Sunday, October 07, 2012 10:08:29 PM
Is Mitt Romney America’s homegrown Taliban?
October 5, 2012 By Norman Lebrecht 29 Comments [ my emphasis ]
[ some comments included below as the article is short, but most of all to expand on your
"fuagf -- in its concluding comments, that ending Kos piece in yours is far too kind to both Welch and Willard -- braying old jackass Welch is a fascist, and a liar, through and through -- as is Willard, who if elected will be far worse than Nixon ever was or could have been"
Willard as fascist point. Other comments left because they are opinions too. ]
Reactions to the Republican candidate’s pledge to abolish publish funding for public broadcasting and the National Endowment for the Arts have aimed at the small-mindedness of the proposal, its failure to save much money and its fundamental stupidity.
That strikes me as misguided. Governor Romney is not a stupid man. He knows the move will save no money, but he also senses that it will appeal to millions of Americans who think their money is being handed out to cultural ‘elites’ rather than to local amenities. Kill the NEA is a popular slogan in Kansas and points west. It’s a vote-winner.
What the voters can’t see is the sinister parallels for such policies. In their occupation of Poland in the Second World War, the Nazi plan was to eradicate Polish culture and not to allow the populace access to education and literacy, beyond learning to read numbers up to 100. Under the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, education was based on a strict interpretation of the Koran and confined to boys. All relics of previous, non-Islamic culture were scandalously eradicated.
The Buddhas of Bamiyan .. http://www.scpr.org/news/2011/07/27/27917/bit-by-bit-afghanistan-rebuilds-buddhist-statues/ .. were blown up in 2001.
[ my insert YT video ]
What Mitt Romney promises America is a comparable demolition of its culture and the reduction of broadcasting
to the celebby inanities of commercial channels and internet sites. The phoney dogma of market forces will
rule America. Mitt Romney will be its Taliban liberator. That’s the real danger that looms in November.
10/5/12 11:45 AM | filed under: main |
Comments
* another orchestra musician says: October 5, 2012 at 12:43 pm
The comparison with Ahmadinejad would be more apt. In the present context, Mitt Romney is a mouthpiece. He says what he has been instructed his handlers and his target audience want him to say, in exchange for allowing him to continue talking.
* Emil Archambault says: October 5, 2012 at 1:18 pm
Taliban, really? You of course know that the Talibanss are known for murdering people, right? Like, murdering and torturing large numbers of people for ideological reasons. There is no plan by anyone in the US to prevent children to learn to read.
Really, this is nothing more than abject name-calling. I fail to see how calling anyone a Taliban or a Nazi helps prove your point.
* Petros Linardos says: October 5, 2012 at 2:13 pm
- I agree that Romney is a mouthpiece.
- I agree with Emil’s arguments.
- I am sure Romney believes he should be the next US president and that deeply believes in avoiding to pay his own taxes. Otherwise I don’t believe Romney’s words but I do believe that he would not support arts and education.
- Maybe Godwin’s Rule of Nazi Analogies should be expanded to included contemporary extremist analogies. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin's_law
another orchestra musician says: October 5, 2012 at 2:18 pm
The Taliban certainly are crude and brutal in a way that makes their comparison with Rove Republicans problematic. But these two optically very differing groups do share an underlying current of tribalism and intolerance. Tribalism and intolerance are cornerstones of most extremist ideologies, and are common motivators of murderous violence.
Here, several extracts from the 2012 Texas GOP platform:
Knowledge-Based Education – We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) (values clarification), critical thinking skills and similar programs that are simply a relabeling of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) (mastery learning) which focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student’s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority.
American Identity Patriotism and Loyalty – We believe the current teaching of a multicultural curriculum is divisive. We favor strengthening our common American identity and loyalty instead of political correctness that nurtures alienation among racial and ethnic groups. Students should pledge allegiance to the American and Texas flags daily to instill patriotism.
Sex Education – We recognize parental responsibility and authority regarding sex education. We believe that parents must be given an opportunity to review the material prior to giving their consent. We oppose any sex education other than abstinence until marriage.
U.S. Department of Education – Since education is not an enumerated power of the federal government, we believe the Department of Education (DOE) should be abolished.
* Emil Archambault says: October 5, 2012 at 2:44 pm
The Taliban or Nazi denomination is forever associated with mass murder and torture. There has been many narrow-minded, retrograde, nationalist, ideological groups. However, you have to take the immense difference in method between Talibans and other groups.
Besides, labeling people/groups brings nothing new; some will call Romney a Nazi/Taliban, others will call Obama a Marxist fascist Islamist, and the result is nothing more than a general hatred.
Tell me that Romney is planning on severely harming the Arts, fine.
