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Gore Vidal's United States of fury

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  • Gore Vidal's United States of fury

    The extent of my familiarity with Gore Vidal doesn't go much beyond name recognition. I found this interview with him fascinating.

    When he compares Obama to his old friend Jack Kennedy, he shakes his head. "He's twice the intellectual that Jack was, but Jack knew the great world. Remember he spent a long time in the navy, losing ships. This kid [Obama] has never heard a gun fired in anger. He's absolutely bowled over by generals, who tell him lies and he believes them. He hasn't done anything. If you were faced with great problems in chemistry – to find the perfect gas, to gas a population – you won't know for a long time whether it works. You have to go by what people tell you. He's like that. He's not ready for prime time and he's getting a lot of prime time on his plate at once."

    Is there any hope? "Every sign I see is doom. But then people say" – he adopts a whiny, nasal voice – "'Oh Mr Vidal, you're so negative, can't you say something nice about America? It's a wonderful country, everybody wants to live here.' Oh yes? When was the last time you saw a Norwegian with a green card who wanted to come here because of the health service? I'll pay you if you can find one."



    But there is, he says with sudden perkiness, some "good news. Afghanistan will be terminal for the American empire, yes. Which is a happy way of looking at it. We'll be out of the empire game, rapidly. But it's too late for the country and the constitution." He raises his drink, and smiles ironically. "To a better republic," he says, and drinks in one long gulp.
    Gore Vidal's United States of fury

  • #2
    Re: Gore Vidal's United States of fury

    "It is always to be hoped that the people will mysteriously be educated, somehow. Well, that's the link. But the people don't know anything. As soon as we became an empire, we stopped teaching geography in the schools, so nobody would know where anything is. It's not the people's fault – they have been perverted them into imperial ways of thinking so that they would be docile workers and loyal consumers. That was the dream and it has come true."
    Ain't the truth a bitch.
    "that each simple substance has relations which express all the others"

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    • #3
      Re: Gore Vidal's United States of fury

      Strange guy, "Every point in history is dark"


      http://www.veoh.com/browse/videos/ca...336120kqxq5xRN

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      • #4
        Re: Gore Vidal's United States of fury

        Great line re Obama's "inclusive" style:

        "But remember – the Republican Party is not a political party. It's a mindset, like Hitler Youth. It's full of hatred. You're not going to get them aboard. Don't even try. The only way to handle them is to terrify them. He's too delicate for that."

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        • #5
          Re: Gore Vidal's United States of fury

          Originally posted by KGW View Post
          Great line re Obama's "inclusive" style:

          "But remember – the Republican Party is not a political party. It's a mindset, like Hitler Youth. It's full of hatred. You're not going to get them aboard. Don't even try. The only way to handle them is to terrify them. He's too delicate for that."

          A couple of months ago I had an interesting conversation about this with a very smart person who resides in the USA.

          I had one of those "aha" moments when it was pointed out to me that "The Republicans are a machine...they can get a monkey elected to the White House. The Democrats can only win when they have someone seen as a political "intellectual", like Kennedy or Bill Clinton, on the ticket..."

          As for President Obama being "delicate", I seriously doubt it. The "kinder, gentler, more Statesman-like" persona is an accurate read by Obama on what is needed to appeal to the voters at this moment in history, and couples well with his formidable oratoricle skills. However, there is no way that he could have got to this level in US politics by being "delicate". Look at the way he and his team dispensed with Hillary Clinton...
          Last edited by GRG55; October 11, 2009, 01:20 PM.

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          • #6
            Re: Gore Vidal's United States of fury

            One can always hope. . .;) Actions, as they say, speak louder than words.

            Originally posted by GRG55 View Post
            A couple of months ago I had an interesting conversation about this with a very smart person who resides in the USA.

            I had one of those "aha" moments when it was pointed out to me that "The Republicans are a machine...they can get a monkey elected to the White House. The Democrats can only win when they have someone seen as a political "intellectual", like Kennedy or Bill Clinton, on the ticket..."

            As for President Obama being "delicate", I seriously doubt it. The "kinder, gentler, more Statesman-like" persona is an accurate read by Obama on what is needed to appeal to the voters at this moment in history, and couples well with his formidable oratoricle skills. However, there is no way that he could have got to this level in US politics by being "delicate". Look at the way he and his team dispensed with Hillary Clinton...

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: Gore Vidal's United States of fury

              90% of the interview can be pliced onto ron paul's web site by hackers and no one will question it... posted without refs to his novels and age and other personal info.

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              • #8
                Re: Gore Vidal's United States of fury

                Originally posted by metalman View Post
                90% of the interview can be pliced onto ron paul's web site by hackers and no one will question it... posted without refs to his novels and age and other personal info.
                It just goes to show, the truth, is universal. Doesn't matter if you are gay or straight, rep or dem, rich or poor. There is everything else, and then there is the truth.

                Stunning, is it not?

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                • #9
                  Re: Gore Vidal's United States of fury

                  Originally posted by jtabeb View Post
                  It just goes to show, the truth, is universal. Doesn't matter if you are gay or straight, rep or dem, rich or poor. There is everything else, and then there is the truth.

                  Stunning, is it not?
                  Quite. And the service that the talking heads on the TV (the Glenn Becks of this world) provide is to obfuscate this and to set the peons against each other so that the plutocrats can get on with their looting in peace.

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