Posted on 01/24/2014 12:36:13 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
She is an unabashed liberal. In a culture increasingly governed by Marxist Nomenklatura masking itself as “liberal”, conservatives should be bold enough to reclaim that much maligned political descriptor as one of our own. We are, after all, the ideological descendants of classical liberals, making the outspoken once Liberal Democrat, now Libertarian Camille Paglia the perfect match for contemporary politically conservative feminists.
Can’t possibly imagine the lady who, even when she smiles, gives you a look that says, “I know you’re full of s**t,” could possibly fit in the ranks of the right wing? Here are 10 reasons why you need to throw out the stereotypical baby with your lukewarm bathwater thinking and get hot for the fast-talking, heavy thinking, pop culture-loving Camille Paglia.
10. Paglia embraces the idea of electing public leaders with military experience.
“The entire elite class now, in finance, in politics and so on, none of them have military service—hardly anyone, there are a few. But there is no prestige attached to it anymore. That is a recipe for disaster,” she says. “These people don’t think in military ways, so there’s this illusion out there that people are basically nice, people are basically kind, if we’re just nice and benevolent to everyone they’ll be nice too. They literally don’t have any sense of evil or criminality.”
9. Paglia is Pro-Individual, Pro-Manual Trade, Pro-Free Market.
“We need a revalorization of the trades that would allow students to enter [manual trades] without social prejudice (which often emanates from parents eager for the false cachet of an Ivy League sticker on the car). Among my students at art schools, for example, have been virtuoso woodworkers who were already earning income as craft furniture-makers. Artists should learn to see themselves as entrepreneurs.”
8. Paglia is Pro-Capitalist and Anti-Socialist.
“…it is capitalism that ended the stranglehold of the hereditary aristocracies, raised the standard of living for most of the world and enabled the emancipation of women. The routine defamation of capitalism by armchair leftists in academe and the mainstream media has cut young artists and thinkers off from the authentic cultural energies of our time.”
“In my view, comparing the evidence of the 20th century, that socialism in a nation ultimately does lead to economic stagnation and eventually of the creative impulse, in terms of new technology and other things.”
(VIDEO-AT-LINK)
7. Paglia despises the Intellectual Elite and the Yuppie class that supports them.
“Michelle Obama’s going on: ‘Everybody must have college.’ Why? Why? What is the reason why everyone has to go to college? Especially when college is so utterly meaningless right now, it has no core curriculum” and “people end up saddled with huge debts,” says Ms. Paglia. What’s driving the push toward universal college is “social snobbery on the part of a lot of upper-middle-class families who want the sticker in the window.”
6. Paglia disavows the Nanny State, Political Correctness and all they entail.
To save feminism as a political movement from irrelevance, Ms. Paglia says, the women’s movement should return to its roots. That means abandoning the “nanny state” mentality that led to politically correct speech codes and college disciplinary committees that have come to replace courts. The movement can win converts, she says, but it needs to become a big tent, one “open to stay-at-home moms” and “not just the career woman.”
5. Paglia recognizes Stalinism when she sees it.
“Also the Obamacare: of course, we need health care reform in this country. What a mess! Everyone agrees about that. But the Obamacare is, to me, a Stalinist intrusion — okay? — into American culture.”
“And I personally feel as a libertarian that people have the right to free thought and free speech. …If people are basing their views against gays on the Bible, again they have a right to religious freedom there … to express yourself in a magazine in an interview -– this is the level of punitive PC, utterly fascist, utterly Stalinist, OK, that my liberal colleagues in the Democratic party and on college campuses have supported and promoted over the last several decades. It’s the whole legacy of the free speech 1960′s that have been lost by my own party.”
4. Paglia coined the term Street Smart Feminism.
“I believe that every person, male and female, needs to be in a protective mode at all times of alertness to potential danger. The world is full of potential attacks, potential disasters.” She calls it “street-smart feminism.”
3. Paglia demands a global perspective on female issues.
More important, Ms. Paglia says, if the women’s movement wants to be taken seriously again, it should tackle serious matters, like rape in India and honor killings in the Muslim world, that are “more of an outrage than some woman going on a date on the Brown University campus.”
2. Paglia is daringly realistic about how gender roles play out in society.
“Indeed, men are absolutely indispensable right now, invisible as it is to most feminists, who seem blind to the infrastructure that makes their own work lives possible. It is overwhelmingly men who do the dirty, dangerous work of building roads, pouring concrete, laying bricks, tarring roofs, hanging electric wires, excavating natural gas and sewage lines, cutting and clearing trees, and bulldozing the landscape for housing developments. It is men who heft and weld the giant steel beams that frame our office buildings, and it is men who do the hair-raising work of insetting and sealing the finely tempered plate-glass windows of skyscrapers 50 stories tall.”
