He must have thought it was white boy day. It ain’t white boy day, is it?
– Gary Oldman, as Drexl Spivey, in True Romance
Every so often I just feel like it’s ‘Bad Philosophy Day’; either I see an egregious example of it, or else someone raises the issue and joins the team fighting the War On Bad Philosophy.
Today we get both.
Via Harry’s Place and Jonathan Derbyshire, a couple of interesting quotes from people who are enlisting on our side:
T]here is not just an equivalence, but a blend, between the Islamism that condemns the Western liberal democracies and the international pseudo-Left intelligentsia that condemns them as well.
… We can be certain … that the performance of the Western intelligentsia has never been worse. Before the collapse of the Warsaw Pact regimes, the intelligentsia was merely deluded. After the collapse of the World Trade Center, it has gone haywire. Essentially a branch of the home entertainment industry, the Left intelligentsia circulates, almost entirely for its own consumption, opinions even more contemptuous of ordinary people than used to prevail on the Right.
– Clive James in the Times Literary Supplement (subscription).
The James article is about Isaiah Berlin, and in the summary posted on the public TLS site, James goes on to say:
Though Berlin wrote comparatively little about the twentieth century’s worst horrors, there wasn’t much he didn’t know about them. The question is how much he usefully wrote about them: a question worth trying to answer, because on the answer will eventually depend how much we continue to value him.
That’s interesting to me, since I have become fairly convinced that Berlin’s book ‘The Roots of Romanticism’ writes usefully about the philosophical ground that grew these 20th Century horrors. If there are any TLS subscribers out there who can send me the whole article, I’d be grateful.
And then there are those signing up for the other side.
I once went through an S.J. Perelman/Dorothy Parker phase in my reading when the Algonquin Round Table was the center of the universe. Alexander Wolcott, the Times theater critic sat near the center of that universe. He was apparently insufferable – The Man Who Came To Dinner was written about him – the owner of an immense ego, and devoid of empathy (Harpo Marx was one of his best friends and describes him well in ‘Harpo Speaks,’ his autobiography).
I’m assuming that James Wolcott is his son, because the ego and lack of empathy track well, and James seems to think that he’s been promoted from the center of the Algonquin’s literary lunch club to the center of the universe. Here’s his latest, in its entirety:
I root for hurricanes. When, courtesy of the Weather Channel, I see one forming in the ocean off the coast of Africa, I find myself longing for it to become big and strong–Mother Nature’s fist of fury, Gaia’s stern rebuke. Considering the havoc mankind has wreaked upon nature with deforesting, stripmining, and the destruction of animal habitat, it only seems fair that nature get some of its own back and teach us that there are forces greater than our own. Sure, a hearty volcano can be enjoyable. Burning rivers of lava: so picturesque. But a volcano is stationary, like Dennis Hastert after a big lunch. It doesn’t offer the same dramatic suspense. Hurricanes are in unpredictable flux. They move, change direction, strengthen, weaken, lose an eyewall, repair an eyewall; they seem to have volition and opera-diva personalities.
So there’s something disappointing when a hurricane doesn’t make landfall, or peters out into a puny Category One. Reporters and weather announcers may profess relief and gratitude that residents were spared the full unleashing of the vortex, but their coverage belies this. They love having reporters shouting into microphones on rain-lashed beaches as the stray yacht gets flung around like a bath toy. The helicopter shots of rows of mobile rooms smashed as if stomped on by a giant boot are money shots to the news networks.
Hurricane Frances also has a heraldic quality. Camille Paglia observed on Salon in February, 2003 that the explosion of the Columbia shuttle on the eve of the war on Iraq was a “stunning omen,” one that would make a Roman general think twice. A catastrophe strewing death, fire, and human remains across Bush’s home state of Texas was inauspicious to our undertaking; and so it has proven to be. Frances is the second hurricane to afflict Florida, home of brother Jeb, in rapid succession.
The gods are not pleased.
He’s got the decency to title it ‘An Ignoble Confession,’ so I’ll grant him something for that.
But what he’s really doing is expressing the same sentiment as the people who were secretly thrilled to watch the jumpers from the WTC on 9/11, because:
When the towers started collapsing and all chaos broke loose, I felt actual excitement. Here was an event that broke banality. Finally, here was something meaningful. I had grown so tired of the meaningless fluff our continent had become so enamored with. Here was an issue of raw emotions. I was glad that this was happening to snap people back into reality, to snap them back to mortality. My last sinful thought was that of genocide — lets just send nuclear missiles to all of the Middle East and let it be done once and for all.
