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A Strange Sort of Blindness
Pajamas Media ^ | March 2 | Andrew Klavan

Posted on 03/02/2009 2:27:42 PM PST by AJKauf

One thing that has always astonished me is how leftists can be blind to the wisdom of the very arts they love and sometimes even the arts they create. How can you tell me you’re a Lord of the Rings fan and yet not understand that evil exists and must be defeated? How can you give an Oscar to No Country for Old Men and not realize that nihilistic chaos follows the breakdown of cultural norms and good manners? How can you read 1984 and continue to be a leftist at all?

I’ve just finished reading the novel Blindness. Its first pages are loaded with rapturous reviews from such stridently left wing mouthpieces as the New Yorker, the New York Times, the Village Voice, the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post. The author, Jose Saramago, is a Portuguese Communist. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, which has itself become an instrument of leftist cultural engineering....

(Excerpt) Read more at pajamasmedia.com ...


TOPICS: Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: blindness; bookreview

1 posted on 03/02/2009 2:27:42 PM PST by AJKauf
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To: AJKauf

I watch movies and read books with a conservative eye. Plus I’ve always liked to get an idea of the world the writer lived in. If we know what was happening in the writer’s world, we can usually spot where their reality bleeds over into their fantasy.


2 posted on 03/02/2009 2:40:35 PM PST by cripplecreek (The poor bastards have us surrounded.)
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To: AJKauf
Simple. You don't read those books or see those movies, you misread them and misinterpret what's right in front of your eyes.

How can you give an Oscar to No Country for Old Men and not realize that nihilistic chaos follows the breakdown of cultural norms and good manners?

Simple. You just enjoy nihilistic chaos for its own sake, and never even consider what might have caused it.

3 posted on 03/02/2009 2:40:42 PM PST by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: AJKauf

The left, in general, think that they are addressing the world ‘intellectually’ and ‘progressively’. When I was barely in my 20’s I had some work acquaintances at a well known university who liked to wax philosophical. I came from a blue collar background, and wasn’t ever exposed to the Sherry-sipping crowd prior to then. That was the first time I heard the argument that Marx was brilliant and that communism was a good idea that just hadn’t been implemented properly. After awhile you come to realize that this is just the persona they’ve chosen for themselves. Sadly, they mostly don’t see that they are no more progressive or unique or intellectually enlightened than a bunch of 35-50 yr. old dead heads going to a concert in a van.


4 posted on 03/02/2009 2:41:06 PM PST by pieceofthepuzzle
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To: AJKauf

People who choose evil do so because they like evil. They like to think, talk, view, imagine, and do it.


5 posted on 03/02/2009 2:48:20 PM PST by donna (No more twitterpated RINO talk!)
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To: pieceofthepuzzle
"Sadly, they mostly don’t see that they are no more progressive or unique or intellectually enlightened than a bunch of 35-50 yr. old dead heads going to a concert in a van."

That's cuz they ARE a "bunch of 35-50 yr. old dead heads going to a concert in a van".

6 posted on 03/02/2009 3:23:41 PM PST by jackibutterfly
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