Shelby Steele: Simply Unbelievable, And Right -- Perhaps The Best Commentary Of The Year

If you do not know Shelby Steele, he is a conservative intellectual whose mother was white and father was black (you know -- like Mr. Obama's parents).

Check out Mr. Steele's TRULY STUNNING commentary, "Obama And Our Post-Modern Race Problem." It is one of the year's finest essays. In fact, it might just be the best essay of the year.

Imperfect Pensées, Again

Last night -- somehow -- in the process of putting both my feet beneath the coverlet on my bed as I retired for the evening, I injured my right ankle. Imagine! Just the gentle movement of getting under the covers left me lame. What, pray tell, does this portend?

No doubt great things.

*

Does it bother anyone else that the year may end -- or next year might begin -- with a law dropped upon us from on high that everyone in the United States must have health insurance? Where, O, where are the radicals of the 1960s who helped shape me from my mother's womb? How is it that conformity -- by law -- to the "establishment" and its government is now seen as progressive? Where is the rebellion from authority? Where are those who urged me to live my life unfettered from authoritarianism; to "be my own person" at all costs? Where are those who shouted from the rooftops that the government had no right in our bedrooms, that it had no claims on our bodies?

Apparently they are in the United States government and its fawning class.

("You can't legislate morality." Yes we can!)

©2009/Contratimes. All rights reserved.

Bearing Glad Tidings

My dear friends, blessings to you. For those of you who celebrated Hanukkah, I send my belated wishes of joy and peace: may your light always shine.

To my Christian friends, I wish you a blessed and Merry Christmas.

Joy to the world, indeed!

The World's Greatest Golfer Seeks Relief From A Really Bad Lie

As Contratimes readers know, when the unfortunate story broke about the World's Greatest Golfer, I chose to criticize the media gluttons who would prey on that story. I feel, largely, that I was right to take that tack, as the indiscretions of the World's Greatest Golfer have pushed from the spotlight news about troop increases in Afghanistan, the Great Climate Clash, the racially-motivated assassination of 4 police officers in Washington state, and the religiously-motivated Fort Hood massacre. Instead of these important stories, the prurient media give us, apparently, what we "want."

A few minutes ago, for the umpteenth time, I listened to professionals explore the psyche of a man, a man known as the World's Greatest Golfer (WGG), who "has it all." The WGG is the "very embodiment of the American Dream," or so it goes -- a handsome and athletic man possessing fame and fabulous fortune; owner of mansions and yachts; husband to a beautiful wife, father to two lovely children -- and yet, somehow, none of this was enough to make the WGG happy. Why?

Here are just a few of the "answers" to that apparently very perplexing question:

• The WGG is under too much pressure as an athlete
• The WGG is under too much pressure as a competitor
• The WGG is under too much pressure as an archetype to the African-American community
• The WGG is under too much pressure as a business commodity
• The WGG is under too much pressure as a philanthropist
• The WGG is under too much pressure as a role model
• The WGG is bored with life; everything is too easy, and hence he seeks drama, danger, adventure
• The WGG is unmoored as a result of the death of his father, who probably served as an anchor to his son
• The WGG is in rebellion now that his overbearing father is dead. Finally, he's doing things "his way." Finally, the little boy who was so sorely repressed is now acting out
• The WGG is suffering an identity crisis: he is not sure of his race, or what his own heart is telling him about who he really is and what he truly wants
• The WGG is a victim of perfectionism, with its attendant expectations, all of which are absurdly unfair and unattainable
• The WGG is a victim of social stereotypes, among which is the stereotype that black men MUST philander, and MUST do so with leggy, buxom, and blonde white women

Enough. You get the picture.

But what is really at the heart of these bits of "analysis"? What are the underlying premises that go unspoken when we hear such things?

My sense is that a good chunk of the media are doing their very best to avoid denigrating the myth that "having it all" makes a person happier, better, and nobler than his or her less fortunate peers. In a sense what they're saying is that the WGG does not have it all: if he did, he would be happy "having it all." In the minds of the media, there is no defect in the myth, but in the possessing: The WGG is missing something. He does not quite have it all. And once he finds that missing something, he can be happy, whole, and the perfect incarnation of the American Dream.

