[lbo-talk] Flogging a Dead Horse (was Hitch: Stay Strong)

[Wojtek Sokolowski]

> This has become the standard knock against CH, and it's 
> pretty tiresome. Contrary to what Cockburn et al. say (and 
> for Cocky to slam boozing is comical), I don't think drinking 
> has anything to do with it. CH's political compass has spun 
> all over the map, and even back when he was "good," he'd say 
> things (usually off the cuff remarks) that I thought were in 
> contradiction to what he stood for. I think age, living in 
> the Beltway and rubbing shoulders with elites has taken its 
> toll. Of course, he doesn't see it this way. But when you 
> read his stuff for the Mirror, then go back and read his 
> stuff from a decade ago, there's a discernable difference in 
> tone and reasoning. The Hitch from '90-91 would've never 
> written the piece I forwarded -- indeed, he would've ripped 
> it shreds, assuming he'd even bother.

I think it exemplifies a broader behavioral pattern.  The
counter-cultural left of the 1960s attracted assorted self-centered
megalomaniac because it gave them an excellent chance of becoming
instant celebrities by a rather primitive means of flashing a finger at
authority symbols, which included hurling insults and obscenties, silly
contumacy, denoucing generally accepted views while embracing extreme
positions, etc.  Hyperbole is an excellent self-promotion device because
it is easy to employ but has a drawback that it can be interpreted as a
sign of lunacy rather than celebrity.  The context of counter-cultural
movement reduces that danger by creating an interpretative framework
that redefines crackpots as celebrities.  

Today, crackpot behavior is no longer the hallmark of counterculture,
let alone progressivism.  In fact, it is pretty main stream (hip hop)
and right wing (Rush Limbaugh) - so maintainig an intellectual celebrity
status throuigh these means is rather difficult, if at all possible.
Therefore, a cleberity status craving megalomaniac must resort to
different yet essentially similar artifice to maintain his celebrity
status - again by flashing a finger, but this time at his
countercultural audience, by becoming ultra-orthodox.  This way they
again stand out of the mainstream obscenity hurling crowd. 

Hitch and Horowitz are perhaps the most prominent but not the only
cases.

This should NOT be construed as an argument that all "traditional"
counter-cultural lefties were crackpots and megalomaniacs seeking
celebrity status.  It means that most, if not all, social movements and
revolutions often serve as vehicles for such opportunistic individuals,
who may be the minority but give these movements and revolutions a bad
name. 

Wojtek