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October 6, 2005Dick Meyer: Paranoia Ascending…One of blog-dom’s favorite whipping boys, Dick Meyer of CBS, has posted today a very important and exceedingly well-done piece, wherein he uses Richard Hofstadter’s 1963 essay as a springboard to exploring the growing role paranoia plays in American political discourse: Hofstadter, in this brief essay…charted the course a bad virus through American politics, mostly conservative, from conspiracy theories about the Bavarian Illuminati in the late 18th century to the anti-Mason movement off the 1820s, the anti-Catholic fever of the mid-1800s and on through McCarthyism and the “pseudo-conservatism” of the John Birch Society in the early 1960s. My contention, a disturbing one, is that the paranoid style has become much less ideological and partisan since Hofstadter’s lecture and now afflicts both left and right without prejudice. Indeed, sometimes it seems like the paranoid style is almost now the ordinary style among the most politically active. Meyer’s thoughts were drawn to Hofstadter’s thesis after the responses he got on this column and others like it, in which he dared to - among other things - refer to Hurricane Katrina as a “natural disaster,” for which he was severely castigated by some who claimed the Hurricane could only be the fault of George W. Bush. These e-mails reminded me of a passage from Hofstadter’s essay describing how the paranoid sees The Enemy, The Conspirator: “He is a free active, demonic agent. He wills, indeed he manufactures, the mechanism of history himself, or deflects the normal course of history in an evil way. He makes crises, starts runs on banks, causes depressions, manufactures disasters, and then enjoys and profits from the misery he has produced.” He creates hurricanes. He starts wars for cheap oil. He steals elections. Meyer points to the left and finds examples of Hofstadter’s correct assessment in Hillary Clinton’s charge of a “vast, right-wing conspiracy,” and the unsubtle suggestions by many that Karl Rove is a Pocket Merlin, controlling the world and all who reside within it. Then he points to the right and wonders about “Ann Coulter and Michael Savage…Or Bernie Goldberg’s harrowing tales of how liberal media held him hostage for so many years by paying him hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. ” Cynical snipe at Goldberg aside (what CBS employee would not want to take a shot at him?) Meyer points to ever-expanding technologies, most emphatically including the availability of 24-hour, interactive news dissemination, as the wide-open prairie upon which a raging fire of paranoia may spread, devouring all in its path. He finds its influence culminating in the creation of red and blue America, and the mutual distrust found therein: …so many people…are convinced that a malevolent opponent wants to destroy their very way of life and has the power to do so. Evangelical Christians may believe that gay marriage, abortion rights, promiscuous and violent popular culture and gun control are all part of a plot to destroy their community of values. Urban, secular liberals may believe that presidential God-talk, anti-abortion legislators and judges, intrusive Homeland Security programs and imperialist wars are part of sinister cabal to quash their very way of life. I think Meyer is worrying about community, and how the “Big Community” of the United States of America has become so many thousands of splintered-off and self-affirming “Little Communities,” all devoted to one or a handful of concerns, which are of peculiar interest to themselves, and which seem not to be connected to the concept of the nation as a whole. While the splintering of America into “small groups” has been occuring for several decades, technology - from your store scanner, to your Amazon “suggestions,” to the internet, to the little Camera-phone on your belt or the Blackberry in your purse - is hastening the process. Every thought you write or read or forward to your best pal is a potential new split in the firmament, a jolly new road to be traversed and embraced, as America recedes in the rear-view mirror. This is a legitimate worry. The breakdown of communities - Big for Little, Little for Minute-but-Oh-So-Special-And-Oh-So-Right - is a genuine threat to the idea of national identity, and thus it can have long-term effects on the ideas of national pride, national character and even - ultimately - national defense. Dilute our primary indentity as Americans in the vast seas of little communities, and we could soon find ourselves, like poor England, confused about the swine. To his credit, Meyer throws his concerns out there without suggesting a solution. As people become more aware of this crisis of community and the havoc being played upon us by our mutual paranoias, there will be a thousand voices raised offering a thousand