Great Moments in Journalism: All Broccoli Edition
Great Moments in Journalism are submitted by readers, and can be sent to this address. Today's Moment comes from a recent Nation review <http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070129/scialabba> of a bunch of books about the state of the electorate and what Democrats can do to win it over. It goes beyond your usual Nation nap-inducing prose (although see if you can stay awake during even this excerpt) to bring you through some kind of C.S. Lewis-style armoire into a thicket of metaphor from which you emerge, squinting, into some strange new world full of delusional liberals and arrogant vegetarians. It's a world not unlike Berkeley, CA, actually. We've placed it after the jump, but please do click through: We've yet to see a better test of endurance thus far this year:
Waldman looks at recent presidential elections and is dismayed to find "a progression of Democratic candidates desperately pleading with voters to eat the political broccoli of position papers and policy proposals, while Republicans respond with the red meat of fear and anger." One sees what he means, of course, and he's right. Still, it's worth pausing over this piquant formulation. For one thing, broccoli is a lot more nutritious than red meat (which isn't always really red--some factory-produced meat is so pasty that it must be artificially colored), as well as tastier (e.g., when steamed with black mushrooms, baby corn, water chestnuts and tofu, seasoned with tamari and served over brown rice... mmm). But never mind that. I have no objection to carnivores clogging their arteries and degrading their palates, any more than to smokers blackening their lungs. That's what freedom's for. As for the billions of animals (and thousands of illegal aliens) leading a wretched existence in meat factories before being slaughtered (or deported)--I sympathize, of course, but animals and illegal aliens don't vote, much less contribute to political campaigns. No, the real, unsentimental, non- goo-goo objection to meat factories (read: propaganda mills) is that they produce gigantic quantities of reeking manure, noxious gases and toxic feed additives (i.e., stereotypes, clichés and non sequiturs), which befoul the environment (i.e., the civic culture).
Okay, shh, you just rest a little bit. We'll wake you up in time for gossip.