Doug Henwood wrote:
>
> Liza Featherstone wrote:
>
> >one thing I thought was odd about the BE piece was the notion that the
> >right is
> >better on fun. doesn't everyone think the party's elsewhere? I think one
> >of the
> >things the right hate even about right-wing liberals like Clinton is that
> >they
> >seem to have too much fun. I mean, sure the Christian right can throw a good
> >revival meeting, but in terms of what they actually believe about fun (sex
> >for
> >instance), you couldn't ask for a colder shower. the anti-fun sentiment on
> >the left
> >is at least contested, ambiguous, and a matter usually more of innuendo and
> >implication than Biblical text.
>
> Well yes but.... There's a kind of rightist that hates Clinton for having
> too much "fun" (though Clinton himself, with his own Xtian background, was
> full of conflict over his "fun"). But there's a lot of passion, if not
> "fun," in right-wing politics. The Christians have their fantasies of the
> afterworld, the fascists have their hatred and their erotics of the Volk,
> and even the free marketeers have their ecstasies, as Meaghan Morris argues
> in her essay "Ecstasy and Economics":
>
> "But the Treasurer [Paul Keating, Australia's treasury secretary during the
> 1980s] doing economics live on talk shows was really something to
> be seen. He could mesmerize the camera with those great big burning brown
> eyes, then move in with a stream of jargon that seemed on the surface
> unintelligible, and yet let you know, quite simply and profoundly, that
> really everything would be all right if yhou just *suffered* a little more,
> and let him take care of business.... There's an S&M glow about Keating's
> image as Treasurer...
> [...]
> "I saw men on television (trade-union stars, Cabinet Ministers, left-wing
> think-tank advisers) visibly hystericized by talking economics: eyes would
> glaze, shoulders hunch, lips tremble in a sensual paroxysm of 'letting the
> market decide,' 'making the hard decisions,' 'levelling the playing field,'
> 'improving productivity,' and 'challenging the cujlture.' Minds *melted*,
> rather than closed: those who quereied the wisdom of floating the exchange
> rate, deregulating the banks, or phasing out industry protection were less
> ignored than *washed away* in the intoxicating rush of 'living in a
> competitive world,' and 'joining the global economy.'"
>
> Against that (fraudulent) ecstasy, what does the left have to offer? We
> don't really believe in utopias anymore. Too much of our discourse is full
> of duty and denial - no burgers! watch your language! how dare you have fun
> when people are suffering! Too many of our journals taste like castor oil
> or feel like dentistry without anesthesia.
>
> Doug