tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3077210.post115333429495608148..comments2024-03-28T08:37:58.136+01:00Comments on Limited, Inc.: American stupidity -- let me count the waysRoger Gathmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11257400843748041639noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3077210.post-1153416340796685452006-07-20T19:25:00.000+02:002006-07-20T19:25:00.000+02:00'I think it's unfair to "blame" W alone.'Well, I k...'I think it's unfair to "blame" W alone.'<BR/><BR/>Well, I know, but it's important to blame him an enormous amount. Anyway, not really unfair, just insufficient.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3077210.post-1153410610032639212006-07-20T17:50:00.000+02:002006-07-20T17:50:00.000+02:00I think it's unfair to "blame" W alone. W is mere...I think it's unfair to "blame" W alone. W is merely the symbol of a deeper malaise. A malaise that says "Of course, everyone, everywhere, wants to live exactly like Americans." "Only America is the hope for the world." "We should be saving other peoples from themselves." <BR/><BR/>Followed by a lazy electorate (or, maybe Joe Bageant is right and the average Joe recognizes things are so corrupt and choices so little that there is no opint in voting.). A college educated manager saying he voted for the Bush team because John Edwards was a lawyer. Because John Kerry is "soft on terrorism." Because Iraq is responsible for 9-11. And, on and on and on. Still to this day, polls I've seen show that 78% of Republicans support the Bush Administration. This is supposed to be the political and economic elite of the country!!!???Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3077210.post-1153362234334265602006-07-20T04:23:00.000+02:002006-07-20T04:23:00.000+02:00Tom, I've never read Trow. He does sound like the ...Tom, I've never read Trow. He does sound like the type of writer I'm in the mood for. <BR/><BR/>Mr. Nyp, the disadvantage of being a raven is that sometimes croaking nevermore drowns out the finer shades. Granted, Bush is the symbol of our discontents, but I was talking about a distributed unintelligence. In Bouvard et Pechucet, Flaubert shows two guy who are info downloaders to the max, but they are, nevertheless, imbeciles of a modern type. Sort of the whole Wired aura -- the lack of imagination that comes out in your run of the mill sci fi. Which I have written a post about for tomorrow or the next day. Bush, now, the meeting and his current star turn as the enabler of the destruction of Lebananon didn't impress me with anything new about Bush. It did impress me, a bit, that people were so startled he'd say shit. My god, obviously there is a whole world out there that ain't never been to Texas! The whole game, with someone with a snobby English accent like Blair, is to pour on the Texas countryboy isms. Bush has always been and will always be a back row boy, spitball in hand. <BR/><BR/>But I will caw about this all later!Roger Gathmannhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11257400843748041639noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3077210.post-1153357307468306742006-07-20T03:01:00.000+02:002006-07-20T03:01:00.000+02:00I did notice yesterday about Bush's blocking the J...I did notice yesterday about Bush's blocking the Justice Dept. investigation, but Froomkin said it was carefully introduced on a day with too much other news.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3077210.post-1153351324995815682006-07-20T01:22:00.000+02:002006-07-20T01:22:00.000+02:00An inexhaustible theme. I was winding up to do one...An inexhaustible theme. I was winding up to do one, but since you hit it out of the park, allow a brief relevant quote, from Trow's "Within the Context of No Context," -- if you don't know it, it's a little book you might enjoy. This bit doesn't represent the larger insight, but comes from an account of his experience working the NY World's Fair of 1964-65, in the Office of the Chief of Protocol. He's talking about the ride in the Federal Pavilion:<BR/><BR/>"The ride was an event that threw people deep into gloom. There were no amusing automatons, no singing dolls. Rather, a tall, narrow seat, something like a pew, moved slowly past a series of movie screens while an imbecile narration poured out from a speaker lodged in the pew at ear level. This narration had to do with American History, and it had a <I>booming</I> quality. The syntax was of Walt Whitman, within a public relations framework. <I>America</I> was made personal in a way that made her sound like a smug bully. "So you conquer a continent, etc." Emerging from this ride, one wanted never to hear another word about America or any event associated with America, and one wanted never to hear again any sentence cast in the historical present."Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3077210.post-1153347177648609152006-07-20T00:12:00.000+02:002006-07-20T00:12:00.000+02:00In that case, I am afraid I do agree that the case...In that case, I am afraid I do agree that the case for incompetence is, after all, very strong. That little business with Blair about Hezbollah proved much more than mild cussing--he wouldn't know how to be engaged in anything complex except by agreeing with somebody else who had figured it out for him. That he's effective for this program thus far is clear enough, but I think the verdict on his stupidity is pretty much now in. His stupidity may be what the group most want, but we might as well know that he is incontrovertibly stupid. What you bring out here for me is an image of a tiny pea (housefly + continent is fine too) brain that can imagine (and imagine no more than this) that it did not require intelligence of any kind to be president and deal with a rather large-ish thing like a world. He has failed to prove this 100%, but he does try very hard (this 'trying,' of course, is done without any exertion.)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3077210.post-1153346206768701272006-07-19T23:56:00.000+02:002006-07-19T23:56:00.000+02:00Ah, mr. nyp -- thanks for the concern, but I'm jus...Ah, mr. nyp -- thanks for the concern, but I'm just in a raven on a dunghill mood. I want to croak a whole lotta doom.Roger Gathmannhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11257400843748041639noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3077210.post-1153345917686454202006-07-19T23:51:00.000+02:002006-07-19T23:51:00.000+02:00You say it better than almost anybody, but since y...You say it better than almost anybody, but since you brought it up here, are you taking proper care? That's disturbing.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com