Tell me he does not believe in the value of higher education, in sexual education, in science, etc. Tell me his program is based on restrictive nationalism. That’s all fact-based. But there is no logical reason for calling him a Taliban.
@Petros I was thinking of the Godwin Law as well. A well deserved Godwin point here.
* harold braun says: October 5, 2012 at 1:36 pm
He definitely is.
* Hank says: October 5, 2012 at 2:06 pm
Norman, as much as I despise Romney (his abuse of his dog alone disqualifies him from my vote), I think your analogy is a bit of a stretch.
The sad fact is, there has long been a distrust of high culture among large stretches of the American populace. Unless they are commercially successful, artists of all kinds are seen as slackers, effete, and anti-Religion. The time when Classical music was seen as something for the general populace to appreciate peaked in the 1930s and has been in decline since the 1960s.
Romney represents that mentality to a T.
* Waldo says: October 5, 2012 at 2:22 pm
I’m voting for Obama, but this kind of name-calling is exactly the kind of talk we don’t need. Romney is a lot of things, but he is not Hitler, or Mullah Omar, or anyone of that ilk. Give me a break.
* Elaine Fine says: October 5, 2012 at 3:12 pm
Romney and his kind (and there are more of them around than anyone reading would want to count) don’t care about music, art, expression, literature, or even philosophy. They think only about money and power. That’s the way they are wired. He and his kind don’t like PBS’s, liberally-slanted (non-partisan, actually) news, and its informative programs about the kind of science that the people who would profit from a Romney presidency don’t want the public knowing about. I doubt that anyone in the Romney family has ever watched “Live from Lincoln Center,” or, for that matter, ever listened to music on an NPR station. These things just don’t matter in their world. Taliban? That’s a bit of a leap. I don’t think that Mitt would go so far as to ban musical instruments, because they are commercial goods, and as long as people buy them, someone makes a profit.
The biggest problem for people involved with music, either as a “maker” or as a listener, with this mindset is that it values the salesman (and I deliberately didn’t add the other gender to that profession) as the greatest exponent of American culture, and the sales pitch as its greatest medium for artistic expression. When I look at America through his eyes (and I spent a year working at Bain as a typist, so I have some experience) I see a country devoid of everything I grew up believing was of cultural value.
* Kit Baker says: October 5, 2012 at 3:17 pm
The targeting of the NEA as an unwilling pawn in the culture wars has been going on for nearly thirty years . Right wing Republicans have been exploiting the NEA as a convenient scapegoat with which they can consistently energize their base. It’s a profoundly hypocritical and damaging line of attack, and they clearly know it, but it has worked so well for them they don’t seem to care.
Romney maintained the arts funding status quo in Massachusetts, then tried to throw a bone to the right wing by cutting the NEA budget in half, but when his campaign started getting desperate we suddenly heard he’d Etch a Sketched that out, and he’d get rid of it altogether. So it’s now clear the NEA is just a political pawn for him as well.
On another point, for anyone accusing Norman of going too far, you should watch this, a series of pretty compelling BBC films that “compare the rise of the American Neo-Conservative movement and the radical Islamist movement”:
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/the-power-of-nightmares/
more comments: http://www.artsjournal.com/slippeddisc/2012/10/is-mitt-romney-americas-homegrown-taliban.html
See also:
Powder Dayz, Romney PBS cut promotes illiteracy and ignorance ..
The Government Should Support Public Television (PBS)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=80198891
WATCH: Full Secret Video of Private Romney Fundraiser
Mitt Romney wanted the full tape. Here it is.
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=79687603
What American 'conservatism' has become fits closely within the definition of fascism: an intensely nationalist movement intent on defining membership in the 'nation' on linguistic, religious, and (increasingly) ethnic/racial criteria, accompanied by an unquestioning loyalty to (male) authority, enshrined in family leaders, business leaders, religious leaders, and especially, the leader of the nation, who is seen as embodying the Nation. Loyalty to the Party or Movement and its ideology is of great importance. Violence is the preferred means of accomplishing goals. Diplomacy, compromise, negotiation, are all identified with (feminine) weakness. The rule of law is also despised, because it lacks the immediacy of (violent) action, and its emphasis on balance and its concern with proper procedure is also seen as a sign of (feminine) weakness. .. http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=79591569
arizona1 -- the pure, classic fascist approach to seizing power -- there is no room for honesty, truth, candor or accountability in a Big Lie campaign -- given that imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, Joseph Geobbels would no doubt be quite proud to learn of his Latter-Day follower
Nazi Propaganda by Joseph Goebbels
1933-1945
http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/goebmain.htm
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=77141881
Mitt and the White Horse Prophecy
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=71568915
October 5, 2012 By Norman Lebrecht 29 Comments [ my emphasis ]
[ some comments included below as the article is short, but most of all to expand on your
"fuagf -- in its concluding comments, that ending Kos piece in yours is far too kind to both Welch and Willard -- braying old jackass Welch is a fascist, and a liar, through and through -- as is Willard, who if elected will be far worse than Nixon ever was or could have been"
Willard as fascist point. Other comments left because they are opinions too. ]
Reactions to the Republican candidate’s pledge to abolish publish funding for public broadcasting and the National Endowment for the Arts have aimed at the small-mindedness of the proposal, its failure to save much money and its fundamental stupidity.
