November 13, 2003

By the way...

Speaking of Gore Vidal, pieces of this article on the history of anti-Americanism and on our own contemporary celibri-crackpots keep coming to mind. It's by Ian Buruma, and it was linked all over the place a couple of months ago, mostly because it included the - for some reason - immensely satisfying turn-the-tables conclusion that Vidal et. al (including the more serious "public intellectuals" who are in his camp and are not so easily dismissed as nutcases) "should at least have the honesty to call themselves conservatives, of the Henry Kissinger school, and stop pretending they speak for the liberal-left."

Why is this oft-stated notion, which is true enough, though hardly earth-shatteringly insightful, so irresistible? Presumably because one imagines that those who fetishize the trappings of left-liberalism as a matter of personal identity would find the label "conservative" extremely irritating. And for some reason, that's fun. That doesn't quite explain why those who fetishize the trappings of "conservatism" as a matter of personal identity (an equally annoying group) are so unreservedly charmed by the observation, however. It's a little like the Simpsons episode where Bart chatters to the pitcher: "you throw like my sister"; and Lisa chimes in "yeah, you throw like me!" But such facile cultural-political sniping has little to do with the thrust of Buruma's article, which is a serious rumination on the nature and meaning of anti-Americanism past and present.

Anyway, I was struck by this incidental bit on Harold Pinter:

Pinter, a great artist, if not a subtle political thinker, is perhaps a special case. His subject is power, or rather the abuse of power. When applied to human relationships, Pinter's artistic intelligence produces brilliant insights. But when it comes to international politics, he loses all proportion. US power - always abusive in his view - fills him with such fury that he cannot be rational on the subject. It also, incidentally, affects his artistry. Just read his crude poems on the Iraq war.

I may have more to say about this later if I can get my thoughts on it together. But for now I'll just say that I find this idea (that there are times when genuine insight into human relationships and the human condition can lead you astray when it comes to matters of history and international politics) quite fascinating.

Posted by Dr. Frank at November 13, 2003 06:46 PM | TrackBack