Saved comments from January 2017
Jul. 12th, 2017 09:31 pm![[personal profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
neonvincentMy comment on America Versus the Deep State.
"It won’t be helped by the official organ if the Deep State, The New York Times."
I think you give The Gray Lady too much credit. In a variation of the "Yes, Prime Minister" sketch, I rate the paper's place in the news ecosystem as follows:
"The Wall Street Journal is read by the people who own the country.
The Washington Post is read by the people who run the country.
The New York Times is read by the people who think they ought to run the country."
I recommend examining the stories covered in the two papers I list above the New York Times to get a full view of what The Deep State wants Americans to know.
My comment on The Embarrassments of Chronocentrism
Your observations about how the party of Andrew Jackson extended the franchise to nearly all white men but restricted it for African Americans reminded me of my experience editing a book on American political cycles by Michael Alexander (I mentioned his work on historical cycles before in comments two years ago). He determined those cycles by scoring historical events as either liberal or conservative, using the criterion of a liberal event as benefiting the average person, while a conservative event protects and supports the already rich and powerful. I was shocked to find that Alexander had scored the removal of Native Americans from the eastern United States as a liberal action. Today, that would be considered racist and definitely not a liberal thing to do. Michael defended his reasoning by saying it was a land redistribution scheme to take land from non-citizens (or a foreign nation, which Native American tribes technically are) and give it to citizens. That benefited the time's conception of "the average person." According to his criteria, it was a liberal event, even if it wouldn't be seen as one today. As his editor, I accepted his reasoning, even if I wasn't happy about it.
On a related note, the annual fund-raising social events of state and local Democratic parties are commonly called Jefferson-Jackson Dinners. Because of the conflict between the acceptance of racial diversity and equality by the current Democratic Party and the racism of both of the party's founders, there is a movement to change the name of these dinners to something more reflective of the modern party. One suggestion has been to call them FDR-Kennedy dinners. Not a lot of progress has been made in this direction; tradition is a powerful thing.
Greer: Pinku-sensei, that demonstrates very neatly that "liberal" and "conservative" are very abstract categories that tend to change their meaning across historical time. Thank you.
Me: You're welcome. I'm glad you found my example illuminating.
While I have your attention, the question you asked of Bill about whether "the Confederacy is the James Dean of American political history" may have the answer yes (and the Confederacy should feel flattered, if it were capable of such a thing), but if you're thinking of the quote "live fast, die young, and have a good-looking corpse," that may apply to James Dean, but it was originally spoken by John Derek in the movie "Knock on Any Door." Derek didn't follow through on what his character said, having time to marry four women, including three actresses, Ursula Andress, Linda Evans, and Bo Derek (that man certainly had a type!), illustrating the difference between fact and fiction.
Me: Happy Norther! I'm celebrating the parody seasonal holiday you came up with last month at my blog, Norther Lemming and all!
"It won’t be helped by the official organ if the Deep State, The New York Times."
I think you give The Gray Lady too much credit. In a variation of the "Yes, Prime Minister" sketch, I rate the paper's place in the news ecosystem as follows:
"The Wall Street Journal is read by the people who own the country.
The Washington Post is read by the people who run the country.
The New York Times is read by the people who think they ought to run the country."
I recommend examining the stories covered in the two papers I list above the New York Times to get a full view of what The Deep State wants Americans to know.
My comment on The Embarrassments of Chronocentrism
Your observations about how the party of Andrew Jackson extended the franchise to nearly all white men but restricted it for African Americans reminded me of my experience editing a book on American political cycles by Michael Alexander (I mentioned his work on historical cycles before in comments two years ago). He determined those cycles by scoring historical events as either liberal or conservative, using the criterion of a liberal event as benefiting the average person, while a conservative event protects and supports the already rich and powerful. I was shocked to find that Alexander had scored the removal of Native Americans from the eastern United States as a liberal action. Today, that would be considered racist and definitely not a liberal thing to do. Michael defended his reasoning by saying it was a land redistribution scheme to take land from non-citizens (or a foreign nation, which Native American tribes technically are) and give it to citizens. That benefited the time's conception of "the average person." According to his criteria, it was a liberal event, even if it wouldn't be seen as one today. As his editor, I accepted his reasoning, even if I wasn't happy about it.
On a related note, the annual fund-raising social events of state and local Democratic parties are commonly called Jefferson-Jackson Dinners. Because of the conflict between the acceptance of racial diversity and equality by the current Democratic Party and the racism of both of the party's founders, there is a movement to change the name of these dinners to something more reflective of the modern party. One suggestion has been to call them FDR-Kennedy dinners. Not a lot of progress has been made in this direction; tradition is a powerful thing.
Greer: Pinku-sensei, that demonstrates very neatly that "liberal" and "conservative" are very abstract categories that tend to change their meaning across historical time. Thank you.
Me: You're welcome. I'm glad you found my example illuminating.
While I have your attention, the question you asked of Bill about whether "the Confederacy is the James Dean of American political history" may have the answer yes (and the Confederacy should feel flattered, if it were capable of such a thing), but if you're thinking of the quote "live fast, die young, and have a good-looking corpse," that may apply to James Dean, but it was originally spoken by John Derek in the movie "Knock on Any Door." Derek didn't follow through on what his character said, having time to marry four women, including three actresses, Ursula Andress, Linda Evans, and Bo Derek (that man certainly had a type!), illustrating the difference between fact and fiction.
Me: Happy Norther! I'm celebrating the parody seasonal holiday you came up with last month at my blog, Norther Lemming and all!