And I am also under the impression that a very different chunk of the media are doing their level best to sabotage the idea that the American Dream is a good dream: it is, in fact, an unattainable, nightmarish fantasy. The WGG proves this.

Of course, I realize I am in a sense trying to have it both ways, i.e., some in the media seem to be suggesting that the WGG does not perfectly possess all the American Dream has to offer; if he did, he'd be deliriously happy; and some in the media want us to believe that the American Dream is a corrupting influence, victimizing the WGG, turning him into something unhealthy, even reprehensible.

But what if it is a lot more simple than all that? What if the WGG is just a lecherous pig? What if this is just about pure lust? What if it is just about narcissism in the basest sense? What if this is, in a very real way, best understood in religious terms; that this story is about sin, and not psychology or sociology or both? That this is more satanic than Freudian; that this is best fixed not by therapy but confession, repentance, absolution, baptism? Conversion?

___________________

Perhaps in reports that the WGG's wife had issued him an ultimatum -- "It's either me or golf!" -- we can find some sense of a "true story." No doubt the WGG, when caught by his wife, admitted his indiscretions (that's too mild a word) with these sorts of qualifications:

"There's so much pressure on the Tour! The competition, the press, the sponsors!"

"Even when I win on the Tour I need relief from the pressure. Sometimes I can't bear to win -- or lose -- alone. I just have to release all that built up tension! You've no idea."

"All the women look like you because I wish you could be with me. I can't stand to be away so long on the Tour."

"There are just so many women hanging around the guys on Tour. They're everywhere. You've no idea the pressure."

In other words, perhaps the WGG would want his wife to believe that the problem is extrinsic to the WGG, and not intrinsic. Or so it seems he might have led her to believe. Why else her ultimatum if he did not paint a horrid picture of the pressures and temptations associated with professional golf?

But let's pull Occam's Razor out of the bag. The best explanation is the simplest: The WGG is a sinner. Let's not give him excuses, especially the lamest one of all, given, no doubt, by countless husbands countless times: "There is just so much pressure. I need relief."

©2009 Contratimes. All Rights Reserved.

On A Particular Man Who Golfs: Can We Leave This Alone?

Should I say anything about the greatest golfer in the world?

This morning I heard a member of Big Media say that, despite all the important news that should demand at least some of our attention, a certain golfer's peccadilloes will dominate Big Media because, well, "that's what the people want."

But is that true? Do you call your local TV station or favorite news anchor and beg for reports on the most salacious aspects of a person's life? Do you thirst for gossip? Think of it this way, and it is all rather simple: Who first broke the story about the World's Greatest Golfer who crashed his car? Was it Big Media, or someone like you, a "consumer"? I think you know the answer.

Clearly, Big Media seeks to exploit any story -- let's be honest -- for fiscal gain. The tale about the World's Greatest Golfer has profits apparently written all over it.

But what is the news here, really? It would be nice -- wouldn't it? -- if someone stood up and said, "Move along, folks. There is nothing for you to see here. Move along." Didn't someone, somewhere, used to say and do exactly that? Move along. Mind your own business. This is a private matter.

The World's Greatest Golfer is naught but a fallen god. OK. We get this, and we've gotten this hundreds of times in the past: People are not perfect. Wow, thanks for the BIG LESSON.

OK. The World's Greatest Golfer might lose his endorsements. Is that really big news?

OK. He might have to mount a comeback, ask for a mulligan; he will have to "dig deep." Haven't we heard this sort of thing before, ad infinitum and yes, ad nauseam?

Yes, yes. We know our heroes are mortal, stained, blemished, weak. Yes, yes. There are indeed many who enjoy feasting on our heroes' sins; who find pleasure in others' pain. But are we not sick of all this -- YET?

Big Media: A fast-food joint that comes to you dishing out triple scoops of schadenfreude. For free. Everywhere. 24/7.

Resist Big Media. Let's kick the ever-living schadenfreude out of it.

©2009/Contratimes. All Rights Reserved.