This is
a weird time politically. People who are an inch from complete agreement wind
up disagreeing by miles. Were I a Freudian, I'd call it the narcissism of small
differences. Since I'm not a Freudian, I'll settle for saying that politics can
so easily bring out the accusative and dogmatic worst in us. Why? Because as
Carl von Klutzywankputz spelled out in his famous tome, politics is just war by
other means. Politics is toddler war,
war that can't yet correctly pronounce its name. And despite all the peacenik
appearances, many of us prefer an anthem, a marching song, and a battle slogan to a real idea.
At least, to provide some comic relief, we can always turn
to Camille Paglia. The United States doesn't denominate cultural figures as
"National Treasures" as Japan does some of its artists, writers and
go masters.
In any case, I'm less interested in the National Treasure than
in its opposite, the Untreasure. And I'd argue Camille Paglia fits that bill.
In her latest outburst for salon.com — whose editors treat
her as the second coming of, well, coming — she writes, returning to the motif
of Trump as ravishing Viking she announced in a previous outburst, that in one
photo she's fond of she espies:
The hovering Trump, bedecked with the phallic tongue of a
violet Celtic floral tie. . . in Viking mode, looking like a triumphant dragon
on the thrusting prow of a long boat. “To the victor belong the spoils!” I said
to myself in admiration, as seductive images from Babylon to Paris flashed
through my mind.
She's an untreasure of high degree, of truly Trumpian proportions,
and, since she's not running for high office, worth keeping around.
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