. . . and so am I
From Freak Out!, the 1966 debut album of The Mothers of Invention, the recording that unleashed Frank Zappa on an unsuspecting world. The double-album contains at least four other classic Zappa tunes; Who Are The Brain Police?; Trouble Every Day; Hungry Freaks, Daddy; Wowie Zowie; and Motherly Love. It was also the high point for the use of the kazoo in rock music.
As a teacher, I am increasingly struck by a difference between my conservative and progressive students. Contrary to the stereotype, the conservatives are far more likely to connect their engagements to a set of political ideas and principles. Young people on the left are much more inclined to say that they are engaged in politics as an X, concerned about other Xs and those issues touching on X-ness. And they are less and less comfortable with debate.In a New York Times piece shortly after the presidential election (which I wrote about), Lilla first made his argument against identity politics, and its increasingly repressive and authoritarian nature, and was attacked by many progressives, including a professor at Columbia Law School who likened him to David Duke. His critique is perceptive but I doubt it will gain much traction with 21st century progressives.
Over the past decade a new, and very revealing, locution has drifted from our universities into the media mainstream: Speaking as an X…This is not an anodyne phrase. It sets up a wall against any questions that come from a non-X perspective. Classroom conversations that once might have begun, I think A, and here is my argument, now take the form, Speaking as an X, I am offended that you claim B. What replaces argument, then, are taboos against unfamiliar ideas and contrary opinions.
"It turns out that the future is not “a boot stamping on a human face – forever.”* The future is a conference call on which a cheery 30-something says things like “progressively coordinate functional strategic theme areas” – forever."
“It isn’t necessary to imagine the world ending in fire or ice — there are two other possibilities: one is paperwork, and the other is nostalgia.”
Just another example of bad science. In the U.S., time goes backward every fall. That is, except for Arizona. Or perhaps it is the only scientifically literate state? (THC)
Frank Zappa and the President of Czechoslovakia, Vaclav Havel, Prague 1990 “It isn’t necessary to imagine the world ending in fire or ice — there are two other possibilities: one is paperwork, and the other is nostalgia.”
