Posts
THE ABSURD TIMES Well, as I mentioned to you earlier, I was going to try to figure out why the right wing has become so insane. I just saw a coverage of the so-called "Tea Party Project" demonstration -- I've never seen so many middle-aged, fat, and stupid people together at the same place. At the same time, Obama was lecturing in Minnesota and his crowd was diverse and well-mannered. About all I can say is that most crazy behavior comes from fear, that turns to hate and anger, and people are generally fearful of things that are different from them. Well, Obama is intelligent, knowledgable, and black -- a bit of a wimp, perhaps, but very unlike that mob with the teabags and flags in their hair. One of you mentioned Milo Minderbinder of Catch-22, a brilliant novel by Kurt Vonnegut, as characteristic of this, but Milo is only the force behind the mob, not the participants. As I began to analyze and compose thoughts on the subject, it became apparant to me that I would have a great deal of trouble writing up the analysis in English. Words such as "Weltanschaung" may be easy enough to insert without looking for an English substitute, but "Zeitgeist" is more difficult. Then, when what is needed for the analysis is "Wissengewissenschaft," a coinage by Nietzsche, it became clear that I was contemplating something for which I needed to be paid a great deal and no offers were forthcoming. In addition, in the words of a Political Science professor I once knew, "WHO CARES?" However, before I decided to abandon the analysis, I did grab this analysis of the problem by someone who did not go to Grad School and hence can speak English on a journalistic level (although he sometimes does use a few long words):
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Showing posts with label The Sanity Project. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Sanity Project. Show all posts
Sunday, September 13, 2009
The Sanity Project
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
