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conservativeland does have its flinstone affirmation side, and the dick size theme is not unrelated to the notions of manliness, resoluteness and so forth that have been trotted out ad infinitum to characterize the Dear Leader.
so i think host is right in that this use of and abuse by crichton---whose books i find unreadable, btw, though i liked the andromeda strain when i was a teenager and tried to read other things afterward only to find that i apparently had passed out of crichton's optimal demogaphic of geeky teenage boys---is of a piece with many other routinized aspects of the inner world as organized effort-free by the media apparatus that keeps the rides spinning and the lines moving at that great american amusement park that is conservativeland.
say what you want about old school reactionary politics--you know, those shared by folk who thought the french revolution the scourge of satan loosed upon the earth--but at least the writers associated with them had some style. edmund burke was at least fun to read and smart to boot; joseph de maistre more than a little wacky but smart as hell and another great stylist.
contemporary american conservatism has no time for such trifles as style.
in the manly world of one-dimensional men, style is effeminate, unnecessary. this is a world of declarative sentences.
simple thoughts.
executive summaries.
power point.
obvious if arbitrary hierarchies.
writing for people too busy to read, too important to think.
straight lines.
resolute action.
simple ideas.
manly slogans.
lots of repetition.
enormous houses, enormous cars, enormous debt, enormous conceit.
a size queen aesthetic featuring penises---lots of penises----but deployed in a powerful way, not inviting of undue attention.
a good summary is that great conservative adventure novel called "the war in iraq": a potboiler plotline, cursory attention to structure, lots of blood and guts, no idea how to end the story.
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a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear
it make you sick.
-kamau brathwaite
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