Bildung in Hollywood

[Cantara Christopher]

This is the essay I wrote last summer about 60s radicals, unknowingly in synchronicity with the release of Bob Sommer's new novel and the controversy surrounding Obama's relationship with former Weather Underground terrorist, Bill Ayers.

Accompanying text: "Bildung: A Paradise Regained?" by Klaus Prange.

[Maryanne Khan]

Cantara

First, loved your article.

Patience, I live in Australia. So I go to see what this is about, and I come across an article by one Melanie Philips: "But the question is whether through expediency or ideological sympathy or a combination of the two, he (Obama) has allowed himself to be associated with thinking that threatens the basic values of America and Western society."
Right.
She mentions 'expediency', which was exactly what you were talking about in your article.

So I see that someone's muckraking the past to get people nervous about Obama.

(Now, call me naiive, but am I really expected to think that any candidate in a US election isn't the front man for a whole crowd of interests who have paid/pulled strings/obtained promises and guarantees, to have him or her standing there to be elected?)

Philips mentions the "basic values of America," and "Western Society." Both of those. In one sentence. And what might those be? The lovely Melanie seems to believe that the two are inextricably linked.

Your article, Cantara, shows that 'values' are what people invent.

'Radical' values enable dissenters to dissent, when they decide they have something to dissent from. And I imagine all of America was gobsmacked when the Weathermen found it amusing to dissent (according to their means). The Black Panthers (people might grudgingly concede) had something to gripe about. But druggie students (who could afford the drugs and the explosives)?
Oh My!

Forward in time, and Bush says 'If you're not with us, then you're against us," Right. That went down well in the rest of the world. I remember sitting there, watching him say that and thinking, 'oh boy, here we go. Father Sam has spoken. So the American government has found an excuse to demonise the rest of the world when they don't agree with it.' (Over anything at all.)
And go to war with them (according to ITS means.)

In its desperation to enshrine good (Christian) family values, (okay, Jewish family values make the cut as well), its self-professed global leadership, and its exclusive ownership of the "western values" handbook, America has found a new form of radicalism - Americans get to hate anyone who disagrees with them, given that they believe they are the 'most powerful nation on earth.'

America might be wealthy and well armed, but where is its moral stance taking it? What the hell is that-- "if you're not with us. . ."?

Phillips again: "What's really incredible is that a man with such a background in anti-Western thinking can now stand on the verge of becoming the leader of the free world. "

What, pray tell, is "Western" thinking, and exactly who appointed America as 'leader of the free world?'

Oh, I forgot. They're the leader because they have the means to punish anyone who doesn't do as he's told.

As for Palin, what do you expect when you choose a VP candidate who's a cross between Betty Crocker and Davy Crockett?

maryanne