A must-read Salon interview with Camille Paglia

I adore a well-articulated narrowness of mind parading as vastness, and Camille Paglia spews it in spades in this fascinating Salon interview. Some selections:

*I don’t believe there is a God, but I respect every religion deeply. All the great world religions contain a complex system of beliefs regarding the nature of the universe and human life that is far more profound than anything that liberalism has produced.

*Christopher Hitchens’ book "God is Not Great" was a travesty. He sold that book on the basis of the brilliant chapter titles…. [Richard] Dawkins also seems to be an obsessive on some sort of personal vendetta, and again, he’s someone who has never taken the time to do the necessary research into religion.

*I think Stewart’s show demonstrated the decline and vacuity of contemporary comedy. I cannot stand that smug, snarky, superior tone…. As for his influence, if he helped produce the hackneyed polarization of moral liberals versus evil conservatives, then he’s partly at fault for the political stalemate in the United States.

*Liberalism has sadly become a knee-jerk ideology, with people barricaded in their comfortable little cells. They think that their views are the only rational ones, and everyone else is not only evil but financed by the Koch brothers. It’s so simplistic!

*The first thing I always turn to [for news] is the Drudge Report…. Silly people claim he’s stuck in the past, but that’s absurd. Drudge is invoking the great populist formula of tabloids like the New York Post and the New York Daily News, which were pitched to working-class readers.

*Now, I’m a supporter of Martin O’Malley–I sent his campaign a contribution the very first day he declared. But I would happily vote for Sanders in the primary.

Where to begin? At the beginning, and wrapping up quickly. On religion, Paglia declares its historical greatness via helpless relativity, that is, by comparing it to contemporary liberalism — which is like my saying I deeply respect Mike Huckabee's intellect compared to that of a mushroom. As for Hitchens' book, he'd probably agree it wasn't one of his finer efforts. I certainly would. But both he and Dawkins fail to fathom, as I do, doing the "necessary research into religion" when the subject material is hopelessly metaphysical and therefore utterly unknowable. Besides, what "research" proves its truths that transcend the writings of Chaucer, Shakespeare or Cervantes? Jon Stewart. I stopped watching his show after his third, deadpan gaze, but if Paglia really believes that the "The Daily Show" contributed to the insane political statement we've reached, then, well, she leaves me speechless. Drudge's critics are "silly." That speaks for itself. Finally, liberalism is a "sad," "knee-jerk ideology" — and for some, that's true — says Paglia. She then adds that she's a supporter of Martin O'Malley, who, as far as I can tell, holds every approved view in liberalism's ideological playbook.

You should read the entire interview. I omitted a lot of really entertaining stuff.

***

Now, Josh, you're just being silly:

 

Comments

[Peter G]

So first things first. Who the hell is Camille Paglia and why should I care what she thinks? Wikipedia tells me much but the most important thing it tells me is what she thinks of herself. "Paglia has said that she is willing to have her entire career judged on the basis of her composition of what she considers to be "probably the most important sentence that she has ever written": "God is man's greatest idea." Hey that's a great idea that has echoed over the centuries pretty much verbatim when translated from the various other languages it has been expressed in. She appears to be the contrarian in residence but is a disciple of Bloom so she can't be all bad.

[Bob]

I read Paglia's Salon column briefly during the '90's and am reminded why I stopped. How in the world can anyone mistake her for a person with something to say? Wow, the New Atheists are disrespectful. No one has ever barked up that tree before. What insight. Snark started with David Letterman. If the word means something like biting sarcasm often associated with satire that would surprise a lot of readers. The Oxford English Dictionary traces the concept back to 1597, which measurably predates Dave's TV appearance. Her practice of giving pop culture a thumbs up or down in a few sentences is both irrelevant and annoying. Cheap contrariness masquerading as original thinking is beyond pretentious. She has more in common with Trump than not. No wonder she had kind words for him even if he is equivalent to ISIS.

[shsavage]

One of my professors once said that, "All religions are equally absurd, but some are more politically correct than others."

[Peter G]

Oh my goodness, you weren't kidding. She disdains that smug, snarky, superior tone that she adopts for everyone she disagrees with. And guess what she invented atheism! As a fad no less. Coincidentally about the same time the Internet started roaring and discussion communities of such concepts as atheism began to flourish.It will come as no surprise to liberals that liberalism has never invented an alternative to religion for that was never a goal of liberalism but, by golly, she sewed that one up too! I will correct myself, a disciple of Bloom can be an idiot.

[Bob]

It's possible to interpret liberalism as attempting to invent alternatives to religion. For example there are satirical "religions" like the Church of the Subgenius that has events all over the country, even in Indianapolis. There's also a movement that supposedly started in Texas, of all places, that has something like a Sunday service except there are readings from writers like Tom Paine, Ben Franklin and Robert Green Ingersoll. The point is to have the same sense of fellowship without the mythology.

[Bob]

I should have added some of the above "services" have talks by educators and scientists, among others.

[Sam3]

Camille Paglia is a pseudo intellectual who Andrew Sullivan liked to promote the same way he promoted Charles Murray.

[Dale White]

My favorite satirical "religion" is the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster: http://flyingspaghettimonster.wikia.com/wiki/Pastafarianism

[The Raven]

She is, or perhaps was, a woman who gives a lot of comfort to conservative anti-feminists. She's very literate, but also makes the most awful hack arguments, of which these are a sample.

There are few things in modern Western politics which are not, in part, expressions of threatened masculinity.

[Bob]

The FSM has come a long way and has some really funny adherents. It's also gotten real results keeping creationism out of classrooms. R'Amen.

[Anne J]

I wanted to read the interview, but couldn't get past what the hell a "cultural critic" is. Is that a paying job? Where do I apply?

[Peter G]

The most precise definition of cultural critic is everybody.

[Nancydrewed]

Somewhere in my house is one of her books -- collection of essays -- which I acquired somewhere around '94. I can only attribute this to post-postpartum depression fog. I suspect I even read the thing.