flood of incongruous, and faintly silly reflections of my own.
First of all, there was the similarity between his history and my own. We're only a year apart in age, and have similar personal histories, at least in the sense that we were both activists in the sixties, and have taken up the cudgel again after forty years, called into action by the Bush administration, which, in Paul Rosenberg's memorable metaphor, has become the full-fledged golem of Nixon. Shadow warriors now, rather than the real thing, we seem to have simultaneously decided that not going gentle into that good night is the imperative which both of us probably thought that we might honorably avoid.
Second, I think of Conan the Barbarian, a thoroughly disreputable movie which has stuck with me nevertheless. I ask you, has there ever been a fruitier recapitulation of faux warrior culture, and its mythological roots, in the history of our godless and rudderless America? I suppose that had mostly to do with the collaboration of John Milius and Oliver Stone in a throwaway Hollywood cartoon. There hasn't been anything quite like it in American film since William Faulkner was asked to write a screenplay for The Big Sleep.
And yet, and yet.... In particular, there's the scene in which Conan and his squeeze are introduced to King Osric, who's lost his daughter to a snake cult. Mako's wonderful voiceover, describing Osric, goes something like this:
Once a powerful Northman like my lord, but now old, and sotted.
Ah, yes. Save our sons and daughters, you who can still wield a sword. I understand the appeal perfectly, even though I didn't 25 years ago, when I first laughed at Milius and Stone's impossibly sustained corniness.
So now I ask, gearing up for my first peace march in forty years, where are all the Conans on the left these days? What happened to all those eager kids who flooded into Washington to work for the New Deal agencies, or hit the bricks in the Sixties against their erstwhile hero, LBJ? Can they really all have been seduced by Grover Norquist and Karl Rove? Have they really no interest in life other than the proper tailoring of a power suit, the proper mastery of the catechism of right-wing talking points, and a future of K-Street fee structures and pioneer contributor status to the campaign of whatever future putz the Republican Party runs for President?
Stay tuned....
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On typos, etc.
[Read the article: Drudge and the Politico -- poisonously joined at the hip]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The immediacy of blogging is one of its most vital characteristics; I agree completely that it's tedious to wait for a copy-editor to polish and give the go-ahead. With respect, it's also heartening to see that Glenn makes the same kind of first-draft mistakes that I and others make.
I do sometimes wish, though, that all of us had the after-the-fact control over our own comments which Glenn has over his posts. I'd love to be spared the eternal quality of those everyone/their, Gleen-instead-of-Glenn, dependent-clause-non-sequitur, left-out-word mistakes that I so frequently make.
Ah, well, errare humanum est, and all that. Human pattern recognition, which tricks us into not seeing that what we've written is not exactly what we meant to write, in most cases also allows our readers to correct what they're reading, and to supply what we've left out as well as we could ourselves.
As for Glenn's current focus, even though I don't watch TV, and hence miss most of the bloviation he so adeptly deconstructs, I think that it's absolutely essential that the inane nature of editorial comment both on TV and in print/Web media outlets be exposed for what it is. The feedback loop of propaganda can only be attacked at its source, and that source can only be reached by starting a counter-loop. This Glenn has done, and very adroitly, too, if I may say so. With any luck, the ripples which spread outward from his posts will gradually cause a phase cancellation in those from Drudge, et al. radiating outward from the opposite direction.
A level playing field. That's all we really need.
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Impressionistic fallacies
[Read the article: Drudge and the Politico -- poisonously joined at the hip]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Yes, our perceptions of what you select as a topic from day to day -- and why -- are of necessity seen through our own lenses, and may not reflect either the objective truth of the matter, or how you see your own project. Still, even though in this case the customer is not always right, I don't see the harm, except in those cases of presumption about what Glenn is best at, or how he should perform.
Needless to say, I'm grateful for what you've done, and respectful of your choices -- I certainly wouldn't presume to tell you what your focus should be. Would I like to see more of this and less of that? Well, yes, sometimes, but only because it would give me a better opportunity to weigh in myself -- an entirely selfish viewpoint, and one that isn't worthy of being inflicted on you, or on the rest of the commenters.
Combatting the evils which afflict our country at the present moment is a complex task, one which seems likely to stretch well into the future. There's room for all sorts of argument on a wide range of topics. As far as Unclaimed Territory is concerned, fiat voluntas tua is fine by me. I'm in your debt, not the other way round, and I have absolutely no reservations about acknowledging it.