Cheney to Bush: Who needs Goebbels when you have Paris Hilton?
“Civilization, in fact, grows more and more maudlin and hysterical; especially under democracy it tends to degenerate into a mere combat of crazes; the whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary.”
H. L. Mencken wrote that, in 1917. It was true enough then – and I’m not sure he would have been pleased to know this, but it’s even truer now, almost a century later.
So, if I (with the columnist’s usual laziness) would equal ‘our civilization’s democratic, political system’ with that of the USA, as personified by the 43rd president of the US of A – yes, indeed, old Double Duh himself – then you would think that Bush could indeed not be happier when newspapers focus on the weird eating habits of pensioners:
Fast food fanatics Lee and Mary Humphrey are really Lovin’ It at McDonald’s - eating at their local branch every day for the past 17 years.
The pair have eaten the same meal - a double hamburger each with a shared large fries - more than 6,000 times and have vowed never to dine out anywhere else.
Mary said: “The staff all know us and have our food waiting when we come in.
The president must feel that it is much better for the people to read what pensioners have been eating the last two decades than that they would talk about what drunk coke-head George did – or didn’t do – about three decades ago…
That, and the occasional terrorist scare story, of course.
Still, in terms of distraction, nothing beats the continuing saga of celebrities doing stupid and/or repugnant things – especially if there are cute & furry animals involved:
Babyshambles frontman and junkie Pete Doherty has been photographed, appearing to give his kitten crack — from a mini-pipe he made specially for it.
Sickened pals who leaked the picture claimed the warped rocker regularly gets the pet smashed.
They said it passes out with its paws in the air, suffers mood swings and even thinks it can fly.
One added: “In Pete’s mind it is the only one who understands him now.”
Yes, with stories like these, you don’t need terrorist bogeyman tales – or another actual 9/11 – to keep people distracted, to the point of forgetting that their president is a bungling fool who started a war for no good reason, and fucked things up in such a disastrous manner that he’s now forced to say any damn stupid thing to distract the public from these sorry facts.
So, following the old Mencken model, we have Cheney and other bullies to scare us so badly that we don’t notice that the emperor wears no clothes.
But, post-Mencken, we also have all these silly tabloid stories to keep us so preoccupied that we don’t even worry all that much about the fact that the emperor is not just naked, but an incompetent, gibbering, born-again buffoon to boot.
Such a pity that this emperor is not like all the other Napoleon wannabees. He’d look ever so much better in a strait-jacket.
If you enjoyed this post, subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
