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.
You completely ignore what I have said about her Arabist leanings and concentrate on her enjoyment of Italian culture. Italian culture is NOT the issue of our times - it is Arab Muslim terrorism. In that, she has absolutely nothing in common with Fallaci. Fallaci will undoubtedly be remembered for her hatred of Islam that caused her to practically be banned from Italy. She ended up in New York City, dying of cancer, lamenting the leniency of the Florence government’s lenience towards Muslim extremism.
I have never heard Paglia describe herself as an “Italian nationalist,” since she’s a proud American. And who cares that the two women share atheism...or a love of tiramisu?
What both undoutedly share, and which is the fatal flaw of each (both of whom I love) is their atheism.
I am a mason, born & raised, and I know that if the foundation is out of true, the structure will never be true-can never be.
Nor am I talking about the enjoyment of a particular cake. I'm talking about a world view that eminates from the marrow of an Italian that is both tribal and individualistic; a self perpetuating and self defeating dichotomy.
OK, I’ll try once more: what is your opinion of Paglia’s Arabist leanings? I’ll admit she’s gotten more quiet about it lately but you can find it in many of her books of essays. I’m even doubtful about her attitudes towards Israel but I don’t feel like slogging through all her interviews and essays right now.
Sort of like a female Andrew Sullivan.
I can't say that I've read every interview that Paglia has given and so I've never come across her defence of Islam per se, but I can certainly see her being attracted to a brilliant mind. Also, and let's not deny this, there is much beauty in the Arabist world, which like every culture also contains a wide variety of flat spots.
But that merely re-enforces my opinion that her atheism blinds her to some things and further, that she is an unlikely standard bearer for any "cause".
BTW, thanks for the conversation.
No, she’s not Andrew Sullivan - no way, no how. She has been a tower of strength in defending Sarah Palin and had a major falling out with Crazy Andy over his obsession with Sarah’s ovulation charts. She was one of the first (along with 2nd Division Vet and myself!) to see the almost incandescent charisma of Sarah Palin when she exploded on the scene.
That said, yes, she always supports a Democratic administration until she doesn’t. I’m surprised at her backing off of Obamacare - she was excited about the implementation of “healthcare for all” back in 2008.
I’ve been aware of Paglia for years. She don’t no punches. She also happens to be one of the most rapid speaking people I’ve ever seen.
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If you disagree with her she will point out why she disagrees rather then pulling the "you're a racist bigot sexist homophobe" and then changing the subject.
Nat Hentoff. Pat Caddell.
Yet Steinem’s rally cry from 1970 rings down the decades: “No more Alimony! Let’s hear it again: No more alimony!”
Talk about not being a “victim.”
Steinem and their ilk hated marriage and anything associated with men and women getting together. They didn't want alimony, because they wanted the sexes to stay separate. Remember Steinem's infamous quote: a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle.
Steinem was/is a cut above some of the others. Her point against alimony is that it turns women into children who can’t support themselves or make their own way in the world.
I also think opening the eyes of women to the fact that we live in a male-dominated world (if they didn’t know it already) was a good thing. It doesn’t make women hate men. It’s just a fact that goes into the hopper with everything else when you make your life decisions.
Steinem is straight and very attractive and eventually got married. I wrote to her one time trying to start a dialogue on abortion but she never answered.
If she was a cut above other feminists, it was only because while they were up to their necks in the fecal swamp of anti-male/America hatred, she was only up to her shoulders. As much as any femi-nazi, she’s done her best to destroy traditional American values.
bkmk
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