Check out Matt Welch's latest column, ostensibly on George Harrison. He uses reflections about the tenor of the media coverage of Harrison's death (which he finds hypocritical and cloying, despite being a fan himself) as a springboard to an insightful observation about the war and the complaints on the part of the anti-war crowd about the perceived lack of "dissent" in the current climate. "The dissent lament," he writes, "is an aesthetic response, not a reasoned analysis of the facts." He continues:
If you are against the war, and you see flags all over the place, you get creeped out, and conclude reflexively that most every person who supports the war shares the exact same sentiment as the cretins who, say, make those dreadful patriotic United Airlines commercials. Much as I might conclude that all of George Harrison's fans have been hoodwinked by his mystic Maharishi act... It is easy, when faced with a seemingly monolithic and crass culture you disagree with, to underestimate the intelligence and diversity percolating vigorously behind the unified front. And it is also a mistake. Luckily, it is one of the easiest mistakes to fix.(For obvious reasons, I was also struck by this incidental passage:
...rebellion against the conformist urge is one of the things that makes American art so dependably vibrant -- I have a rock-critic friend who once said that most every good songwriter she knew was still trying to get their revenge on those damned girls from 8th grade. The country's mobility, prosperity and diversity is such that the sensitive crowd who take these kinds of insults personally can eventually find enclaves where their eccentricities are welcomed.OK, I'm going to stop myself before I end up quoting the entire column; it's quirky and good.) Posted by Dr. Frank at December 7, 2001 02:57 PM | TrackBack