Emphasis Added

Friday, June 25, 2004

He Said, She Said

I received a thoughtful comment on Wednesday's post about Edward Said and the Middle East via private email that's worth quoting in public. Hope the correspondent won't mind.

I still can't agree with much of what you argue, but it is a fascinating issue. Said presents a flawed model, but perhaps the first truly functional model of the kind (and god I hate Bernard Lewis and have to respect anyone who sets himself in opposition). Perhaps the thing I admire most about Said, removed from the specifics of his politics, is his position as a real literary-critic-as-social-critic, which is rare: an individual who truly engaged contemporary politics from inside the academy with much oppostion and many enemies (to say the least, especially givcen his Times obituary) -- god, I love "The World, the Text and the Critic" as a jumping off point for, well, life. I have to respect that. I believe that it is a rare model.

I have to say I feel roughly the same about Said as I feel about Ralph Nader. He's a bit of a poser and has all kinds of agendas that he's not telling you about, but he's highly principled, not everything he says is nonsense and he's very, very smart. My argument is much more with the people who follow him (them) uncritically, irrespective of the damage that those well-hewn ideological positions can do in practical terms when there is a lot at stake. Said, like Nader, gives intellectual cover to people far less worthy and principled than himself who use his/their moral weight as a bludgeon to avoid engaging in meaningful debates over the issues. Because he/they enjoy the attention, they don't object, and become complicit in moral positions far less defensible than those they originally articulate. Like Nader's, Said's ideas shrink in their application, not in their explanatory force.

8:44:57 AM

Emphasize This! []

Ravenings

Sorry about the infrequent posting this week. Occasionally, I find that I need to save my best lines for my paying clients at the expense of the blog. To that end, I am scraping the bottom of the barrel by abusing the good will of my buddy (and pinch-blogger of blessed memory) The Raven, who recently sent me an idea-sheet to jump-start some posts. Rather than use this for its intended purpose and actually do some work, I'm going to post it as-is, since it includes enough to be discussion fodder.

Quoth the Raven:

So you're drifting about in search of inspiration, are you? Some things I'd be blogging about, if I were blogging, would be...

Unneeded mascots. Look, I didn't ask for the Sam Adams dude, the Arby's oven mitt, or the Excyte penis enlarged spokesbot who's schtick involves grimacing in pain. These are all strange and bizarre things, yet someone is betting millions, lots of millions of dollars that they will resonate with the popular consciousness.
The lack of imagery from Iraq. One reason I'm very much looking forward to Michael Moore's newest is the fact he actually filmed some things in Iraq and I'm going to get to see those things. Like a gunner shooting out the door of a helicopter. After a year, and billions of our tax dollars, we still have virtually no photographic record of this war. Why not? The answer to this question is obvious, and deeply, powerfully disturbing in an Orwellian sort of way.
A whole buncha things about the TSA and the Department of Homeland Security. Geez, who thought up those monikers, anyway? Surviving Nazis? And when you see an elderly person, arms spread apart during their body search, forced to remove shoes and belt, you realize that we've gone from presumption of innocence to assumed guilt until proven unthreatening. Well... that's just the way the Government sees Us, right? Not necessarily. Enough of this treatment, and we're going to start seeing ourselves this way, too. In fact, we already do, don't we.

Three bullets for ya.

Thanks, Raven. I'd also add, did anyone see Clinton on Larry King last night, or Michael Moore on the Daily Show? I thought the King interview was pretty good, but Stewart disappointed me by hosting a love-fest. Tonight Stewart is on King, which I may record since I'm off to see the hapless Mariners play their hated (?) interleague rivals, the dreaded San Diego Padres.

8:07:58 AM

Emphasize This! []