Monday, October 26, 2009

A Libertine Speaks

Eric Olsen of Technorati interviews Andrew Breitbart at Technorati. And a delightful video it is. Worth fifty minutes if you are interested in the state of the culture, the state of politics and how the two intersect.

Andrew Breitbart who broke the ACORN child prostitution scandal talks about his happy time on the left (about 8 minutes 30 seconds in) when it came to sex (who knows about drugs and rock and roll - although he talks about rock near the beginning of the video). He goes into why the left dominates the culture. For instance how many right wing bands do you know? There are a few. How many right wing actors are there? A few. But in general the state of right wing popular culture is abysmal.

He has some very nice things to say about libertarians about 24 minutes in. In that segment he makes a very good point (obliquely) about the social conservatives being on the wrong side of the culture wars and thus losing the more important war for limited government and fiscal responsibility. A point I have been making for a very long time and certainly since I started blogging in September of 2004.

He also talks about how media bias creates great opportunities to present points of view that are shut out of the failing media. This is an expansion on a point that he made earlier in the video about the people running the failing media having no business sense. That they are not there to serve a market but to serve as the propaganda arm of the left.

Here is a link to the Financial Times piece mentioned in the video. And here is the Wall Street Journal on Breitbart.

Then he goes on to say that people should be writing in their own names. I agree. And then he gets into the fact that people can lose their livelihood if they speak out under their own names. Which brings him to the McCarthyism of Hollywood.

He also gets into his libertine side. A side most folks are unwilling to admit. As most of you know I have my libertine side and although it is not my focus I'm not ashamed of it either. All I'm going to say on the matter is "Lesbians. Yummmmm." And one other thing. I love hanging out with musicians. I will add that if you choose to be a libertine be a responsible libertine. Succinctly: Don't drink and drive. Don't have unprotected sex unless you are willing to bear the consequences. etc. Other than that do what I tell my kids to do. Have Fun!

Andrew says he is trying to create a groovier conservative movement. So just maybe there are beginning to be enough libertine conservatives to create a critical mass. I do notice that libertarians - often confused with libertines for good reason - are starting to get more respect on the right. About time. And Objectivists, who have Ayn Rand's personal life as an example of a sexual libertine, are also starting to be accepted as part of the right. It seems to me that the core values of the right are being whittled down to two. Fiscal responsibility (and responsibility in general) and limited government.

He also mentions that the right are the adults in the room and tells social conservatives that they have to come up with a coherent policy on gays that makes gays whole. They cannot be written off. The socons can't pretend that they don't exist or that they can be made to go away. That pretending that gay love is not real love has no future. As I said above. Lesbians. Yummmmmmmm! Then he goes off on the supposed socially liberal Democrats and says - show it. He says that the Democrat constituencies of Hispanics and Blacks are as socially conservative as any white Republican socons and yet the Democrats get the reputation as the socially liberal party.

Breitbart finishes up with the comment that what he does is not about business. It is about his passion for information. When did my passion for information get really rolling? First when I worked for WFMT in Chicago in 1962 and I got to watch the AP news stories come over the Teletype in real time. Stories, many of which I never saw in the newspapers and television of the day. The second place that fired it up for me was when I was in Electronic Technician School in the Navy and we set up one of our receivers with a Teletype to get the AP wire over the air. Getting the news in real time before it was printed in the newspapers or even announced on the radio was a real thrill for me. And the thrill has never gone away.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

8 comments:

RavingDave said...

I once saw a hypnotist show in my high school auditorium. The hypnotist got volunteers out of the audience of students. He made them do all sorts of funny things. One thing in particular has been with me ever since.

He hypnotized one fellow to forget the number 7. He then asked the guy to count to 10. The guy promptly counted "1,2,3,4,5,6,8,9,10!"

The hypnotist asked him if he'd missed anything, and the guy said no. He asked him to do it again. The guy responded "1,2,3,4,5,6,8,9,10!"

They hypnotist asked him again if he hadn't made a mistake, the boy assured him he hadn't.

The hypnotist then asked him to add 4 + 3. The boy got a strange look and said "errrrr 6?"
"No, that's 3 + 3" The hypnotist said. "Errrr 8?" Nope, that's 4 + 4."

This sort of thing went on for quite some time while the audience laughed hysterically at the boy who had forgotten the number 7 and couldn't understand why he was so confused by simple math problems and why everyone was laughing at him.

M. Simon said...

It is a mistake every Party makes.

They believe the election of "their" Party represents a mandate for governance other than what the voters thought they were voting for. The "We WON" attitude is not confined to the left.

As I said in a previous post. Limited government and fiscal responsibility is what unifies the Tea Party folks. If the Republicans ride in on the backs of that movement and reinvigorate the culture wars the Democrats will be given another chance.

Now I am not against a culture war per se. I'm just against it at the point of a government gun. It should be done by persuasion.

Youth is noted for its libertine behavior. I have struck a blow for responsible libertineism.

America may be a center right country but it is not right enough for a socon party to win national elections.

RavingDave said...

What has that got to do with anything? I see it happening again and again with people I interact with all the time, except there is no hypnotist involved. People self hypnotize. They develop a mind-set that can only see what they want to see, and if you put in front of them evidence that things are different, they simply cannot see it.

I used to think it was just a matter of stubbornness, but I have since come to realize it is an Inability to see anything which questions their long held perception of the world.

Some people do this with religion. Some people do this with Athiesm.
Some people do it with other issues.

Most people are completely unaware of their lack of objectivity.


It is a long and futile task to wander around with a lantern searching for an objective man, but that succinctly sums up one aspect of my life.

RavingDave said...

MSimon says:

"Youth is noted for its libertine behavior. I have struck a blow for responsible libertineism. "


How libertine can it be if it is responsible? This sounds a lot like "Freezing Fire." :)

And you bumped my follow up comment to my first comment. :)

M. Simon said...

1. I am arguing for a point of view.
2. I think I have also described reality and what can be done in the context of that reality.

You may certainly take issue with my point of view. Now tell me where my description of reality is in error.

M. Simon said...

Please do not allow your paranoid delusions to overwhelm your contact with reality.

I have no control of the order of the comments.

How can a libertine life be responsible? Well for one I have paid for it myself. I have avoided direct harm to others. I have fathered no children out of wedlock.

For starters.

RavingDave said...

You are arguing for a contemporary and transitory political reality. It may represent the here and now, but it does not represent the optimal.

It appears to be unstable, and is very likely to result in conditions where a great many people will be hurt very badly.

RavingDave said...

MSimon writes:
"Please do not allow your paranoid delusions to overwhelm your contact with reality."


I don't think anyone is out to get me, I think a meme is out to get us all. If that is a delusion, it is a very common one in this day and age.


MSimon writes:
"How can a libertine life be responsible? Well for one I have paid for it myself. I have avoided direct harm to others. I have fathered no children out of wedlock."


So you are insinuating that others who cause direct harm, or father children out of wedlock are doing something wrong ? I noticed you didn't add NTTAWWT. :) Is this a moral judgement ?

(smile)