Double Flee A

As I was walking in from the parking ramp to work on this balmy winter morning, I was thinking about what Randy had said to me about how neoconservatism has pomo in its back pocket. Contemplating the slick salesmanship necessary to haul the poor into the modus operandi of the rich, it hit me how Randy was right.

I hardly need to address the different levels on which information exists, since we're already in the metaverse of the blogosphere. But since it's a practical application, here goes.

Postmodernism is, among other things, the abstractionism of information. All things assume a non-hierarchy of total meaninglessness in the disjointed and complex and varied mediums of information dissemination.

How neocons have appropriated this situation is to use the sense of non-reality to equate some information with other information, some of which is essentially false, but not only false; outright surreal. Once every argument becomes detached from fact, i.e. in hack punditry, the basic facts are beaten senseless in the gray wash of sheer volume. As facts become muddy and eventually immaterial, beliefs become the new important criteria by which things are judged.

Fox news's ratings are good, even if the "news" is made specifically for ratings' sake. Joe Citizen feels good when he watches it, his beliefs are maintained, and furthermore, they actually dictate the news he sees. It's a cycle of universal informational relativism.

If you're the heritage foundation, take something you don't like, like the facts about John Kerry's war record versus George W. Bush's, create a sense of reality in the story of nothing (Swift boat veterans for "truth"), and get Tucker Carlson talking about how John Kerry looks French. What you get is pure insanity.

Metaphorize all you like at that point, maybe about the phenomenon of tearing down a person's mind and building it up again. (Maybe the heritage foundation didn't do all that, but they couldn't have been happier about it or done a better job if they tried.)

Don't believe everything you read.

posted by dale @ 10:13 AM