Dennis Miller has written an op-ed piece in the WSJ [1] about an op-ed piece that Norman Mailer wrote in the London Times. (I wonder if it pays better than shilling for phone companies.) The American white male (AWM) has once again been assailed in his ivory tower. But fear not, Miller has allies: Rush Limbaugh and David Leibowitz have arrived to do battle with the aging Mailer. And it's not long before the conservatives' bête noir, Michael Moore, is trotted out to play his role as the Hobbyhorse of the Right. What these folks seem to miss amidst all the churning brouhaha is that it's an American tradition to hoist the status quo by their petards (in the etymological sense of the word) while cheering the underdog on. (Think of it as noblesse oblige.) Nobody has proven to me that AWMs, a set to which I may or may not belong depending on diverse environmental variables [2], are an underclass, no matter what Rush and his ilk screech.
If Michael Moore wants to write a humorous and over-the-top-rhetorically book on stupid guys generally in charge of things and if enough people buy it to put it on some kind of best seller list, then I say "All's fair in the mediawars." But if sour grapes Limbaugh and Leibowitz, with a wee, dank Miller in tow, want to fret and scorn, then I just want to ask them: "Aren't your AWMs made of stronger stuff?" And how about: "Aren't Mailer and Moore AWMs, and aren't they laughing all the way to the bank in spite of, or perhaps because of, their self-loathing?" Finally, Miller writes at one point that it's really Mailer who's hung up on color (race) because he's always bringing it up in his piece. Well, shucks, I'm not 100% sure about this, but the last time I checked there was still one or two racial problems in this grand land of ours.
[1] Unfortunately available online by subscription only.
[2] For example, just imagine my tender shock when I learned in grade school that because my name ended in a vowel I was most probably not white.
How frustrating! I couldn't locate either Miller's or Mailer's piece. However, I recommend the latter's article in a recent "New York Review," based on a speech he gave at the Commonwealth Club. Mailer is at the top of his form, and clearly paying careful attention!
Go to
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/16166
Ratso, Did the first link (in the entry) to Mailer's op-ed piece not work for you? jim
Posted by: jim on May 7, 2003 07:45 AM