1. Paglia is Pro-Man.
“Primary-school education is a crock, basically. It’s oppressive to anyone with physical energy, especially guys,” she says, pointing to the most obvious example: the way many schools have cut recess. “They’re making a toxic environment for boys. Primary education does everything in its power to turn boys into neuters. …This PC gender politics thing—the way gender is being taught in the universities—in a very anti-male way, it’s all about neutralization of maleness.”
The beauty of Paglia is that she does not demand to be a hero or an icon. In fact, in her writing she breaks down the cult of goddess worship from pagan to pop culture, giving feminism a reality check, which is exactly what the movement needs in order to survive. Conservative feminism needs spokeswomen; it’s time we invite Paglia to join the team.
I have read her stuff for years on and off and I agree that the women’s movement was needed at one time. Personally I think it has outlived its usefulness and should end up in the ash bin of history, as another left wing idea that did more harm then good. I think that we will have equality of the sexes when a man can punch a woman in the mouth and not automatically be tossed into jail. Just kidding...sorta.
Liberals aren’t necessarily Leftists.
I have always liked her. She’s intellectually honest, a thinking feminist.
Have another drink. The night is young.
Fully agree, informacious. Paglia is also an exceptionally clear writer. I will read her anytime I run across her, knowing that — agree or disagree — I’ll understand more when I finsh the read than when I start it.
Whether I agree or disagree on any given point, I find her views valuable and instructive.
Camille Paglia is classical liberal. She is not a progressive. There’s a BIG difference. I like reading her articles, especially when I agree with what she writes.
Funny, just last week I sent her a copy of “Patriot’s History of the Modern World” last week.
I’ve read a some of Paglia’s books, and a few of ideas are nutty...especially the ones concerning sex. But overall she’s fun to read because she kicks sand in the faces of all the feminist heroines like Steinem and the others whom she exposes as anti-American, petty fascists.
That's another thing I like about Paglia. Despite decades of propaganda from the feminist politburo, she refuses to consider herself a victim simply because she's a female.
So I like her.
Bingo. One of the few left. The other I can think of offhand is Prof. Allen Dershowitz.
I love Paglia. I was lucky enough to invite her to my reading series in NYC in the late 90s when her star was at its highest. She spoke for two hours off the cuff and took questions for another hour. And she was my husband’s dinner companion that night and he loved her.
She’s right on so many issues and her books are works of art.
And now I’ll say one more thing: until she addresses her Arabist leanings and her love and admiration for Edward Said, she will never be right on all issues - particularly the issue of our time.
For example, when in a tight spot she will reference back to her Italian heritage for clues, further as a man that began my career mixing mortar and toting brick I appreciate that she appreciates what thats all about.
However, like Oriana Fallaci, the late GREAT Italian journalist, she's no one's dray horse; she'll be hitched to no wagon nor sledge.
She's more iconaclast than icon, even when she defends western canon against the imbeciles of academe. I think she does it because imbeciles in academe are a target rich environment. It's too easy and too much fun for her to pass up.
Ulimately, like Fallaci, she'll complain about muslims pissing on the sides of great cathedrals even as she pisses on the floor.
She's a "one-off" and as such she's tolerated in academe. I don't think she has any desire to be a part of a movement.
Again, she loves Arab culture and has written extensively about it. She has written very little about Muslim oppression - just a few tosses to honor killings in the mid-east. She was a student of Edward Said and has written forests of essays on him and his book “Orientalism.” In this way, she shares nothing with the late, great Oriana Fallaci. And I speak as a fan.
Another thing: when election time comes around, she will again support the Democratic candidate or the Green candidate as she’s done in the past. I’ve never seen her admit to voting for a Republican candidate.
I hate saying this because I’m such a huge admirer of hers but she has her flaws.
Oh, I beg to differ:
Like Fallaci, she is an Italian nationalist
Like Fallaci, she is an athiest
Like Fallaci, she is a fierce individualist
Like Fallaci, she has passion to burn
And like Fallaci she defends western culture even as she, unwittingly?, tears it apart.
And believe me, that's an Italian thing too.
I have always read whatever she wrote and for the most part agreed with her. I guess I must be a lesbian.
She is a classical liberal with a few odd opinions but she may be one of the more intellectually honest out there.
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