That strikes me as misguided. Governor Romney is not a stupid man. He knows the move will save no money, but he also senses that it will appeal to millions of Americans who think their money is being handed out to cultural ‘elites’ rather than to local amenities. Kill the NEA is a popular slogan in Kansas and points west. It’s a vote-winner.
What the voters can’t see is the sinister parallels for such policies. In their occupation of Poland in the Second World War, the Nazi plan was to eradicate Polish culture and not to allow the populace access to education and literacy, beyond learning to read numbers up to 100. Under the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, education was based on a strict interpretation of the Koran and confined to boys. All relics of previous, non-Islamic culture were scandalously eradicated.
The Buddhas of Bamiyan .. http://www.scpr.org/news/2011/07/27/27917/bit-by-bit-afghanistan-rebuilds-buddhist-statues/ .. were blown up in 2001.
[ my insert YT video ]
What Mitt Romney promises America is a comparable demolition of its culture and the reduction of broadcasting
to the celebby inanities of commercial channels and internet sites. The phoney dogma of market forces will
rule America. Mitt Romney will be its Taliban liberator. That’s the real danger that looms in November.
10/5/12 11:45 AM | filed under: main |
Comments
* another orchestra musician says: October 5, 2012 at 12:43 pm
The comparison with Ahmadinejad would be more apt. In the present context, Mitt Romney is a mouthpiece. He says what he has been instructed his handlers and his target audience want him to say, in exchange for allowing him to continue talking.
* Emil Archambault says: October 5, 2012 at 1:18 pm
Taliban, really? You of course know that the Talibanss are known for murdering people, right? Like, murdering and torturing large numbers of people for ideological reasons. There is no plan by anyone in the US to prevent children to learn to read.
Really, this is nothing more than abject name-calling. I fail to see how calling anyone a Taliban or a Nazi helps prove your point.
* Petros Linardos says: October 5, 2012 at 2:13 pm
- I agree that Romney is a mouthpiece.
- I agree with Emil’s arguments.
- I am sure Romney believes he should be the next US president and that deeply believes in avoiding to pay his own taxes. Otherwise I don’t believe Romney’s words but I do believe that he would not support arts and education.
- Maybe Godwin’s Rule of Nazi Analogies should be expanded to included contemporary extremist analogies. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin's_law
another orchestra musician says: October 5, 2012 at 2:18 pm
The Taliban certainly are crude and brutal in a way that makes their comparison with Rove Republicans problematic. But these two optically very differing groups do share an underlying current of tribalism and intolerance. Tribalism and intolerance are cornerstones of most extremist ideologies, and are common motivators of murderous violence.
Here, several extracts from the 2012 Texas GOP platform:
Knowledge-Based Education – We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) (values clarification), critical thinking skills and similar programs that are simply a relabeling of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) (mastery learning) which focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student’s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority.
American Identity Patriotism and Loyalty – We believe the current teaching of a multicultural curriculum is divisive. We favor strengthening our common American identity and loyalty instead of political correctness that nurtures alienation among racial and ethnic groups. Students should pledge allegiance to the American and Texas flags daily to instill patriotism.
Sex Education – We recognize parental responsibility and authority regarding sex education. We believe that parents must be given an opportunity to review the material prior to giving their consent. We oppose any sex education other than abstinence until marriage.
U.S. Department of Education – Since education is not an enumerated power of the federal government, we believe the Department of Education (DOE) should be abolished.
* Emil Archambault says: October 5, 2012 at 2:44 pm
The Taliban or Nazi denomination is forever associated with mass murder and torture. There has been many narrow-minded, retrograde, nationalist, ideological groups. However, you have to take the immense difference in method between Talibans and other groups.
Besides, labeling people/groups brings nothing new; some will call Romney a Nazi/Taliban, others will call Obama a Marxist fascist Islamist, and the result is nothing more than a general hatred.
Tell me that Romney is planning on severely harming the Arts, fine.
Tell me he does not believe in the value of higher education, in sexual education, in science, etc. Tell me his program is based on restrictive nationalism. That’s all fact-based. But there is no logical reason for calling him a Taliban.
