This morning, a little story caught my eye: Fox's Glenn Beck Announces Comedy Tour.It explains that Fox News’ latest sensation, Glenn Beck, is taking to the road with a comedy show in early June.
Have you seen this eccentric fellow? Unintentional(?) idiocies routinely spurt from his lips. Much of the time, it seems to me, Beck is a deer in the headlights of the car that he steers but that he simply cannot control.
He’s the Tourette's* Demagogue. You've gotta like so poignant a schnook, what with his uncontrollable blurtations, his manifest emotional instability, and his "recovering alcoholic"/"the Lord saved me" underdoggereletry.
According to this A.P. story,
Beck calls his act a ''poor man's Seinfeld'' and intends to mix topical humor with his modern-day reimagining of Thomas Paine's 1776 pamphlet ''Common Sense.''
Now wait a minute. Englishman Tom Paine’s pamphlet did have a certain importance among "the vulgar" during the American Revolution, though it was largely ignored or despised by many revolutionary leaders. For instance, John Adams—a conservative favorite—called it a "crapulous mass."As you know, Paine was a troubled soul, and, after his American adventure, he returned to England, whereupon his radical nature emerged yet again, yielding the publication of “Rights of Man,” a kind of defense of the French Revolution and attack on organized religion, especially that silly and corrupt ol' Christianity.
More specifically, “Rights of Man” was a response to Edmund Burke’s famous “Reflections on the Revolution in France,” which was highly critical of that French project and its idealistic/rationalistic philosophy.
Now wait a minute. Edmund Burke is widely regarded as the founder of modern conservatism, whose classic conservative ideas are expressed throughout “Reflections.” Paine was combating that?Yup.
The Painester, before he was forced to flee back to America, later published a “Rights of Man,” Part Deux, in which he advocated government social programs (to address poverty), using progressive taxes.
Gosh, he wasn’t much of a conservative, was he?
This Glenn Beck fella may be likeable, but he sure is a dope.
*I do not mean to suggest, of course, that Tourette Syndrome is a form of schnookery--only that, like those with TS, Beck tends to blurt things out sans control. Many a great and good person has had TS, and some, of course, have flourished with it.
13 comments:
I really like this new "train wreck" kind of conservative pundit. The wider conservative punditry is just stupid enough to go with it. Watch it explode in their faces. Can't wait.
Happy Easter, Chunk. And happy Easter to all of the agnostics and atheists that frequent this blog. May you rejoice in knowing that He has risen and died for your sins.
4:49;
I don't think it's productive for Christians to be sarcastic and smug when addressing non-believers.
ES
OMG...I just watched the clips - that's all I can say...OMG! Please tell me this guy is not "for real".
ES
ES, it's all real, I'm afraid. On the other hand, Beck and co. have a narrow audience--the so-called "conservative base"--which appears to be dying as a major factor in politics. They'll likely now be on the margins.
Thanks, 4:49, but what are these sins of which you speak? What have I done that warrants the brutal killing of a nice person?
Right wingers just aren't funny. Even Dennis Miller, who used to have some limited appeal, has taken the big dirt nap, comedically speaking, as he has continued his descent into Republicanism and Bush apologia.
4:49 likely speaks of original sin; "..for we all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God...
ES
10:30, this is probably the idea 4:49 refers to, from Wikipedia:
The notion of original sin as interpreted by Augustine of Hippo was affirmed by the Protestant Reformers Martin Luther and John Calvin. Both Luther and Calvin agreed that humans inherit Adamic guilt and are in a state of sin from the moment of conception. This inherently sinful nature (the basis for the Calvinistic doctrine of "total depravity") results in a complete alienation from God and the total inability of humans to achieve reconciliation with God based on their own abilities. Not only do individuals inherit a sinful nature due to Adam's fall, but since he was the federal head and representative of the human race, all whom he represented inherit the guilt of his sin by imputation.
John Calvin defined original sin in his Institutes of the Christian Religion as follows:
“ Original sin, therefore, seems to be a hereditary depravity and corruption of our nature, diffused into all parts of the soul, which first makes us liable to God's wrath, then also brings forth in us those works which Scripture calls "works of the flesh" (Gal 5:19). And that is properly what Paul often calls sin. The works that come forth from it--such as adulteries, fornications, thefts, hatreds, murders, carousings--he accordingly calls "fruits of sin" (Gal 5:19-21), although they are also commonly called "sins" in Scripture, and even by Paul himself.[25] ”
The Methodist Church, founded by John Wesley, upholds Article VII in the Articles of Religion in the Book of Discipline of the Methodist Church:
“ Original sin standeth not in the following of Adam (as the Pelagians do vainly talk), but it is the corruption of the nature of every man, that naturally is engendered of the offspring of Adam, whereby man is very far gone from original righteousness, and of his own nature inclined to evil, and that continually.
Because of this conundrum, Protestants believe that God the Father sent Jesus into the world. The personhood, life, ministry, suffering, and death of Jesus, as God incarnate in human flesh, is meant to be the atonement for original sin as well as actual sins; this atonement is according to some rendered fully effective by the Resurrection of Jesus.
ES
So what you're saying is that a long time ago some person fucked up royally, and now we're all being punished for it, and some scapegoat gets to be tortured to death to make up for the fuck up many many years ago.
Sort of like if my folks robbed a bank, then I get sent to prison for it, but if the warden's daughter sets herself on fire they'll let me out.
This is really amusing.
Well, it's not what I'M saying.....
ES
No no, ES, I didn't mean that. It's just that these theories are very peculiar.
I know what you mean. I grew up with this stuff, and I'm still trying to sort it out.
ES
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