Decision ‘08

How To Ruin A Good Article

Just start ranting about how the right ‘politicized’ 9/11:

As Stone’s movie reminds us, in news clips of people around the globe watching in shock, the sympathies of the world were with us. It was not to last. The politicization of 9/11 could not wait. In a climate of fear and flag-waving, with a pre-emptive war soon to come, the artist became suspect. The right-wing press accused Steve Earle of treason for writing “John Walker’s Blues,” a song that tried to get inside the mind of the young American Taliban fighter captured in Afghanistan. The left cringed at Toby Keith’s bombs-away musical response to 9/11, “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue” (”Soon as we could see clearly/Through our big black eye/Man, we lit up your world/Like the Fourth of July”). “The fact that everybody felt they had to line up and march to the same drummer after 9/11 was a really sad moment in the history of art,” says Michael Moore. Cartoonist Art Spiegelman remembers the pressures that artists felt. “At the end of 2002 there was a kind of fearfulness that went well beyond yellow or orange alerts,” says the author of “In the Shadow of No Towers,” a book that records his personal response to the terrorist attack. “There was a shutdown, not just of irony, but of comedy and political conversations that could be seen in some ways as disloyal.” By the time his 2004 book came out, Spiegelman found there had been a thaw: “It was the beginning of a sea change.”

This from a perfectly-good-up-until-then preview of the ‘non-political’ film World Trade Center, by Oliver Stone. You see the difference, right? The right is jingoistic and cynical; the left, thoughtful and nuanced, in their artistic responses. (And isn’t that perfect Michael Moore, decrying the wonderful togetherness that we all felt in the aftermath of 9/11 as ‘a sad moment in the history of art’ - as if the man knew squat about art?)

Those aren’t Stone’s words, however, but the author’s, and I intend to see the movie - from all accounts Stone has made a powerful, respectful film. Too bad the writer couldn’t exercise the same self-restrain that Stone used…

4 Responses to “How To Ruin A Good Article”

1 megapotamus Says:
July 31st, 2006 at 11:30 am
There should be a general moratorium on this insipid locution anyhow. If a mass attack on the American population is not a fit topic for politics just what the hell is? When people decry “politicization” of this or that what they mean is that THEIR policy preferences are not being followed. Did we have an election or two? Do we have a Constitutional framework that has worked reasonably well for some length of time? Do we have the ability to interact with our fellows? to give our views and hear theirs? But all that is of no moment. No, politics is to nasty a business to sully anything truly important with its blackening touch. Unless of course one is a Progressive, Liberal or Democrat. These gentle souls engage in nothing so crass as “politics” by definition. What a larf!
2 Sean P Says:
July 31st, 2006 at 12:22 pm
Here’s a look about what the “non-political” Oliver Stone had to say about 9/11 on October, 2001 (heavily edited, but not taken out of context):

“There’s been conglomeration under six principal princes—they’re kings, they’re barons!—and these six companies have control of the world… They control culture, they control ideas. And I think the revolt of September 11th was about ‘Fu** you! Fu** your order—’ ”
…
“Why? Why did the telecommunications bill get passed at midnight, a hidden bill at midnight? The Arabs have a point! They’re going to be joined by the people who objected in Seattle, and the usual ten per cent who are against everything, and it’s going to be, like, twenty-five per cent of this country that’s against the new world order… Does anybody make a connection between the 2000 election… and the events of September 11th?… Look for the thirteenth month!”

Source: http://www.newyorker.com/talk/content/articles/011022ta_talk_the_pictures, initially highlighted by Mickey Kaus on his blog last year.
3 Mark Says:
July 31st, 2006 at 1:03 pm
Just to be clear, when I talk about Oliver Stone’s restraint, I mean for this picture (and we all know it’s because he needs the career boost and the money, he admits it himself)…
4 Sean P Says:
July 31st, 2006 at 2:00 pm
Understood.

You know, after re-reading his comments, the one that really gets me is “look for the 13th month!” Not to defend the rest of his vile screed, but that last portion seems to indicate Stone is in hip deep into General Ripper-style dementia. But, of course, I hate to judge a thing like that until all the facts are in.