solutions, and - it goes without saying - they will form yet a thousand more little communities dedicated to the resolution of these difficulties by means of intense regulation of free-speech, or blog-licensing, or bandwidth piracy, or enforced religion, or enforced atheism, or encoded recordings of…barking Border Collies…oh…(bark! Bark!) oh, no…it’s already happening!!! Whew! Just had to let the dog out - sorry - getting a wee bit paranoid, myself. Be aware! Keep those eyebrows raised! Meyer has identified a foundational crack that could be evidence of a future toppling - or a shattering - that will bode well only for those within the most exclusive little communities - who may roll down the windows of their limosines and applaud the rest of us for “keeping it real,” while we stand on line, waiting…for what, we are not all certain…merely waiting. http://theanchoressonline.com/2005/10/06/paranoia-ascending/trackback/ 11 Responses to “Dick Meyer: Paranoia Ascending…” |
October 6th, 2005 at 6:55 pm
Good post, Anchoress. I have tried to fight off this inclination within myself. At times, however, I am embarrassed to admit, I have given in to parnoia. For instance, regarding the Schiavo situation; it was very hard to not begin to believe that those in support of Michael Schiavo weren’t simply part of a “culture of death.” You know what I mean?
The reality is they see themselves as supporting choice. It’s hard to keep respecting that, when you see a human being who smiles and laughs being called a vegetable.
I find that the thing that helps me to not splinter off into my own little community is, get ready, church. In my Bible Study group (a group of about 30 people who have been together for about seven years) we have all different types of political opinions, lifestyles, economic levels, educational levels. The only thing that unites us is our belief that Jesus Christ was the Messiah and Son of God. Of course, that’s a kind of splinter community as well, but thank God, it’s not a paranoid one.
October 6th, 2005 at 7:08 pm
I recall calling some of the Schiavo supporters (the ones who danced when Terri died) “Death Eaters.” I still stand by it.
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But yes, it is very easy to slip into this sense that the whole world is against you except for your little group. The problem with the internet - with blogs and forums - is that while they’re entertaining and informative and at this point a necessary force for the dissemination of information many in the press would rather not report (AIR AMERICA AND CHUCKIQUDDICK, ANYONE?), they also create a sometimes false impression that the whole world thinks as you do, except THEM. Then you realize that “the whole world” is the 500 people who click into the same forum all day every day!
October 6th, 2005 at 7:30 pm
Meyers article is the equivqlent of a sniper shot that hits the mark.
The point of entry is clear- there is no question the polical tunes, played by the politicos and their agendistas on both sides, are fast paced mazurkas, intended to whip us into a frenzy.
In fact however, the great majority of us are a lot more sanguine- and smarter.
We don’t care really how our neighbor votes- we just want him or her to keep an eye on the kids when we can’t.
We don’t really care who goes to Church on Sundays and who doesn’t. We don’t care if our neighbors are Jewish or Muslim- can we have so more of that yummy holiday food, please?
In fact, it is the extremes and agendistas that are off the deep end. The rest of us are a lot smarter. We have made peace with our neighbors- and that in the end, frightens the agendistas and extermists the most, that we can live without them.
Our dirty little secret is that we don’t need them. They, on the other hand, need us.
October 6th, 2005 at 8:18 pm
Mr. Meyer shows once again there is such a thing as extremism and paranoia from so-called moderates, who think that they are above those who actually take positions on things. There is nothing like the arrogance and hypocrisy of the “moderate” who cricizes others for engaging in criticism. But he makes a poor start, which casts doubt on all that follows, when he says “charted the course a bad virus through American politics, mostly conservative . . .”
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OK, aside from the inference that conservatives are mostly to blame for all the bad things in the world, he makes a very fundamental error in thinking that today’s “conservative” is the same as the conservative of yesterday or a hundred years ago. Believe me, they are not. Most conservatives today, in the historical sense, are more properly termed “classical liberals,” as were most of the Founding Fathers, and they reject most if not all of what so-called conservatives of a hundred years ago thought. And no person in his right mind would claim Michael Savage as a conservative.
