Here are my BIG THOUGHTS on ANIMAL HOUSE and today’s moral sophistication.
Gingrich’s whiny ranting last night ought to be the end of him.
Meanwhile: The latest poll shows Santorum will a tiny lead in the MN caucus. Rumors have it that he’s even-money in the MO beauty contest. And he’s a pretty strong second in CO. That showing–with two thirds or a fourth for Newt–might give Rick his moment. I kind of agree with Pete that he doesn’t quite have the brains or the wherewithall in general to make the most of it. But he’s been an overachiever so far.
Other thoughts: Why is the Super Bowl so close and yet so boring (yes, I’m not attached to either team)? And why was Madonna imitating Lady Gaga (actually pretty well)?
February 5th, 2012 | 7:34 pm
A sustained focus on Santorum and a Romney/Santorum fight would probably be healthy as at least some of the argument would be over principled differences on the issues and th clash would probably force Romney to both move to the reformist right and sharpen his message. That is to say that it will, to a large extent be more about Obamcare (*cough*Romneycare*cough*) and less about who worked for Freddie Mac and whose TV ads are more unfair.
I do wonder at why all of the more responsible Republican leaders (Daniels, Jindal, Christie, Jeb Bush, Bob McDonnell, Paul Ryan) have endorsed either Romney or Perry or nobody at all. As far as I can tell, none of them have endoresed Santorum.
Still, I’m for Santorum faults and all.
February 5th, 2012 | 11:42 pm
If you’re a major player, you don’t endorse a guy who doesn’t stand a chance of winning. Santorum has to demonstrate he has a chance; he has not done so.
February 6th, 2012 | 2:20 am
Nice piece referencing Animal House.
For the upper tribe, it seems that a concern for the good choices of others or the duty to perpetuate what is good in one’s own nation is all too easily reconciled with their self interested calculation in not wanting to pay for consequences of the bad choices of the lower tribe. If the upper tribe had their way they would wish to have their cake (i.e., the noble sentiment of the good) and eat it too (i.e., the particular desire to hold onto their wealth). Nonetheless, they agree that they must pay.
For whatever reason, many in the upper tribe feel an obligation to be so concerned for their putative lowers, and while they speak of human dignity and patriotism and “fair share”, they have come to believe that security and utility are truly the only goods. As the relative assurance they have in their own health and retirement attests, these goods are best achieved through hard work and self interest, i.e., through not being fat, smoking and stupid. No noblesse oblige here. It’s all about self-help, or at least that’s often what their intellectual evangels like Oprah profess in the popular media.
To be sure, the upper tribe still attends the opera (snobbery?) and/or sends their children to expensive film schools or writing programs (prestige?). Still the fruit of upper tribe needless expenditure–i.e., the most highly esteemed films and novels of the day–often presents the desperate plight of the lower tribe not as a result of bad choice from the point of view of calculation, but as symptomatic of a diseased society to which the upper tribe in its education–its science and taste–has the solutions.
So whatever is the motivation, the honor given to their knowledge and their compassion is a tribute given to their self interest. Or so it seems to many. In relation to Tocqueville, the actions of the upper tribe seem almost the opposite of the praise of self-interst all the while acting otherwise. Rather it seems nowadays it’s praise of aristocracy all the while acting otherwise.
Also, didn’t Lady Gaga imitate Madonna? No need to defend Madonna (but I may as well), but isn’t Gaga’s song “Born This Way” musically (and probably lyrically) a melange of Madonna’s “Express Yourself” and “Vogue.”
February 6th, 2012 | 5:27 am
John, Your last par. I thought was my point. Thanks for the other stuff which I will plagiarize down the road.
On Santorum, he was a pretty marginal, loner member of the Senate. Nobody thinks he can win, although not for Newt reasons. So, it is right to say that his isolation can be overcome with some impressive primary/caucus victories.
February 6th, 2012 | 7:37 am
What remains John, is how to explain how the current and false idea of the aristocratic is “leftoid” or “avant-garde,” even while a truly educated true leftist like an Irving Howe would be repulsive to these folks’ self-esteem.
February 6th, 2012 | 10:35 am
Nothing against Madonna or Lady Gaga, but I don’t hang around here to obtain tid-bits about them. That was a good game no? We as a modern advanced country deserve better than the boy-like Santorum.
February 6th, 2012 | 12:11 pm
If you found that Super Bowl boring, I suspect you don’t like football.
February 6th, 2012 | 1:18 pm
I just don’t follow pro football much anymore. It was a good game; the problem lies with me. The guy accidentally falling into the end zone was comic relief that undermined a dishonorable strategy. The Hail Mail pass was perfectly thrown and almost deserved to work.
February 6th, 2012 | 4:51 pm
Peter, re: the ‘hail Mary,’ you and I could throw the ball into the end zone (perhaps not from mid-field however).
February 6th, 2012 | 8:22 pm
Hen, Santorum’s economic pans are not as realistic as I would like, but he has been honest about the need for major changes that will imact large groups of people and this puts him ahead of Gingrich and our current President. He also seems to have been quite adult in the conduct of his responsibilities as a husband and father (as has the current President.)
February 9th, 2012 | 8:53 am
“The guy accidentally falling into the end zone was comic relief that undermined a dishonorable strategy.”
?! What “dishonorable strategy” was undermined here? The Giants trying to hold the ball until the end? Clock management is now “dishonorable”?
February 9th, 2012 | 10:58 am
It’s dishonorable not to score if you’re opponent fails to put up resistance.
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