i think folk should watch this film about populist faces in the crowd:
A Face in the Crowd (1957)
i'm confused by the discourse of inwardness that's so big in conservative circles these days---even more than during the bush period, which was that of manly men being all resolvy and shit. for reasons that elude me now i watched the last glenn beck-sarah palin love-fest and was kinda amazed at the whole thing--just how long they spent talking about how persecuted each is at the hands of the pointy-headed elite (who *are* these people anyway?) before moving into a long strange sequence of monologues about trust. who can you trust in a persecuting world? how do you know who a good person is? the two of them decided that george washington was a good example of a good person.
it made my head hurt.
there's something really quite odd about this language of inwardness. i understand the words but not why it would have any persuasive power---i mean watching people on television talking about how inward they are, how "real" and "authentic"---it's a little strange don't you think?
on the teabaggers: personally i think the more visible they get the more alienated folk will become by them. it's curious that so much attention was paid to palin's speech and not to the delightfully racist opening speech on the first night of that gathering of those authentic and inward-looking regular folk.
but i confuse easily. and my head's all pointy.