[lit-ideas] Re: Ground Zero and Dowdophobia

  • From: "Lawrence Helm" <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Tue, 24 Aug 2010 08:56:24 -0700

In the hoary spirit the Lit-Ideas' Quibblers, let me quibble with one of
your main issues, Mike.  You are assuming that Eric is like your friend
Perry W who doesn't care about politics.  Eric doesn't say he doesn't care
about anything political just that he doesn't care about "the politics"
surrounding of the Ground Zero Mosque.  
 
While I see no evidence that Eric has given up Politics, I do see a
suggestion that he is turning toward Pragmatism, at least in regard to this
particular issue.  I am rather fond of that philosophy myself, but I hadn't
applied it to Islamism quite the way Eric has.  But if that were somehow to
become the criteria for judging Islamism, I think that our first case should
be the Al Farooq mosque in Brooklyn.  We should burn that one immediately.
 
Lawrence
 
 
 
From: lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Mike Geary
Sent: Tuesday, August 24, 2010 8:35 AM
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Ground Zero and Dowdophobia
 
Alas, poor Eric. I thought I knew him well......oh well. 

 Eric's disdain for all things political reminds me of Perry W.  probably
one of my closest friends (I say probably because he now has 4 residences
(that I know of)  -- a place  somewhere in the Catskills,  another in the
Village, one in Memphis, and one in Tallahassee. He fancies himself a
peripatetic, but he flies wherever he goes. Flies his own airplanes.   We
don't see each other very much anymore, he'll layover in Memphis, usually
only for a week or so, then it's down to Tallahassee to do whatever it is he
does down there -- go hunting mostly, I suspect.  Perry has never worked a
day in his life, he married money.  He's a very intelligent, very talented
guy.  A photographer and writer and the manager of his wife's properties,
though he complains to me about her complaints about his management skills.
I've known him for 45 years, yet I've never known what really matters to
him.  Besides chasing women, he pursues respect, notoriety, recognition of
his talents and intelligence, he wants to be at the center of things
artistic.  He also genuinely values aesthetic experiences.  But I digress.
Perry doesn't have a political bone in his body.  Like Eric he dismisses all
things political.  He has always dismissed my activism and radicalism with a
wave of his hand, claiming I approached the world as it should be, not how
it is. He believed my adulation for Martin Luther King was naive though he
personally was all for civil rights. He's just never believed in the
efficacy of protest.  During the Vietnam period, though he opposed the war,
he thought it was folly, perhaps even silly of me to march and demonstrate
against the war.  "Do you really think that the U.S. government gives a shit
what you and the millions like you think?  Do you have any idea how much
money is invested in this war and is being made?  It was a precursor to the
"Network" speech: "You have meddled with the primal forces of Nature, Mr.
Beale."   I think Perry believes that the world is the way the world is
because that's the nature of the world and to fight against it is fruitless.
Take it on own terms and deal with it.  "Life is unfair, kill yourself or
get over it.   Certainly he has social climbed upwards whereas I have
scampered down.   "How do you think social change comes about?"  I'd demand
of him.  "Not by the likes of  you," he'd say.  "Just look at yourself. They
wouldn't let you in the servants entrance.".

Eric, like Perry, is disdainful of politics and political debate.  Knowing
Perry I'd be very surprised if his opinion on the  GZ Mosque didn't mirror
mine.  He just doesn't  give a damn how it turns out and is pretty much
indifferent to all controversies.  Eric strikes me in his reaction to Dowd's
column to be deeply invested in the politics -- despite his claim to godlike
indifference.  Eric in fact seems as politically invested as me.  

Mike Geary
Memphis

    
On Mon, Aug 23, 2010 at 4:58 PM, Eric <mr.eric.yost@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On 8/23/2010 4:12 PM, Judith Evans wrote:
you thought she was too hard on Obama, Eric?
 
No, the tone, the writing style, the motives behind the writing ... I have
no opinion about Obama. If I had cable TV, I might get bombarded by people
telling me what to think about Obama. But really, I don't care one way or
the other.

On the Web I see things like this (largely) by accident:

Ground Zero Imam Says U.S. Worse than al-Qaeda
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=38673

But really I don't care about the politics, the imam's politics, sunstruck
madmen politics, Dowd politics, the web page's politics. If the Sufi center
becomes a recruitment center for jihad, ceremonially burn it down every year
on 9-11; if it doesn't leave it alone. Same applies for the nearby strip
joints.



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