so. I'm sure the Man who has never had a private sector job, much less a blue collar trade, would like us to think of him as a man of the people, a Maoist hero.The idea of the wise peasant, the log cabin born leader is nothing new and it's typically American, but it's also a central mythology of Marxism. We remember Mao Zedong's cultural revolution during which the professional, academic and educated classes were all but exterminated in favor of leadership by peasant farmers, coal miners and yes, plumbers. That one learns to swim by swimming was a Maoist cliche that implied that education was not only not necessary, but not desired. It took China a generation to begin to recover from the destruction.
The idea still lives here in America, despite our continuing obsession with Communism and Socialism. We still believe in the wise fool; in the wisdom of those untainted by information and intelligence and culture and we still believe in superstitious suspicion of all others. We still believe that Joe, whose name is Charles, and isn't a plumber and can't do basic arithmetic much less understand the tax codes, has the answers we need because he's one of us and not one of them. We're still yearning for the Worker's Paradise promised by Communism. We still admire Forrest Gump and marvel at his wisdom, but we still can't seem to differentiate between the people who exploit us by invoking our class identifications and snobberies and class prejudices, and people who actually serve our best interests. All we seem to see is the working class uniform and not the wolf wearing it.
Only in America would the accusation of Marxism arise from a plan to add 4% to the burden of the top 2% elite in the interest of recovering some of the debt we have incurred in making them rich. Only in America would the accusation of Socialism arise from restoring the top tax bracket we had under Reagan; the progressive structure advocated by Adam Smith and Teddy Roosevelt and that we have had during the most prosperous years of our history.
I could go on endlessly about the irony of invoking a worker's paradise and the bogeyman of Communism to sell economic feudalism, but odds are, if you've read this far, you don't need me to do that. It's the dumb people that can be fooled all of the time. It's Joe the Plumber and everyone who stood up when John the Rich Man asked them to who enjoy the flattery and the snobbery and the smug, stupid certainties sold to them by Sarah and the old man.
Enjoyed your post, Capt. Fogg -- yes, "common sense" so often turns out to be pure hogwash. One of my Euro professors used to say that America has a healthy strain of non-intellectualism, but of course the McCain/Palin campaign has been playing to the anti-intellectual strain in our culture, where "thinking too closely" on any given issue merely marks one out for ridicule as an elitist.
ReplyDeleteGreat post, Fogg! I think it was only yesterday when Obama said something about (rough paraphrase): "The Republican Party has been kidnapped by an incompetent, ideological fringe."
ReplyDeleteOne would think a country of over 300 million people, with prowess in aerospace, commerce, and technology, would want to have the "best and the brightest" in government. Instead, we get Joe-the-Plumber, Petite Sarah, and a host of other dumbed-down fools.
Traditional, mainstream conservatives also feel the frustration. That is why there have been so many defections lately.
I had another thought, perhaps tangental to this post. Lamebrain McCain sort of reminds me of Don Rickels, the sarcastic comic who used phrases like "hockey puck" and "little jerk" ... part of McCain manner and style. Except for this: When a comic trades on insults and putdowns, there is always a “willing suspension of disbelief” that separates the performer from the joke. In other words, we don’t perceive Don Rickles as the nasty old curmudgeon. Its only an act. With McCain, on the other hand, it is no longer an act. He can’t disguise McNasty. It is part of his character, or rather the lack thereof. How pathetic!
Interesting point about Rickles and humor. McCain can't be funny when he wants to and when he laughs, it comes across like he's a character being played by Peter Lorre. He thought singing about bombing Iran was funny!
ReplyDeleteI'm well into the ozone with this conjecture, but there's a certain kind of person who has a hard time with art other than photorealism or kitch, who thinks "let the eagle soar" is music and who rarely reads literature. These follks tend to have a primitive Schadenfreudenvolle sense of humor. These folks tend to be Republicans. I think it's a genetic defect.
I thought you would like these statistics.
ReplyDeleteThe ratio of Obama to McCain:
Newspaper endorsements: 23:1
College Newspapers: 63:1
Recently, a letter appeared in my local daily expressing this same anti-intellectualism among the right. What are we supposed to teach our children in that writer's kind of America? "Sorry, but your grades are too high to be president"?
ReplyDeleteYou can read my response here.
Matt, thanks for the link. Enjoyed your article. People used to say that the A students became professors and the slackers went into politics. I used to think it was a joke, but lately I'm not so sure. Have long thought J.S. Mill wrote well, too, in On Liberty about what he considered an ascendant middle class's failure to strive towards excellence--as he lays it out, they saw little need to look beyond their own preferences, capacities, or tastes, and became increasingly intolerant of anybody who dared question those predilections. The result was a public opinion climate amounting to a "hostile and dreaded censorship" directed against anything that stood out in art, politics, or anything else. "The rage of Caliban at not seeing his face in a glass," as Wilde might say.
ReplyDeleteMatt, many thanks for visiting our humble shores, and congratulations for your thoughtful Op-Ed page letter.
ReplyDeleteRegardless of partisan leanings, one would think the voter would want gifted and capable people running their government. Instead, we get this mythologizing of dumbness ... and the reason thoughtful Republicans like Christopher Buckley, CC Goldwater, Colin Powell, and others have abandoned their Party's candidate.
It is shameful that "education" and "competence" have become casualties of American political life.
Mills' comment is as good a summation of American Low-Brow snobbery as has ever been written -- and Matt, that was brilliant.
ReplyDeleteI'm old enough to remember adults around me complaining that Adlai Stevenson was an "egghead" which I guess was neolithic hip talk for exactly the kind of distrust of those with "book larnin'" we're talking about.
The Science Channel is running a show at the moment about what science the President needs to know and tens of millions of us are afraid to elect anyone whose science won't submit to our voodoo religious mythology. More millions are looking for a cross between Davy Crockett and Alexander the Great.
Thanks to you all. I'll be reading!
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