From: Ian Glendinning (ian@psybertron.org)
Date: Mon Dec 08 2003 - 21:41:30 GMT
Hmmm ... again from across the pond ....
Interesting stuff DMB, but isn't this statement a bit inconsistent
Quote
> It has lots to do with the tendency of (SOM) intellectuals to be be
> dismissive or even openly hostile to traditional morallity, religion
> and the transcendental realm.
Unquote
I tend to associate christian evangelism with traditional US SOMists.
Perhaps I'm mixing up your labels.
Perhaps by SOM Intellectuals you just mean liberals.
Ian Glendinning
----- Original Message -----
From: "David MOREY" <us@divadeus.freeserve.co.uk>
To: <moq_discuss@moq.org>
Sent: Monday, December 08, 2003 8:35 PM
Subject: Re: MD Democracy in the MOQ
> DMB
>
> Coming from the UK it is interesting to hear
> this sort of thing. Thanks for taking the time.
>
> Regards
> David M
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "David Buchanan" <DBuchanan@ClassicalRadio.org>
> To: <moq_discuss@moq.org>
> Sent: Sunday, December 07, 2003 8:11 PM
> Subject: RE: MD Democracy in the MOQ
>
>
> > David M and all y'all:
> >
> > DM asked:
> > Glad to see your approach does not try to simplify history.
> > Clearly the problems of WWI and the depression, hyper-inflation,
> > war reparations, communist agitation, ineffective government,
> > saw a desperate nation see dictatorship and the fuhrer principle
> > as a means of escaping its predicaments and the burden of
> > a squabling democracy. USA today is very different. What are the
> > factors taking the USA down its current road do you feel?
> >
> > dmb answers:
> > Right. I still remember phrase I ripped-off for my thesis on Hitler. I'd
> > asserted that the rise of fascism in Germany was due to "a particular
> > sociological constellation". Since then, however, I've come to think
that
> > its a pretty weak explanation insofar as it construes fascism as a
unique
> > event. If that were true, then it would have no connection to the rise
of
> > fascism in Italy, Spain, Portugal, several of the Eastern European
> countries
> > or the re-emergence in recent years in the form of punk skinheads and
the
> > American right-wing militia movement. This is why I think Pirsig's
> > description of fascism as an anti-intellectual re-assertion of social
> values
> > is so helpful. His explanation allows us to see the thing much more
> clearly
> > and it allows us to see it even in a variety of sociological
> circumstances,
> > even in non-Western cultures, such as the case of Islamo-fascism.
> >
> > More to the point, I suppose you'll have to accept a mediocre answer to
> your
> > question about today's American version of the same, because I don't
have
> a
> > very good one. 9/11 certainly helped to accelerate it. LOts of it is due
> to
> > the "angry white guy" stuff; a reaction to the liberal progress made by
> > racial minorities, women, gays and lesbians and secular culture in
> general.
> > It has lots to do with the tendency of (SOM) intellectuals to be be
> > dismissive or even openly hostile to traditional morallity, religion and
> the
> > transcendental realm. These are genuine conflicts, but I also think all
of
> > this, and more, has been artifically pumped up and aggravated by the
media
> > and by politics.
> >
> > I give brief examples of each. In the last 10 or 15 years a web a
> right-wing
> > media organs have developed into what is pretty accurately called an
"echo
> > chamber". It goes back at least to the 1970's when Adolf Coors financed
> the
> > formation of the Heritage Foundation and some small media outlets, but
it
> > really took off about the time Clinton was first elected in '92. As talk
> > radio and the internet began to blossom even more right-wing
millionaires
> > and billionares like Richard Mellon Scaife and Reverend Moon began to
> > finance magzines and newspapers like the Weekly Standard and the
> Washington
> > Times. Once all the pieces were in place, the web would operate on a
sort
> of
> > trickle up basis. Scandalous stories would begin in the ghetto, either
on
> > internet sites like the Drugde Report or on radio talk shows like Rush
> > Limbaugh's. The same stories would then work their way up into said
print
> > media, then the mainstream papers and magazines and before long the same
> > dubious stories would be broadcast on the major networks. The stories
> would
> > bounce around for weeks or months until the volume and repetition became
> > such that only a deaf and blind person could avoid it. This is how the
> > famous Lewinski sex scandal became serious news and lead to the
> impeachment
> > of a President. It started on the Drudge report and ended in the Senate.
> And
> > this is only the most famous such story. This same echo chamber also
> painted
> > Clinton as a drug runner, an thief, a murderer, as the father of an
> > illegitimate black child and more. The man couldn't even get a new dog
> > without some sinister motive being assigned to it.
> >
> > Politicians got just as ugly during this same period. Newt Gingrich
> > orchestrated a Republican take over of the House of Representatives, for
> > example, by unifying all House races under a single tatic. Namely, he
sent
> > out instructions to all candidates telling them to repeatedly refer to
> > liberals and liberalism as "corrupt", "sick", "perverted" and the like.
> > There was also a nation wide effort by Republicans to transform the
House
> > through re-districting. Most Americans have heard about the recent
efforts
> > By Tom Delay to do this in Texas, but it has been happening nationwide
in
> > '81, '91 and '01. Not only are they trying to change the borders of
> > congressional districts in their own favor, which is really nothing new
> and
> > is done by both sides, but they've also gone out of their way to make
sure
> > that they are as many Black Democrats as possible. They hope to make
> > Democrats into the minority party in more ways than one. One of the
chief
> > Republican operatives by the name of Benjamin Ginsberg has dubbed this
> > effort "operation ratfuck". Did I mention that this was ugly? There is
> lots
> > more to tell, but I imagine you see the point by now. Through media and
> > politics there has been a concerted effort to demonize anything liberal
or
> > intellectual and it has done so by appealing to the most hateful and
ugly
> > sides of human nature. And its working.
> >
> > like I said, this is only a mediocre answer and things are far more
> detailed
> > and complicated than I could ever express in a single post, or even a
> single
> > book. But you could probably take any part of this sketch and look it up
> for
> > yourself. Its not easy, but its out there. I saw some of this happen
first
> > hand. (I worked in talk radio for five years during this period and am
> > ashamed to admit that I gave Matt Drudge a microphone way too many
times.)
> > But I'm also not saying anything that hasn't already been written about
by
> > others.
> >
> > So, the short answer is... The reason that we're looking so fascist
these
> > days is quite simply because people have been working so hard at it.
> >
> > Thanks,
> > dmb
> >
> >
> > MOQ.ORG - http://www.moq.org
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>
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