Thursday, December 01, 2011

Poseur Alert -- UPDATE *

Vanity_Fair
"My core position is that a writer's core loyalty must be to the truth as best as he can discern it.
...

"In my mind, I regard my work as a writer as existing in a different mode than my everyday living. I am writing not with respect to any individual but for the general public - which I envision stripped of its particular racial, gender, religious or whatever identities. If the truth hurts, so be it. In my role as a truth-seeker - and it is a role not my being - compassion and empathy are irrelevant.

"Except they aren't.

"The abstraction of the disinterested writer in pursuit of truth is an abstraction. And as a human being, I do not live in an abstract world. That I have wounded someone - like Ta-Nehisi - whom I revere as a writer and care about as a human being distresses me greatly.
...

"It seems to be in my nature - a querulous, insistent curiosity that sometimes relishes the hostility it often provokes. What I remain committed to is a constant re-evaluation of these arguments and complete openness to new data. But the hurt remains."


Andrew Sullivan on how he sometimes breaks your precious Tea Cups of Hidebound Thinking in your Hutch of Conventionality in your China Shoppe of Parochialism when he gets his Throbbing Hard-On for Truth swinging 'round and round real good.
Man!

Or something.

First, and foremost, given the amount of energy Mr. Sullivan and his Conservative pals devote to avoiding any unpleasantly truth-seeky discussion of the real and ugly history of Conservatism in America, this is just hilarious.

Second, I find myself reminded irresistibly of Newt Gingrich's novel, narcissistic-personality-disorder-explanation for why his extreme patriotism caused him to put his pee-pee into women to whom he was not married.

Third, it's no fair competing in your own contests, Andrew.

*UPDATE: However much it may tempt me to shut down comments forever for the good of humanity :-), commentor Matt makes a fair point, so I have included more of Mr. Sullivan's original post above.

Also, to be clear, I am keenly aware of the price one pays for writing with "clean hands and composure" about whatever truth one is trying to tackle; a sentiment which no one has expressed better than William Faulkner in 1958:
"The writer's only responsibility is to his art. He will be completely ruthless if he is a good one. He has a dream. It anguishes him so much that he can't get rid of it. He has no peace until then. Everything goes by the board: honor, pride, decency, security, happiness, all, to get the book written. If a writer has to rob his mother, he will not hesitate; the 'Ode on a Grecian Urn' is worth any number of old ladies."

But my critique of Mr. Sullivan remains unchanged: his view of himself -- a bold seeker-after-truth who sometimes reluctantly or inadvertently hurts others in course of his bold truth-seeking -- is so flatly belied by his pathological unwillingness to be truthful about the ugly history of the Movement to which he owes his career that it smothers his bold-seeker-after-truth claim in its cradle.

7 comments:

Brave Sir Robin said...

Throbbing Hard-On for Truth...LOL. I almost lost it at that line

Tengrain said...

Jeebus, Drifty, that's enough to gag a shit maggot.

You may quote me.

Regards,

Tengrain

Anonymous said...

newt: a man who personifies abuse of power. a man who champions anti-“flag,” anti-family, anti-child, and anti-jobs regulations. a man who betrays our trust. a bizarre man. a man who grovels before bosses and snitches upon friends. a man who treats the bureaucracy as pawns to be sacrificed. a man who cheats whenever he can; who relies upon coercion even when unnecessary. a man who believes the slogan "’compassion’ is not enough” is an adequate substitute for compassion. a man whose sanity is collapsing in the tumult of the consequences of his corrupt life. his corruption has helped bring us to the brink of annihilation. newt wails that, "liberals only care about criminals' rights." but the only criminal rights newt cares about are his own. newt sees the crises of our time as an opportunity to implement his "ugly new world." his cynicism leads him to depraved acts. his heart is decayed; and when faced with his ugliness, he only digs deeper, for new lies. his destiny is to destroy what he is entrusted to protect - let us not permit this destructive monster to devour our human spirit or disgrace our name or endanger our glorious destiny! he excuses his failure, his greed, his unapologetic hypocrisy, and his ideological bankruptcy with the flimsiest and lamest of self-delusions. do not let this unrepentant sinner impose his incompetent governance, his insecure psyche, or his insensitive, intolerant attitudes on us all! what he calls liberal is a lie. there are no limits to his lies. he is a machine of mendacity with a mandate built on manipulation. his worldview is obsolete. he is a pathetic, punish wimp; a radical without reason. he is a denizen of red tape. he is a self-serving sensationalist and shallow soul. do not let him bring shame upon us. he will make us sick. he is a man who apparently felt free to spend $500,000 at tiffany’s and then skip out on the bill. do you want more stagnation? more of the status quo? then vote for newt. let him and his cronies steal from you and me and our families. for yes, he believes in taxes; but only taxes on the 99%! don’t let newt threaten our childrens’ futures! he and his henchmen are traitors! they are unionized in a conspiracy against us. the challenge is urgent. we must not waste time. we must repudiate newt, for the welfare of humankind.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4443.htm

knowdoubt said...

I agree, a shit maggot wouldn't touch that stuff, disposing of that garbage is as big a problem as what to do with nuclear waste? How does one safely dispose of this "shit a maggot wouldn't touch"? It needs a "super fund" as much or more than our other environmental disasters. Shouldn't they be forced to set aside funds to handle the cleanup?

Matt said...

I agree that Andrew is off-base here, but your quote is out of context, and as such, unfair. In the very next line, that you left unquoted, he says "Except they aren't." It's true that the whole piece is a typical Sullivanian non-apology-apology, but don't quote out of context.

Matt said...

Thanks for the update -- your point is still completely apropos with the whole quote. My wife was struck also by how 'truth for truth's sake' is a value that can only be held by those with privilege, well critiqued by theologian Katie Cannon, and aptly demonstrated by Sully's exchange with Mr. Coates.

blader said...

Sully isn't really a writer, he just plays one on the internets.