[lbo-talk] Saturday

[Voyou]

On Tue, 2010-11-02 at 18:02 -0700, martin schiller wrote:
> I wonder. This little bit seemed pretty sweet ...
> 
> > Look on the screen. This is where we are. This is who we are.
> (points to the Jumbotron screen which shows traffic merging into a
> tunnel).  These cars—that’s a schoolteacher who probably thinks his
> taxes are too high.  He’s going to work.  There’s another car-a woman
> with two small kids who can’t really think about anything else right
> now.  There’s another car, swinging, I don’t even know if you can see
> it—the lady’s in the NRA and she loves Oprah.  There’s another car—an
> investment banker, gay, also likes Oprah.  Another car’s a Latino
> carpenter.  Another car a fundamentalist vacuum salesman.  Atheist
> obstetrician.  Mormon Jay-Z fan.  But this is us.  Every one of the
> cars that you see is filled with individuals of strong belief and
> principles they hold dear—often principles and beliefs in direct
> opposition to their fellow travelers. 

I think this particular part of Stewart's speech is his "Great Dictator"
moment. At the end of "The Great Dictator," Chaplin's barber gives a
speech  intending to argue against the dictator Hinkel, only to realize
that he's adopted the cadences and rhetoric of the dictator. Likewise,
Stewart's attempt to provide an alternative to Glenn Beck ends up
producing exactly the same vacuous fantasy of American unity that Beck
puts forward.

The difference, though, is that Stewart doesn't seem to realize what
he's done.

-- 

    "I had never understood why Socialism need imply the arraying 

     of oneself in a green curtain or a terra-cotta rug, or the 

     cultivation of flowing locks, blue shirts, and a peculiar cut 

     of clothes." -- Isabel Meredith, _A Girl Among the Anarchists_     
Voyou Desoeuvre                                 <http://blog.voyou.org/>