(emphasis added)
And that – that fatigue with daily life (or, better, the daily lives of others) and the search of the overarching, true, genuine, transformative moment – is what it must feel like when you pull the lanyard on your explosive vest.
Some people just buy them from better tailors than others.
It’s a shame to see people so deadened to the joys of daily life. They feed on experience like a junkie feeds on his drug, each time needing more and more to feel the same high.
What they don’t realize, of course, is that what they consider an emotional “high” is no more exciting than what everyone else feels every day of their lives. Life isn’t the anti-drug — it’s the ultimate drug.
I have no sympathy for folks who live in storm zones; especially since their presence there tends to be subsidized by the government (John Stossel had a great article about this sometime back).
I have no sympathy for folks who live in storm zones;
That’s too harsh, Gary. For one’s heart to go out to someone who suffers is a good, worthwhile human response. It doesn’t have to mean you’re a sucker. IMO, we should both work to ameliorate the plight of people who suffer as a result of natural disasters and oppose the subsidization of rebuilding on prudential grounds.
FYI, James Wolcott is not Alexander Woolcott’s son, although I can understand how one may think so. Note the different spelling of the last names. Alexander Woolcott was a repressed gay male and had no children.
The Man Who Came to Dinner was not only written about Woolcott; he starred (as “himself”, so to speak) in the West Coast production of the play. I only have Harpo’s account of him, and the play itself, to go by, but I’m not sure that he was wholly devoid of empathy. In fact, the universality of his targets was such a significant part of his act that its difficult to believe that people took it entirely seriously.
I’m keen to find a good biography of the man – if anybody knows of one, it would be very sweet if they could email me on david_t at boltblue.com
>>Sure, a hearty volcano can be enjoyable. Burning rivers of lava: so picturesque. But a volcano is stationary, like Dennis Hastert after a big lunch. It doesn’t offer the same dramatic suspense. Hurricanes are in unpredictable flux. They move, change direction, strengthen, weaken, lose an eyewall, repair an eyewall; they seem to have volition and opera-diva personalities …
As I remember, Berlin wrote about the romantic roots of both communism and fascism. Let’s talk about the latter.
Isn’t one aspect of this romanticism, this boredom with normal everyday life, manifested in the war-fever and apocalyptic (or ablogalyptic, as it is put here) sentiments of many of the commenters here and certainly in the “war-blogs.”
I’ll admit that I am susceptible to boredom with everyday life myself, which is why I would volunteer for periods of voluntary recall when I was in the Reserves, but I can recognize that a military operation that might be a nice diversion for me may not be in the best interest of the USA as a whole.
One of the sources of Bush’s appeal to voters is that he taps into that. He’s done a pretty good job of turning a war against a relatively small band of terrorists into a Clash of Civilizations. So we won’t be bored with everyday life for awhile.
A.L.
A little off track. “True Romance” – I enjoyed the movie and the out standing sound track. I’m sort of a Dennis Hopper fan myself.
Dave
I believe Gary’s point is when do people accept responsibility for their own actions? To be honest I don’t live in Florida for the reasons Gary just mentioned. I don’t live in California for the reasons of earth quakes either. To be more specific these people know that once they rebuild the potential risk of damages due to similar events are highly probable. If a community is to continue to react in such a way then the community should be prepared for the consequences both financially and emotionally. Help may come in the form of charity and sympathy but it should not be expected or treated as an entitlement.
Gary – If I’m wrong on my assessment forgive me for putting words in your mouth.
USMC:
I can certainly agree with your point. I’m not sure any of us would want to live in a world without sympathy.
Oddly enough I can’t help but think about the movie “Secondhand Lions”. Specifically the scenes in which Robert Duvall and Michael Caine exhibit their displeasure of solicitors by shooting at them when they come to call. Of course their intent is not to kill the solicitors. Their intent is to provide for excitement and justification of their own simplistic lives. As much as they might despise solicitors ironically they get their excitement by replying to advertisements inviting the solicitors show up to sell their wares. This aspect of the movie may not have been portrayed in the theatrical version but it is portrayed on the released CD with the directors cut and deleted scenes.
From Berlin, The Roots of Romanticism, Princeton 1999, pp. 145
_The reason why Fascism owes something to romanticism is, again, because of the notion of the unpredictible will either of a man or of a group, which forges forward in some fashion that is impossible to organize, impossible to predict, impossible to rationalise. That is is whole heart of Fascism: what the leader may say tomorrow, how the spirit will move us, where we shall go, what we shall do – that cannot be foretold._
Sounds like a good description of the RNC last week.
