Part 1
Al Gore is perfect. Morally perfect? Deep down he may suspect so, but what I mean is he’s a perfect specimen, the best available, of the ever more explicit marriage between academia and liberalism; with the two commingling their goals and interests in an exhaustive examination of the chaotic United States and the frenzied capitalism it embodies.
That much is fine. Nearly perfect. And Al is to be commended for going around talking about everything that he goes around talking about. As he did back in October, for instance, at something called the “We Media Conference” (I don’t know), a sermon I’ll return to eventually. It’s what he was designed for and he should proceed.
The drawback, for the rest of us, is the basic approach of the Goreian academo-liberal analysis. The way it’s rooted in a strong belief that our society and its chaos are most accurately seen as producing horrifying results, for us and for the world. This includes, of course, the utter disintegration and decay of our once rational and truth-based political system; a rot so complete that the left very often loses elections.
That’s what Al Gore focuses on especially, that last part.
Of course there is just so damn much chaos in our society, and these are such clever and driven people who never lie and are always right, that the rest of us are confronted with a never-ending parallel chaos of analysis, almost all tending toward describing ultimate darkness. In short, we are confronted with Al Gore talking.
Yet something fundamental seems to be missing in all of this worldview that fills Al Gore to bursting. It’s missing from almost all of society-focused academia, missing from the political left and consequently is vastly underplayed in our national politics, since politics is filtered through an incredibly efficient system of reporters, 90% of whom agree with everything Al Gore says (I think of them as zebra mussels). What’s missing is the response.
What’s ignored at best, hated often, is simply the other way of looking at things. Some might call it the optimistic view.
That much is fine. Nearly perfect. And Al is to be commended for going around talking about everything that he goes around talking about. As he did back in October, for instance, at something called the “We Media Conference” (I don’t know), a sermon I’ll return to eventually. It’s what he was designed for and he should proceed.
The drawback, for the rest of us, is the basic approach of the Goreian academo-liberal analysis. The way it’s rooted in a strong belief that our society and its chaos are most accurately seen as producing horrifying results, for us and for the world. This includes, of course, the utter disintegration and decay of our once rational and truth-based political system; a rot so complete that the left very often loses elections.
That’s what Al Gore focuses on especially, that last part.
Of course there is just so damn much chaos in our society, and these are such clever and driven people who never lie and are always right, that the rest of us are confronted with a never-ending parallel chaos of analysis, almost all tending toward describing ultimate darkness. In short, we are confronted with Al Gore talking.
Yet something fundamental seems to be missing in all of this worldview that fills Al Gore to bursting. It’s missing from almost all of society-focused academia, missing from the political left and consequently is vastly underplayed in our national politics, since politics is filtered through an incredibly efficient system of reporters, 90% of whom agree with everything Al Gore says (I think of them as zebra mussels). What’s missing is the response.
What’s ignored at best, hated often, is simply the other way of looking at things. Some might call it the optimistic view.
posted by Lonesome Payne at
1:10 PM
