Dispatches from the Million Mom War
Arthur Silber on whiny little coward Andy McCarthy. I should stress that, while McCarthy is a coward, he is also something worse. Ultimately his hysterics are an indulgence. Having labored to construct his sense of vulnerability as strenuously as any homeowner erecting his outdoor pool, now he wants to soak in it. He luxuriates in his fear and fear-mongering alike. The disgusting part is that McCarthy, like all the criers of “dhimmitude!” knows where the power really lies, who can clap whom into camps, who can take over whose countries. He’s selling himself his own license to kill.
Comment by BruceB —
June 3, 2007 @ 5:37 pm
This is a thought I’m hesitant to express, since I can think of so many reasons it could be wrong, but it first struck me when reading some of Lileks’ rants: some of these folks are just plain happier being in the grip of intense and negative emotions. It’s the moral/emotional equivalent of surgical addiction, which I didn’t believe in when I first heard about it either.
Comment by Eric the .5b —
June 3, 2007 @ 9:47 pm
I haven’t been following him for some time, but I just never got that impression from Lileks before 9/11, Bruce.
Comment by Jon H —
June 3, 2007 @ 10:44 pm
BruceB, are you saying that part of America is like a person begging doctors, “Please, amputate this Bill of Rights from me? It doesn’t belong there!”
“I’m afraid I can’t do that for you, Mr. America. There’s no need for the procedure.”
“Don’t tell me that, doctor! The medical necessity is that I suffer from Polity Dismorphic Disorder. I’m a Repressive Monarchical Dictatorship trapped in the body of a Representative Democracy!”
“Sir! This is highly irregular. Cover that back up, I insist! Before anyone sees you like that. I could lose my license.”
“How about just a little one? Maybe you could take off this one that ended Prohibition? Please? Is there some hormone treatment I could get, which would cause these unsightly ‘rights’ to shrivel up and drop off?”
“Well… There’s some speculation that high doses of Hannity and Colmes will start a process of atrophy. I warn you, it’s… ugly.”
“Ugly! How’d you like to have all these Amendments hanging off you, restricting your freedoms!”
Comment by Jon H —
June 3, 2007 @ 10:46 pm
“He’s selling himself his own license to kill.”
The frightening thing is that it’s not limited to mere killing.
Comment by Neel Krishnaswami —
June 4, 2007 @ 10:19 am
No, Bruce is dead on, except that he’s wrong about it being weird or uncommon.
Self-indulgent luxuriation in negative emotion is really, really common, and lots of people do it all the time. You can pretty much characterize any subculture by the negative emotions it luxuriates in. The specific emotions that are prized vary by subculture — punks are prone to self-indulgent anger, goths are prone to self-indulgent pessimism, SF fans are prone to self-indulgent disdain (”worst comic evar!”), and hawkbloggers are prone to self-indulgent fear.
Comment by Eric the .5b —
June 4, 2007 @ 5:50 pm
Well, if you put it that way, Neel, present company and the rest of the regulars have to be rather careful.
Comment by Neel Krishnaswami —
June 4, 2007 @ 6:20 pm
Eric: Yes, we do.
I haven’t figured out how to do it well, either. It’s important to be able to stop and say that the emperor has no clothes, when he has no clothes — you help no one if you hedge every truth in a forest of qualifiers. At the same time, “tough talk” and “hard truths” are a seduction; that rhetorical style easily becomes a way of ignoring reality in the guise of facing up to it.