Over at Pajamas Media, Roger Kimball makes a plea for a dignified public discourse by comparing Obama’s town hall meetings to the Two Minute Hate from Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. Long time readers will recognize this as just the kind of fresh, but informed commentary one would expect from a serious critic and thinker, the co-editor of the New Criterion, and a man whose signature bow ties invariably evoke the gravitas of an Orville Redenbacher.
Readers of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four will remember the character Emmanuel Goldstein, Enemy of the People. […]Every day at 11:00, work would stop as people congregated around the ubiquitous two-way telescreens for the ritual two-minute hate…In his inaugural address in January, Barack Obama promised to put “an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas that for far too long have strangled our politics.”I hope you’ve noticed how free from petty grievances, false promises, recriminations, and worn out dogmas public discourse has been since that glorious new dawn, 20 January 2009.What, you haven’t noticed the promised political metanoia? Confidentially, I haven’t either. And I suspect at least part of the reason was dramatized by Orwell’s dystopian novel. The Obama administration and its PR enablers are addicted to blaming others for their own difficulties and failures.
Although Bush had eight years to fuck up the country, Roger has decided that Obama only gets eight months to straighten it all out — even though Roger has had over half a century to master that bow tie knot and hasn’t quite managed it. I guess it’s sort of the same rule that applies with stabbings: if you shank some dude in the back, I think we can all agree that he’s morally entitled to point the finger at you. But if he survives, and a year later he’s still holding you responsible for that lost kidney, well that’s just playing the blame game.
The President likes to refer the economic crisis as a “mess” that he inherited from George Bush. But how does explain that the deficit was some $400 billion under President Bush and is projected to be about $2 trillion — $2 trillion — this year?
He doesn’t explain it. He blames others, especially President Bush.
Exactly. Say you’re standing at the top of a cliff, admiring the view, and George W. Bush comes by and gives you a push — that’s not fatal, people push kids on swingsets all the time, all he did was give you a little horizontal momentum. If at some point subsequent to this incident you happen to wind up dead and broken on the rocks below, then I’m sorry pal, but your beef is with gravity.
What was unseemly in January is almost risible now. When will Obama take responsibility for failures that occur on his watch?
Well, Bush had been in office for a month longer when 9/11 happened, so presumably you think August is still well within the Presidential probationary period.
This is where Emmanuel Goldstein comes in…Orwell’s two-minute hate fests provide an uncomfortable analogue to the Obama administration’s amalgam of compulsory virtue and its inevitable concomitant: scapegoats. (Those who notice that “Goldstein” is a Jewish name might wish to ponder the Obama administration’s policies towards Israel.)
I must have missed the speech where Obama called Bush a “rootless cosmopolitan.”
For reasons I have never completely understood, George Bush is the scapegoat-in-chief, the Emmanuel Goldstein of the piece.
Maybe it’s because he traipsed around with “Commander-in-Chief” embroidered on every article of clothing?
It’s like his mom sent him to camp and didn’t want him to wind up wearing some other kid’s underpants.
I’m sure you’ve seen it in action. And no doubt you’ve noticed that it is infectious. Consider, if you will, theextraordinary reaction the very name “Sarah Palin” elicits.
I have to give Roger credit for cojones, or cluelessness, because he stops his column cold at this point to demonstrate the veracity of his political insights…by linking to a piece from last September, the bulk of which he spent gloating over McCain-Palin’s ineluctable victory:
What worries me is how the Left is going cope come the election. Their hysteria about Sarah Palin simultaneously shows that they know deep down that something has gone terribly wrong with Obama’s Children’s “Yes-we-can” Crusade and that they are unable to acknowledge the damage. Their hysteria signals both their panic and their blindness. I predict that on the morning of that fateful day in early November they are going to be like Pauline Kael the day after the 1972 election when Richard Nixon won 49 states: “How could that be?” a bewildered Kael asked. “I don’t know a single person who voted for Nixon.” The disillusionment this time will be even more bitter. I suggest that caring Republicans consider establishing emergency telephone hotlines and outpatient trauma centers in demographically susceptible areas–New York City, for example, Ann Arbor, all of the states of Massachusetts and Vermont, etc.–in order to cope with the shock that their burst bubble will undoubtedly cause.
I admit a sudden curious about the tone of the Kimball household last November 5th. Perhaps the residents had adopted a general mood of good humored fatalism, I don’t know; but I’m pretty sure that at some point during the morning, while his eggs were cooling and his cup of cocoa developing a skin, Roger had the single most jarring revelation of his life, when he discovered that it’s nearly impossible to hang yourself with a bow tie.
Posted by scott on Tuesday, August 18th, 2009 at 10:50 pm
21 Responses to “Roger’s Rules of Ordure”
Emmanuel Goldstein! Why, Pseudo-Prof. Ellis Washington should sue this guy for plagiarism! Although, to Kimball’s credit, he does seem to have actually read the Cliffs Notes and figured out who Goldstein was.
As for Kimball himself, I have never seen a face so clearly born to wear clown makeup. And judging from the bowtie, Roger Kimball does seem to have more than a bit of Bozo in him.
As for Kimball himself, I have never seen a face so clearly born to wear clown makeup. And judging from the bowtie, Roger Kimball does seem to have more than a bit of Bozo in him.
“For reasons I have never completely understood, George Bush is the scapegoat-in-chief, the Emmanuel Goldstein of the piece.”
Heh. George Bush is the Jew of liberal Fascism.
Also, why is it that “conservative + bow tie = dick” is the most reliable heuristic known to mankind?