Erratum: I mentioned the Hastert quote (but lost some of the post) in light of its prose, e.g., —
>>Sure, a hearty volcano can be enjoyable. Burning rivers of lava: so picturesque. But a volcano is stationary, like Dennis Hastert after a big lunch. It doesn’t offer the same dramatic suspense. Hurricanes are in unpredictable flux. They move, change direction, strengthen, weaken, lose an eyewall, repair an eyewall; they seem to have volition and opera-diva personalities …
This seemed to be a contender for the next “Bulwer-Lytton award”:http://www.bulwer-lytton.com/, inasmuch as it packs an amazing set of non-sequiteur images into a paragraph. Denny Hastert as Maria Callas with acid reflux symptoms?
Last year, one of my sons _not_ the one in the Army, but his younger brother, in high school and a musician, was reading _The Roots of Romanticism._ We were talking about war fever, romanticism and fascism (I was cautioning him on his own romantic leanings and the power of romantic thinking).
We thought that a good performance piece illustrating the idea of romantic war fever would be a medley of the orchestral music composed for the various cable news networks as their “war themes.” All those drums and dramatic strings!
…the unpredictible will either of a man or of a group, which forges forward in some fashion that is impossible to organize, impossible to predict, impossible to rationalise. That is is whole heart of Fascism: what the leader may say tomorrow, how the spirit will move us, where we shall go, what we shall do – that cannot be foretold.
Sounds like a good description of the RNC last week.
I don’t know…isn’t that a better description of Senator Flippy than Bush?
No, because with Kerry, we won’t be going on any poorly-planned adventures.
I see no reference to “adventures,” poorly-planned or otherwise, in your quote, just talk of random, impossible to rationalize changes in direction (“I actually did vote for the $87 billion…”). Now, maybe Bush is a fascist for other reasons, but if unpredictability is the standard, Bush is quite the opposite. I, for one, knew Saddam was going to get it shortly after the Taliban fell. It was not a surprise.
As for Kerry, I still don’t know what he thinks of the Iraq war, so I find your confidence in him somewhat misplaced.
_where we shall go, what we shall do – that cannot be foretold_
That’s the implicit reference to poorly-planned adventures, i.e. what’s up in Bush Term II with Iran or Syria. Except we don’t have any troops left, so maybe a draft?
_You_ knew that we were going to Iraq right after the Taliban fell (in January 2002)? Were you in the CENTCOM planning staff, or what? Even Seymour Hersh didn’t know or write anything it until March 2002 or so. If that’s when you’re talking about, I agree with you. But did Bush really state his intentions and motivations clearly?
As far as Kerry goes, my thinking is this: _It couldn’t be worse._ See Diamond, Larry, “What Went Wrong in Iraq”:http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20040901faessay83505/larry-diamond/what-went-wrong-in-iraq.html
I, too, enjoy a good Hurricane. Between stripmining and deforesting, I like to sit back and watch the power and beauty of these powerful storms. When I was a kid my dad would take us out on the porch to watch everything fly by, and to experience the Eye.
While I admit joy at the destruction of (uninhabited) high rise hotels on our beaches, It seems to me that hurricanes trod over Earth loving Native Americans too, so don’t go signing Frances up for one party or another.
The ‘White boy day’ quote has been a favorite saying of mine for years, True Romance is the only DVD I brought with me to Mosul.
“That’s the implicit reference to poorly-planned adventures, i.e. what’s up in Bush Term II with Iran or Syria.”
Hopefully preventing those Islamist nutcases from getting nukes by any means necessary. I know I’ll take an adventure, poorly-planned or otherwise, over the mullahs running Iran gaining both a nuclear veto over our anti-terrorist operations throughout the middle east and gaining the option of “losing” some of their weapons to their own network of terrorists.
“Except we don’t have any troops left, so maybe a
draft?”
Only if we want to lose. A better idea would be to (a) retask the guys babysitting Iraq (especially since many of the troublemakers over there are being fielded by Iran) and Europe and (b) raise the enlistment caps.
“But did Bush really state his intentions and motivations clearly?”
Pretty much. I certainly wasn’t surprised when talk began of deposing Saddam soon after 9-11. It was the next logical step. I have to admit I was on edge for the next year wondering if we were going to finally do it, I was part of the Ledeen “Faster, please” choris.
“retask the guys babysitting Iraq”
And what’s to become of Iraq then?
