03/24/2005
Cultures of Fear and Censorship
This one's a bit less shrill than the last Gore Vidal interview I read in the L.A. Weekly, but no less interesting. Vidal talks to Minneapolis/St. Paul's City Pages on the undoing of America:
"Well, the Congress has ceded--which it cannot do--but it has ceded its power to declare war. That is written in the Constitution. It's the most important thing in the Constitution, ultimately. And having ceded that to the Executive Branch, he can declare war whenever he finds terrorism. Now, terrorism is a wonderful invention because it doesn't mean anything. It's an abstract noun. You can't have a war against an abstract noun; it's like having a war against dandruff. It's meaningless.
But you can terrify people. The art of government now, the art of control as practiced by the current junta, is: Keep the people frightened. It's exactly what Adolf Hitler and his gang did. Keep them frightened: The Russians are coming. The Poles are killing Germans who live within the borders of Poland. The Czechs are doing the same thing in the Sudetenland. These are evil people. We must go after them. We must save our kin.
Keep everybody frightened, tell them lies--and the bigger the lie, the more they'll believe it. There's nothing the average American now believes (because he's been told it 10,000 times a day) that is true. Now how do you undo so much disinformation? Well, you have to have truth squads at work 24 hours a day every day. And we don't have them."
The Undoing of America [city pages]
Posted 11:45 AM EST by Andy Towle in Current Affairs, Print Media | Permalink
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Gore is attractive. I read this from him here in hollywood.
But if everyone is in the middle, Vidal says, “that means everybody’s here to participate in the infernal party, to act against nature, to sin. And that can’t be right since our little Lord Jesus was against it. But our little Lord Jesus wasn’t against it. He said nothing about homosexuality. It was St. Paul. It was Leviticus. That rule book from the Babylonian days that came up with a list of proper activities, condemning homosexuality and, brace yourselves out there, shellfish. Not to mention rayon; you were hell-bound if you went in for rayon. How they sold a Bronze Age religion in the 21st century, well, that is the trick of the week.”
Posted by: visibleh20 | Mar 24, 2005 12:12:34 PM
I love Gore Vidal. Stern, elegant wordsmith. It is to be hoped we could listen, and learn - if just a little - from someone who is nothing if not well positioned to know what he's talking about.
Posted by: david | Mar 24, 2005 12:53:25 PM
I love Gore Vidal. Stern, elegant wordsmith. It is to be hoped we could listen, and learn - if just a little - from someone who is nothing if not well positioned to know what he's talking about.
Posted by: david | Mar 24, 2005 12:54:15 PM
Reminds me of Miller's The Crucible.
Also, I live in Minneapolis, yo, and I'm so goddamned excited that Andy linked to an article in our fair twin cities' favorite liberal weekly the City Pages. It's almost like, in high school, when the hot quarterback passes you, a relative unknown, in the hallway and says "Hey."
Posted by: Josh K. | Mar 24, 2005 12:56:40 PM
To think, that very bitter queen actually made a valid point. Maybe he's thawing in his old age.
Posted by: Alex | Mar 24, 2005 1:42:28 PM
wonder what he thinks of the Shaivo Circus and its implications on the Constitution?
See y'all in the camps!
Posted by: aka frank | Mar 24, 2005 2:08:08 PM
Vidal completely over-simplifies the issue. Congress has the Constitutional power to declare war; the President has the power to wage war. However, Congrees has, four times (maybe this most recent is the fifth), authorized the President to wage war conditionally.
And if Gore Vidal wants to talk disinformation, let's talk about "Fahrenheit 9/11."
Posted by: Cyd | Mar 24, 2005 4:04:27 PM
Fahrenheit 9/11 is chicken feed compared to the sludge that this administation, Fox News and the rest of the corporate-owned pathetic media pump out every minute of every day.
Gore Vidal is my hero. So is Michael Moore.
Posted by: Stosine | Mar 24, 2005 4:15:49 PM
The comparison to the populist approach of Michael Moore is inaccurate; one's opinion of Mr. Moore being beside the point, that is. Vidal is no populist.
Vidal doesn't simplify the issue. He elaborates upon it in an agile and beautiful, though sometimes sorrowful oeuvre that spans decades. The quote above is a molecule of information. He's written - what? A dozen? More? - books on the subject of America and the lost republic. Essays, pamphlets, memoirs, history, and historical fictions that chronicle the decline and fall of the "American Empire."
Posted by: david | Mar 24, 2005 6:58:35 PM
David -- excellent point you've made. Like all big thinkers, Vidal possesses a substantial oeuvre" to cull from and support his ideas and philosophies. I can remember watching him as a kid, on TV programs like the great Dick Cavett Show, and being impressed with his spirit, intelligence and articulation. God, those were the days -- now it's Oprah and Fear Factor. Sad times. It will be a bleak day when we lose Vidal from the cultural radar -- not only as a fab gay role model but as a true American.
Andy, thanks for posting this.
More Vidal (on Kinsey, no less) here on our blog. Enjoy!
Posted by: David K. | Mar 26, 2005 9:59:12 PM
I'm not nearly as informed as Mr. Vidal, but it seems to me that since 9/11, people are much more divided than ever. America, is an extremely diverse country, and yet, as a result of 9/11, racial tension, is stronger than ever. Never in my life time, have I seen such division, and there are more than enough people on all sides, who seem to like it that way. They do every thing they can, to further the gap between the races. There is no end to what they will do or say, to further their agenda, and the lies, I don't know who to believe, anymore. Again, I'm not as informed as Mr. Vidal, but he seems to be a wise, man.
Posted by: Big Mike | May 21, 2007 9:11:04 PM