Jonah Goldberg was on BBC Radio 4’s Start the Week this week, promoting the UK publication of Liberal Fascism:
It takes no moral or intellectual courage to point to the things you don’t like and say, “that’s fascist”. It takes real intellectual courage to point to the things you do like and say “gosh, where could this take us”.
Which caused me derisively to hoot, as I have seen the very serious, thoughtful argument that has never been made in such detail or with such care in action, and watched this Goldberg bowl ludicrous accusations ad sinistram like a toddler lobbing kumquats at the family pooch.
But then I repented my ungenerous reaction. I wondered to myself in this wise: I say, Self, have you been unfair to the Goldberg? has his study of the Swarthmorofascist menace caused him to plumb the measureless depths of his own soul, probing whether he might himself be susceptible to fascism’s seductive charms? Or has, perhaps, the recent canvass caused him a crisis in confidence, urging him to reconsider his support for the last administration’s civil-liberties-consuming binge, making him reflect with worry on his recent activities, much as one facing the jaundiced map in the morning mirror might wonder whether it was perhaps such a good idea to have that fifth martini-with-absinthe?
Self said, not so fast, sunshine. You just wait. And the self was right: it was just that old wheeze, “irony is dead” performance art. Twenty minutes later Goldberg defends the Bush carelessness with civil liberties, without betraying evidence of reflective thought, utterly unable to wonder, “gosh, where could this take us”.
Have another drink, the self said.
13 comments
January 27, 2009 at 2:46 pm
jazzbumpa
IIRC, it’s the fourth martini that requires absinthe (not that I’ve ever gotten past the third.) I’m quite sure, though the citation eludes me, that the fifth martini demands kumquats. Now . . . where have they all gone?
January 27, 2009 at 2:58 pm
Chris J
Since Swarthmore College was founded by Quakers, the fascist label’s particularly odd.
January 27, 2009 at 3:16 pm
felix
I’m so sad and sorry that Jonah Goldberg has the exact same name that my socialist grandfather did (except grandpa anglicized his to something duller, sad.)
January 27, 2009 at 3:37 pm
John Emerson
The quintessential Liberal Fascist isn’t an SS storm trooper; it is a female grade school teacher with an education degree from Brown or Swarthmore…..If you want a vision of the future, imagine a daycare worker giving a toddler a sugarfree bran muffin — forever.
January 27, 2009 at 5:20 pm
Brad
Say what you will about those Swarthmore grads, they do make recess end on time….
January 27, 2009 at 5:58 pm
dana
Since my main associations with Swarthmore are Timothy Burke and a beautiful red-haired dancer from my high school who attended the school, Goldberg’s line cracks me up, because I envision the bran muffin being used in some modern dance routine which is carefully and painstakingly blogged with just the right measured tone.
January 28, 2009 at 1:26 am
erubin
Jonah Goldberg’s interview on The Daily Show:
http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=147884&title=Jonah-Goldberg
Perhaps my all-time favorite.
January 28, 2009 at 6:05 am
Russell Belding
I wonder if there’s a British equivalent for the term “doughy pantload.”
January 28, 2009 at 10:14 am
KRK
Doughy trouserload?
January 28, 2009 at 12:19 pm
touhy
Hey–they would NEVER give a toddler a sugar-free bran muffin; organic sucanat maybe, but that Splenda crap? Or aspartame? Never!
January 28, 2009 at 4:23 pm
John Emerson
No sweetener at all. Jesus.
January 28, 2009 at 8:04 pm
chingona
Stevia, I would think.
January 29, 2009 at 3:20 pm
Jon H
“I wonder if there’s a British equivalent for the term “doughy pantload.””
Actually, ‘doughy pantload’ is even more appropriate in the British idiom.