[Peace-discuss] Nurembore Rally

[C. G. Estabrook]

     MONDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2010
     Nurembore Rally

Jon Stewart's Sanity show was one of the oddest, at times dumbest events I've 
seen. I'm not sure what it actually was or what its organizers hoped to 
accomplish, but American reality is no saner today than it was before the weekend.

In essence, the rally served as a three-hour Comedy Central commercial, with a 
"play nice" sermon attached. Even by tame American satirical standards, 
Stewart's laugh-in was a dud. It reminded us how utterly empty the present 
culture is, and how subservient countless Americans remain. At least Woodstock 
'99 had Rage Against The Machine. Sadly, Rage would've been profoundly out of 
place on Stewart's stage. Too angry. Too political. Too partisan. Eeek!

I'm not surprised. For as clever as Stewart, Colbert, and their writing staffs 
can be, they are at bottom corporate mouthpieces, part of the very distraction 
Stewart bewailed in his closing monologue. Indeed, Stewart's focus on cable news 
channels and their corrosive influence on the body politic proved how 
disconnected he truly is. The vast majority of Americans don't watch these 
channels, so their lives and public behavior aren't coarsened by blather and 
sensation. Daily American life batters them enough without O'Reilly and 
Olbermann screaming in their faces.

Stewart's main audience are white, college-educated/age liberals with deep 
self-regard. For them, politics is basically voting Democrat and little more. 
This was seen on the faces in the crowd, and on several signs, celebrating 
superiority to Tea Partiers and the ability to spell correctly. Looking at them, 
you felt no sense of alarm, no anger about present conditions, no effort to make 
their desires (whatever they are) reality. Just solipsism, smugness, waving at 
the cameras like they were at a ball game. Afghanistan? The economy? Boring! 
Appletinis after the show? Sweet!

Again, this comes as no shock. Hostility to political action and indifference to 
political thought runs through this crowd. I've seen it up close, and the 
precision with which the larger culture has depoliticized contemporary youth is 
both remarkable and heartbreaking. Obama's PR blitz in '08 successfully 
exploited this sorry condition, and his re-election campaign HOPEs to harness it 
once more. It may work. Judging from those empty smiles at Stewart's rally, this 
crop of consumers remains ripe for the fucking.

Unlike Jon Stewart, Bill Maher isn't shy in making his true feelings known. On 
last Friday's Real Time, Maher noted that in England, more and more newborn boys 
are being named Mohammed.

"Am I a racist to feel I'm alarmed by that? Because I am. And it's not because 
of the race. It's because of the religion. I don't have to apologize, do I, for 
not wanting the Western world to be taken over by Islam in 300 years?"

Well, unless China becomes a Muslim country, I wouldn't worry about Sharia Law 
spreading westward. But I understand Bill's anxiety -- white male "contrarians" 
tend to become more reactionary as they age. Still I wonder: Given the growing 
Latino population, is Maher equally alarmed by Spanish-speaking Christians 
naming their sons Jesus? Not that said concern would be racist, of course.

POSTED BY DENNIS PERRIN AT 9:23 AM
http://dennisperrin.blogspot.com/2010/11/nurembore-rally.html