Slow News Day
Daniel Davies considers the following to be “a title that you like too much to throw away, but not enough to write a relevant post about.” Fortunately, I can just quote it: “The future is a shoe being thrown at a human face – forever!”
I also agree with this:
Anyway, there’s clearly a Laffer Curve here; on the one hand, if there were no pieings of politicians, the world would be a sad and sorry place, but I’m guessing that if people like Friedman were pied every time they went out, they’d never go out, and we’d still have to read their columns without seeing them occasionally pied. I suspect that we’re not actually on the rightward slope of the Laffer Curve yet and that the world could stand having a few more of these incidents rather than less, but that’s a matter of personal taste.
I know a number of people in the profession who regard any quantity of public pie-ings as tantamount to fascism (really, multiple people have put this argument to me) but I’m with Davies. And, yes, even if a certain amount of pie gets on the face of good people that’s a price worth paying. It’s worth considering that even highly intelligent, well-intentioned people tend to become more-and-more absurd as they become more-and-more prominent. And it’s not really their fault. Nobody could possibly be smart enough or well-intentioned enough to consistently live up to the expectations involved in being the foreign policy columnist for the newspaper of record.
35 Responses to “Slow News Day”
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December 23rd, 2008 at 10:06 am
I suffer the conundrum of believing that no one should throw pies, but many people should be hit by them.
December 23rd, 2008 at 10:07 am
Why can’t people like that just make sober, rational, fact-based arguments rather than playing some sort of ego role that they like?
I mean, if you’re arguing that no one could possibly write reasonable columns on foreign policy which happen to be quoted more than anyone else, that seems completely unconvincing.
But if you’re arguing that there is a certain ‘gigantic pompous mouth-off douchebag far beyond any sane assessment of knowledge or reasoned argument’ role which goes along with playing ‘the foreign policy columnist for the newspaper of record’ — a newspaper which happens to frequently be a douchebag institution filled with power-coddling nonsense, hawkish propaganda, and undisclosed crucial information — then maybe.
December 23rd, 2008 at 10:07 am
I don’t really care about this post, but there are people who like to read the comments, and they will be eagerly reading these comments to see if there are people who do not understand the reference, so they can answer just to let everyone know that their comments section presence is just the hippest with socially acceptable political literature, so I am going to say ORWELL right now to beat them all to the punch and am even going one better and indulge in absolute quasi-masturbatory pointlessness by dropping the name Eric Blair.
December 23rd, 2008 at 10:09 am
I acknowledge that my improper use of this comments section was improper. When appropriately used they are not fora for intellectual exhaustion.
December 23rd, 2008 at 10:17 am
Nobody could possibly be smart enough or well-intentioned enough to consistently live up to the expectations involved in being the foreign policy columnist for the newspaper of record.
Uh oh. Am I the only one who thinks that Friedman may have had a friendly conversation with Palmieri? Guess we won’t be needing “A Special Note Re: Thomas Friedman”.
December 23rd, 2008 at 10:24 am
Even I will give the odious Al props for that one.
December 23rd, 2008 at 10:40 am
Even I will give the odious Al props for that one.
Sadly, I must agree.
December 23rd, 2008 at 10:44 am
Pieing or shoe-throwing should be objectionable and in a healthy political environment, they would be. But with our elites so utterly insulated from the consequences of their pronouncements and policies, the pie-in-the-face or the shoe-whizzing-by-the-head is often the ONLY way today’s elites are forced to confront their own clusterbleeps.
Mike
December 23rd, 2008 at 11:03 am
I know a number of people in the profession who regard any quantity of public pie-ings as tantamount to fascism (really, multiple people have put this argument to me) but I’m with Davies.
You know, I’m going to take the not-really-radical-at-all position that private individuals throwing pies or shoes at world political leaders is not fascism at all. Fascism is authoritarian state power (or, fine, the principle of or desire for authoritarian state power, or mob violence with the approval of state power) aimed at hyper-nationalism, militarism and a mix of protectionist and corporatist economic policies. Call an individual who throws shoes, pies or other not-inherently-dangerous projectiles an anarchist or iconoclast or general radical or something, but it’s only fascism if you use that word to apply to everything even vaguely political that you don’t like. That’s Goldbergian stupidity.
When you say “the profession”, do you mean politics, journalism, or what? If the former, it’s still wrong, but it’s kinda understandable that people would be irrationally bothered by threats to themselves and their own bosses and stuff. If you’re talking about journalists, though, it’s one more sign that our media is fucked up. “Adversarial” my ass.
December 23rd, 2008 at 11:05 am
Nobody could possibly be smart enough or well-intentioned enough to consistently live up to the expectations involved in being the foreign policy columnist for the newspaper of record.
Krugman does okay as the economics columnist. He’s also the Nobel-winner.
December 23rd, 2008 at 11:11 am
Thanks for the Christmas spirit, Moral Panicker.
December 23rd, 2008 at 11:17 am
Thanks for reminding me of the Friedman pieing. It’s not justice, far from it, but it helps those of us who want justice to believe we have friends and allies out there.
December 23rd, 2008 at 11:33 am
I must also give this a +1 and a “well played” to Al. Well played sir, well played.
December 23rd, 2008 at 1:12 pm
any quantity of public pie-ings as tantamount to fascism
Who can forget Mussolini’s pieing of the Italian commmunists, or the shocking scene at Guernica, where Franco’s bombers dropped pies on a helpless populace, not to mention the infamous Nazi “Night of the Long Pies”?
December 23rd, 2008 at 1:58 pm
I liked the take of John Oliver and Andy Zaltzman on the shoe-throwing: that it was probably the closest we’ll come to an accountability moment for Bush — no trials, no admission of guilt, no repercussions — while simultaneously being more than we dared hope for.
I certainly think that pie-throwing or other ‘punking’ techniques are the proper way to deal with performing seals like Ann Coulter.
December 23rd, 2008 at 2:41 pm
While it is a silly exaggeration, it does parallel the beginnings of fascism in Italy. A completely impotent power structure was helpless to address any number of harmful social ills. In response, citizens took matters into their own hands. Those citizens developed into the Fascist party.
The better response isn’t to condemn the citizens who take matters into their own hands, it is to have a competent, self-critical power structure. Had Tom Friedman been critically butchered by his colleagues for his ridiculous statements in major print and broadcast media, throwing a pie at him would be gratuitous.
December 23rd, 2008 at 3:19 pm
Diogenes (of the futile search for an honest man) complained that the only place to spit in a rich man’s house was in his face. Diogenes would approve of throwing a pie in the face of a public menace. Despite the fact that there are more menaces than pies available.
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