Sunday, March 1, 2009

Well-Adjusted People

To demonstrate that we aren't one of those "elitists" (Those of our generation will fondly remember "pointy-headed intellectuals" as the equivalent phrase.) we'll just go ahead & admit that we thought the "authoritarian mind" concept that we like to whip out & fire as often as possible had been made popular by former Nixonite John Dean's book of a few yrs. ago, which, of course, was a popularization of the work of a few of those very pointy-heads. Nope. Jaded & just plain dulled-out as we are, we still can't complete the realization that there just isn't one single damn thing new under that tiring old sun. Obviously (except to us) that Nazi/Holocaust/WWII thing inspired some research. Banality of evil & all that. Turns out Adorno (et al.) was one of the first to identify the phenom, & even the (less nutty, anyway) wing-nuts are willing to consider it, & to quote him.

Joe the Plumber was the star of the day. I haven't confirmed this, but I was told he recently briefed a group of Republicans on his trip to Gaza.  I don't care what your foreign policy is: Joe the Plumber shouldn't be informing it.  All day, the message I got was this: The movement enjoys being hated by its enemies, more than it cares about its own goals. It is populist, and irresponsible. A little popularizing is good, a little political theatre is good. CPAC is just unpleasant. And it is not just the elites flattening the ambitions of the people, it is the people dumbing down their own elites. Well-adjusted people, even if they feel alienated from certain parts of American society don't wish to be hated by society. People who want to advance some goals, want more responsibility, not less. I hate that CPAC seems to give credibility to Adorno: that conservatives have defective personalities.

Snap! Are we about to see a division or even splintering of the Goofy Ass Party? 

2 comments:

Larry Harmon said...

I didn't read any Adorno references in that screed, but I did see Rush Limbaugh address CPAC on Saturday and he quoted Friedrich von Hayek (whom we were forced to read in an undergraduate Economics class. Arrrgh! Fascists! But, then, we were asked to read Marx, too, and I don't think that would happen today).
P.

M. Bouffant said...

Displaced Academic Editor Replies:

The Adorno reference is in the last line we blockquoted in the item.

"Defective personalities."

Heh heh.