{"id":1507,"date":"2007-09-11T06:03:01","date_gmt":"2007-09-11T06:03:01","guid":{"rendered":"0"},"modified":"2007-09-11T06:19:23","modified_gmt":"2007-09-11T06:19:23","slug":"noh_way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/?p=1507","title":{"rendered":"Noh Way"},"content":{"rendered":"

Watching the Petraus\/Crocker hearings and responses had me thinking about what they reminded me of…<\/p>\n

\"noh-30.2.jpg\"<\/center><\/p>\n

…and I realized that it was really Noh<\/a> drama:<\/p>\n

By tradition, Noh actors and musicians never rehearse for performances together. Instead, each actor, musician, and choral chanter practices his or her fundamental movements, songs, and dances independently or under the tutelage of a senior member of the school. Thus, the tempo of a given performance is not set by any single performer but established by the interactions of all the performers together.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What we’re really watching isn’t any kind of real debate – it’s really a drama, preplanned out on both sides, and really much more about style and a kind of formal abstraction than about anything resembling reality.<\/p>\n

Here’s the Center For American Progress<\/a> on Petraeus’ testimony. Prepared in advance, they argue against points Petraeus doesn’t make.<\/p>\n

Here’s Petraeus’ testimony<\/a>; read it for yourself.<\/p>\n

It’s really about positioning public arguments – seeding the public discourse.<\/p>\n

The reality is – what, exactly? We’re lost in a forest of statistics of dubious provenance and facts rooted in rhetorical claims – on both sides, no doubt. We make a decision based largely on faith, and we choose who and what to have faith in.<\/p>\n

And watching the hearings on my laptop, and reading about Moveon’s arrogant and stupid ad (…bought at a discount? Bob Owens<\/a> wonders…) and then watching the disrespectful and foolish Code Pink demonstrators who fancy themselves the voice of the antiwar movement – no, the voice of the American people – I am wondering just who the dramaturg on the other side really is, and exactly what play they think this is and why they think I should have faith in them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Watch the hearings, paint the faces white. It’s Noh drama.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1507"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1507\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}