@Petros I was thinking of the Godwin Law as well. A well deserved Godwin point here.
* harold braun says: October 5, 2012 at 1:36 pm
He definitely is.
* Hank says: October 5, 2012 at 2:06 pm
Norman, as much as I despise Romney (his abuse of his dog alone disqualifies him from my vote), I think your analogy is a bit of a stretch.
The sad fact is, there has long been a distrust of high culture among large stretches of the American populace. Unless they are commercially successful, artists of all kinds are seen as slackers, effete, and anti-Religion. The time when Classical music was seen as something for the general populace to appreciate peaked in the 1930s and has been in decline since the 1960s.
Romney represents that mentality to a T.
* Waldo says: October 5, 2012 at 2:22 pm
I’m voting for Obama, but this kind of name-calling is exactly the kind of talk we don’t need. Romney is a lot of things, but he is not Hitler, or Mullah Omar, or anyone of that ilk. Give me a break.
* Elaine Fine says: October 5, 2012 at 3:12 pm
Romney and his kind (and there are more of them around than anyone reading would want to count) don’t care about music, art, expression, literature, or even philosophy. They think only about money and power. That’s the way they are wired. He and his kind don’t like PBS’s, liberally-slanted (non-partisan, actually) news, and its informative programs about the kind of science that the people who would profit from a Romney presidency don’t want the public knowing about. I doubt that anyone in the Romney family has ever watched “Live from Lincoln Center,” or, for that matter, ever listened to music on an NPR station. These things just don’t matter in their world. Taliban? That’s a bit of a leap. I don’t think that Mitt would go so far as to ban musical instruments, because they are commercial goods, and as long as people buy them, someone makes a profit.
The biggest problem for people involved with music, either as a “maker” or as a listener, with this mindset is that it values the salesman (and I deliberately didn’t add the other gender to that profession) as the greatest exponent of American culture, and the sales pitch as its greatest medium for artistic expression. When I look at America through his eyes (and I spent a year working at Bain as a typist, so I have some experience) I see a country devoid of everything I grew up believing was of cultural value.
* Kit Baker says: October 5, 2012 at 3:17 pm
The targeting of the NEA as an unwilling pawn in the culture wars has been going on for nearly thirty years . Right wing Republicans have been exploiting the NEA as a convenient scapegoat with which they can consistently energize their base. It’s a profoundly hypocritical and damaging line of attack, and they clearly know it, but it has worked so well for them they don’t seem to care.
Romney maintained the arts funding status quo in Massachusetts, then tried to throw a bone to the right wing by cutting the NEA budget in half, but when his campaign started getting desperate we suddenly heard he’d Etch a Sketched that out, and he’d get rid of it altogether. So it’s now clear the NEA is just a political pawn for him as well.
On another point, for anyone accusing Norman of going too far, you should watch this, a series of pretty compelling BBC films that “compare the rise of the American Neo-Conservative movement and the radical Islamist movement”:
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/the-power-of-nightmares/
more comments: http://www.artsjournal.com/slippeddisc/2012/10/is-mitt-romney-americas-homegrown-taliban.html
See also:
Powder Dayz, Romney PBS cut promotes illiteracy and ignorance ..
The Government Should Support Public Television (PBS)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=80198891
WATCH: Full Secret Video of Private Romney Fundraiser
Mitt Romney wanted the full tape. Here it is.
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=79687603
What American 'conservatism' has become fits closely within the definition of fascism: an intensely nationalist movement intent on defining membership in the 'nation' on linguistic, religious, and (increasingly) ethnic/racial criteria, accompanied by an unquestioning loyalty to (male) authority, enshrined in family leaders, business leaders, religious leaders, and especially, the leader of the nation, who is seen as embodying the Nation. Loyalty to the Party or Movement and its ideology is of great importance. Violence is the preferred means of accomplishing goals. Diplomacy, compromise, negotiation, are all identified with (feminine) weakness. The rule of law is also despised, because it lacks the immediacy of (violent) action, and its emphasis on balance and its concern with proper procedure is also seen as a sign of (feminine) weakness. .. http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=79591569
arizona1 -- the pure, classic fascist approach to seizing power -- there is no room for honesty, truth, candor or accountability in a Big Lie campaign -- given that imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, Joseph Geobbels would no doubt be quite proud to learn of his Latter-Day follower
Nazi Propaganda by Joseph Goebbels
1933-1945
http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/goebmain.htm
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=77141881
Mitt and the White Horse Prophecy
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=71568915
It was Plato who said, “He, O men, is the wisest, who like Socrates, knows that his wisdom is in truth worth nothing”
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