And, most of the guys “babysitting” Europe just got back from Iraq.
More on topic (I just wanted to point out that “bad philosophy” derived from romanticism was not the exclusive product of the left), this passage from Berlin (p. 147, _Roots_)seems to be applicable to the current situation:
. . . _human beings sooner or later realize that they must make do, they must make compromises, because if they seek to destroy others, others will seek to destroy them; and so, as a result of this passionate, fanatical, half-mad doctrine, we arrive at an appreciation of the necessity of tolerating others, the necessity of preserving an imperfect equlibrium in human affairs, the impossibility of driving human beings so far into the pen which we have created for them, or into the single solution which possesses us, that they will ultimately revolt against us, or at any rate be crushed by it._
This seems to express the problems both of the romantic notions of the Islamists (the return of the Caliphate, etc.) and the romantic notions of the neoconservatives (we can impose democracy wherever).
David Schuler,
That’s too harsh, Gary.
No its not. I live in Vermont; I don’t see anyone giving me any government charity to plow out my driveway every winter. People have to face up to their decisions in life; one of those decisions includes the types of risks involved in choosing where one lives. Florida is a hurricane magnet; people who live their assume the risk of having a hurricane flatten their home.
IMO, we should both work…
If you want to give these people money, that’s your decision. Don’t assume that you know how best to spend my money.
Well, Yehudit, I really meant to say Bush didn’t express his intentions _honestly_.
So, if what Ledeen writes is the bellwhether for Bush, we will be going into Iran in Bush Term II.
Only Bush isn’t telling us now, is he?
As far as I know James Wolcott doesn’t believe in the gods of Rome or any other gods. I don’t think he has a real opinion on whether the gods are pleased.
Reverence for the powers behind the evident powers of nature is one thing. That, along with the simple and innocent enjoyment of spectacular weather because it is spectacular, is entirely compatible with putting high values on human welfare, stability and right order.
The petty malice of boredom is something else.
So whether or not this is bad philosophy, it is certainly bad religion.
“So whether or not this is bad philosophy, it is certainly bad religion.”
Hey!! That’s one of my favorite bands!!
A.L.
Okay. Everyone away from natural disaster zones. That now includes New York, which is obviously high on the list of terror targets. All people in Minnesota and Kansas and the whole mid West should take responsibility when they get the inevitable twister or when the Mississippi floods.
The Japanese should all charge themselves for the earthquake insurance premiums (oh wait, they already do) or get the hell out of Japan.
Bad AL! Bad Religion featured prominently in the “Iraq Against Bush” tour AND the Vans Warped Tour where punkvoter.com signed up clueless first time voters and pimped that dreadful Mike Moore’s horrible “movie” (or calumny, as Guilianni said)!
Besides, they are insipid and derivative. I thought you had much better taste than that!
jinn –
First off, I seldom judge artists by their politics or personal life. I’m more interested in the work.
Next, BR was one of the old-school punk bands back when punk was interesting. They’ve morphed a bit, and their brand of ’emo-punk’ remains interesting. But if they’re a bit cliched, that’s OK, because they were one of the groups that created the cliche.
A.L.
AL: Well, I’m anti-emo, that must be the real reason I dislike them. I don’t much like any bands that politic– ‘Shut up and Play the Music!’ But I understand your attachment. I, umm, can’t get over my attachment to Skinny Puppy. My only excuse is that their politics have always been so terribly strange that I am used to it. 🙂
You knew that we were going to Iraq right after the Taliban fell (in January 2002)? Were you in the CENTCOM planning staff, or what?
Well, no, I listened to the State of the Union. Although if I was on the CENTCOM staff, it’s not like I’d tell you about it.
If you think the inteligentsia is disdainful of the unwashed masses now, imagine if Bush wins this election by any kind of margin. Its going to get ugly, and mark my words their will be an explosion of disgust for the ‘red staters’ if Bush wins.
And that’s not counting what’s going to happen in Europe. I joked last year that after the election, we’d need to airlift in grief counselors and anger-management therapists. Now I wonder how much of that is a joke.
The petty malice of boredom
I just wanted to call this phrase to attention, because it is so succient and so perfectly descriptive – not only of this example, but of AL’s quotes from 9/12/2002 as well. These people are bored with their lives and seek excitement. Seeing terrible things happen to the targets of their malice is exciting.
Related to _The Petty Malice of Boredom:_ “War is a Force Which Gives Us Meaning”:http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/07/opinion/07krugman.html?hp=&pagewanted=print&position=