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As for the demonic Enemy, I guess that Mr. Meyer would lump the Church in with “neo-Nazis, survivalists, LaRouchies or Moonies” for recognizing that he does exist and does have influence in this world. (just go see your friendly Happy Catholic about that.
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Besides, just because someone is paranoid doesn’t mean that someone else isn’t out to get them. It is not mere irrational paranoia that had led to the deaths of 45 million babies, it is not irrational paranoia that has been attacking the family and marriage as it has been conclusively defined for tens of thousands of years. It is not irrational paranoia that some people inside and outside of this country and Western civilization as a whole want to destroy it, pound it into dust, and reduce us to a Seventh Century society.
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But at least Mr. Meyer is above seeing all that and calling it what it is. At least he is above such paranoia and extremism.
October 6th, 2005 at 8:49 pm
Bender…I thought it was a pretty balanced piece. I guess we’ll agree to disagree!
PS - I’ll fix your link.
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PPS….WHOOPS! I screwed up and deleted the Happy Catholic link by accident…can you send it to me again?
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I’m serious, I blew it! Don’t get paranoid, I didn’t do it on purpose!
October 6th, 2005 at 11:36 pm
http://happycatholic.blogspot.com/2005/10/ten-rules-about-devil.html
October 6th, 2005 at 11:50 pm
No. There is no “war” going on. If there was, the Left would try to gain absolute control of the news media, education, the entertainment industry, among others. Yep. It’s all the fault of those conservative, “Christian” religious fanatics and their little “theories”. It is pure chance that no one associated with CBS News has ever voted for a Republican. Just a harmless coincidence that those large universities registered a 98% “Liberal” staff. Yep. History will bear this out. That’s when the Left gets control, of course, and they write that history. See the chapters following “American Imperialism: The US Responsibility For 180 Million Deaths in WWII.”
October 7th, 2005 at 12:04 am
The USA, in its diversity of religions, including various secular fundamentalist cults, such as Deep Greens or Objectivists, as well as Catholics, Protestants, Mormons, Jews, etc., has already broken up into exclusive communities.
The political issue is that of peace or non-peace = violence + threat = involuntary.
As the world becomes more “peaceful”, the need for “identity” protection, through force, goes down. City states expanded into nation-states for defense from expanding empires. With the expansion denied, there’s little reason for multi-ethnic countries to NOT split, if they are truly divided.
With diversity, it becomes important to have a smaller gov’t, which is always based on force (= non-peace).
The paranoia is not a problem until it involves controlling the state to reflect that view. This is what the Left is afraid the Christians will do — and Meyer and the media instead seem paranoid against any pro-life, pro-Christian culture.
(Wonder if I’ll ever qualify for the little Anchoress blogroll community.)
October 7th, 2005 at 9:51 am
Also, I now remember the old Buffalo Springfield lyrics:
Paranoia runs deep.
Into your life it will creep.
It starts when you’re always afraid.
Step out of line, the Man comes,
And takes you away.
You better Stop. Children,
What’s that sound?
Everybody looks.
What’s going on? (? memory?)
The Left has long been paranoid — and unwilling to face the results of their successful policy prescription of the 70s.
October 11th, 2005 at 5:23 pm
[...] Classical Values is wondering why the story of the bomb situation at Georgia Tech rates more media attention than the one in Oklahoma, which I think is a really good question. I suggest that the OK bombing is being downplayed because - once again, and go ahead and call me paranoid - the OK bombing makes people think of the OKC bombing, which reminds people that there was a second John Doe, who looks a lot like Padilla, and whatever happened to those clues about “middle eastern” types hanging around Tim McVie, who made it to the strapped-down gurney a hell of a lot faster than your average death-row inmate? [...]
October 29th, 2005 at 10:55 pm
[...] Being as how I, like most politically minded folk on either side these days, have my own paranoid moments, I liked to the piece here and added my own thoughts. [...]