Heh. George Bush is the Jew of liberal Fascism.
Also, why is it that “conservative + bow tie = dick” is the most reliable heuristic known to mankind?
What’s up with that pitiful attempt at a bow tie and those glasses from circa 1997? Out of touch in every way?
This guy looks weird. The type that jerks off in book stores, if you know what I mean ….
I guess I’m not getting it. Orwell’s choice of a Jewish last name for a fictional character sixty years ago reveals insights into Obama’s Israel policy today?
Somebody explain, please.
Somebody explain, please.
Doesn’t he mean “Jew York City?” Also, Massachusetts is a commonwealth. Other than that, way to stick it to Pauline Kael after all these years. That’ll teach her for going overboard on “Nashville.”
That person is the boringest wingnut EVER. I did not realize stupid & crazy could be so dull.
First it was tennis shoes. Then it was televisions. Now the Chinese have taken to churning out cheap knockoffs of George Will, too? What will we have left, at the end of the day?
“all of the states of Massachusetts and Vermont”
How many of these states are there, and what are their names?
And what about all of the countries of the USA? Huh?
How many of these states are there, and what are their names?
And what about all of the countries of the USA? Huh?
The bowtie reminds me of a comment about how the bowtie would indicate the most pompous lawyer in a firm on a particular day, similar to the yellow jersey in the Tour de France !
For reasons I have never completely understood, George Bush is the scapegoat-in-chief, the Emmanuel Goldstein of the piece.
Really now? You’re going to claim that you just can’t fathom why George W. is unpopular, AND take Pauline Kael to task for not being able to understand the public opinion about Nixon?
Really now? You’re going to claim that you just can’t fathom why George W. is unpopular, AND take Pauline Kael to task for not being able to understand the public opinion about Nixon?
“he discovered that it’s nearly impossible to hang yourself with a bow tie.”
Well, that doesn’t mean he shouldn’t keep trying!
Well, that doesn’t mean he shouldn’t keep trying!
Can’t spare excess words in this field report from ND, sir!
This guy fucking embarrasses me even before his mouth flops open, and then it gets worse!
Kill his grandmother!
This guy fucking embarrasses me even before his mouth flops open, and then it gets worse!
Kill his grandmother!
So Kimball and I are born in the same year (1953), but his bio atThe New Criterion and his wikipedia entry both begin in middle age, when he pens a well-regarded (in certain circles, all of them his) exposé of the existence of Leftists in academia, something which to that point had been considered mere rumor. Nothing particularly wrong or odd about that, but I was considering what he might have been up to those missing years when it occurred to me that it might well have taken a generation before somebody would bother letting him out of his locker.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, the baseline 2009 deficit the Bush administration gave to the nation was $1.2 trillion.
Where this guy comes up with $400 billion, I have no idea.
(Also, the Obama Administration has dispatched with at least four accounting gimmicks the Bush White House used to make the deficit look smaller.)
Where this guy comes up with $400 billion, I have no idea.
(Also, the Obama Administration has dispatched with at least four accounting gimmicks the Bush White House used to make the deficit look smaller.)
wonder if his cannelloni sharp intellect will pick up on the uncanny resemblance of of the “death panel” screechers and the “four legs good” sheep from Mr Orwell’s other famous opus
He looks like a Muppet. And not even a particular characters, but one of the nameless, all-purpose Muppets referred to as “Whatnots”.
In his inaugural address in January, Barack Obama promised to put “an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas that for far too long have strangled our politics.”
I hope you’ve noticed how free from petty grievances, false promises, recriminations, and worn out dogmas public discourse has been since that glorious new dawn, 20 January 2009.
Judging by these two paragraphs, if Obama came out against murder, Kimball would then kill the manslave he keeps in his floorboards in order to mock Obama’s silly presumptuousness and unwittingly reveal Obama’s basic point.
I hope you’ve noticed how free from petty grievances, false promises, recriminations, and worn out dogmas public discourse has been since that glorious new dawn, 20 January 2009.
Judging by these two paragraphs, if Obama came out against murder, Kimball would then kill the manslave he keeps in his floorboards in order to mock Obama’s silly presumptuousness and unwittingly reveal Obama’s basic point.
Not Bozo or Muppet, he’s the president and sole member of the Ray Bolger Look-Alike Celebrity Rent-Me-For-Your-Aunt’s-80th-Birthday-Party Club.
I don’t know……..I’m thinking there’s more than a passing resemblance to that wonderful game of my youth, Mr. Potato Head.
What worries me is how the Left is going cope come the election. Their hysteria about Sarah Palin simultaneously shows that they know deep down that something has gone terribly wrong with Obama’s Children’s “Yes-we-can” Crusade and that they are unable to acknowledge the damage. Their hysteria signals both their panic and their blindness. […] The disillusionment this time will be even more bitter. I suggest that caring Republicans consider establishing emergency telephone hotlines and outpatient trauma centers in demographically susceptible areas–New York City, for example, Ann Arbor, all of the states of Massachusetts and Vermont, etc.–in order to cope with the shock that their burst bubble will undoubtedly cause.
Is this guy really “The Truth” of Sadly, No! infamy? Or is he Wm. Kristol’s sockpuppet? Because this pile of smarmy, condescending crap, all of it proven hopelessly wrong by events, gives those two worthies a run for their wingnut-welfare monies.
Is this guy really “The Truth” of Sadly, No! infamy? Or is he Wm. Kristol’s sockpuppet? Because this pile of smarmy, condescending crap, all of it proven hopelessly wrong by events, gives those two worthies a run for their wingnut-welfare monies.
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