[lit-ideas] Re: double standards-long version
- From: "Steven G. Cameron" <stevecam@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 01 Apr 2004 08:02:46 -0500
**So, can similar logic be then applied to the current (pseudo)
president who's taking his minder (whoops, VP) to the 9-11 investigating
committee with him?? WMDs [wink, wink]; political favors to the oil
companies, Haliburton, Enron -- "who me??" [wink, wink]; "I showed up
regularly to serve with my National Guard unit." [wink, wink]; "Dick
Clarke never met with me." [wink, wink]; "We have evidence of Iraqi
links with El-Queda [wink, wink]...??
TC,
/Steve Cameron, NJ
Scribe1865@xxxxxxx wrote:
> When Clinton said he "didn't inhale," some part of the public assumed it was
> a lie, but liked Clinton anyway because:
> (1) Clinton's feigned innocence was an ironic statement -- "I know you know
> I'm lying and that makes us equals" --- which acknowledged the laws were
> unfair
> and stupid, BUT that citizens had to pretend the laws weren't unfair and
> stupid, because so much depended on the pretense, namely
>
> (2) Clinton's career as President (and by extension the public's careers in
> general) were in service to some larger falsehood that would take away the
> Presidency (and by extension many careers) if they told the truth or tried to
> change the laws. The drug testing industry was getting into full swing.
>
> (3) Hence the -wink, wink- Clinton made ("did not inhale") told such people
> that he was on their side, that he was in the same boat, subject to the same
> hypocritical and unfair rules, which were beyond democracy, beyond activist
> reform of legislation, or appeal, and which one had to pretend to agree with
> and
> support even while knowing they were arbitrary and stupid.
>
> (4) Yet these laws weren't harmless because thousands and thousands of people
> were having their lives ruined by the laws, so after the -wink, wink- was
> over as a news story, Clinton turned back to signing legislation that
> significantly decreased individual privacy and put everyone -- Colombian
> mafia killer and
> former Woodstock hippie -- in the same boat.
>
> Some intense damage to the public trust happened here, something new in the
> way of metacommunication and levels of irony.
>
> A President, doesn't matter which party, is in effect telling the citizenry:
> "You and I both know this pot story of mine is a lie, but we have to pretend
> it's true, because if any of us admits it's false, corporations and other
> groups will punish us. So watch me for cues on how to pretend. Meanwhile, my
> -wink,
> wink- should encourage you by telling you that I suffer under its yoke too,
> even though I will never admit the truth in so many words, even as I
> intensify
> its cruel mandates."
>
>
> Eric
>
>
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