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I've decided that "Waltz for Eva and Che", the best political song in the world, is really "Waltz for Modern Neo-Cons and Wilsonian Liberals". I think the chorus - that evil in politics is fundamental and the particular system of government is incidental - is especially apropos - as is, of course, the final verse's lament because of coming death (in this case, the end of America's hegemony).
Of course this jibes with the original musical's Eva (Peron) and Che (Guevara) too, so that's probably why the politics fit so well. In any case I think it's a pretty apt description of the two camps in American politics today, especially as they deal with third world countries - which is, really, the only reason I even care about their petty love/hate relationship. I am bad at domestic politics. Keep abortion legal, help poor people, keep church away from state is pretty much all I've got in that department.
Behold:
[Wilsonian Liberals:]
Tell me before I waltz out of your life, before turning my back on the past
Forgive my impertinent behavior - but how long do you think this pantomime can last?
Tell me before I ride off in the sunset, there's one thing I never got clear:
How can you claim you're our savior,
when those who oppose you are stepped on, or cut up, or simply disappear?
[Modern Neo-Cons:]
Tell me before you get onto your bus, before joining the forgotten brigade
How can one person like me, say, alter the time-honored way the game is played?
Tell me before you get onto your high horse just what you expect me to do
I don't care what the bourgeoisie say -
I'm not in business for them, but to give all my descamisados a magical moment or two
[America in General:]
There is evil, ever around, fundamental
System of government quite incidental
[Neo-Cons:]
So what are my chances of honest advances?
I'd say low -
Better to win by admitting my sin than to lose with a halo
[Liberals:]
Tell me before I seek worthier pastures and thereby restore self-esteem
How can you be so short-sighted to look never further than this week or next week,
To have no impossible dream?
[Neo-Cons:]
Allow me to help you slink off to the sidelines and mark your adieu with three cheers
But first tell me who'd be delighted if I said I'd take on the world's greatest problems
From war to pollution, no hope of solution, even if I lived for one hundred years?
[America in General:]
There is evil, ever around, fundamental
System of government quite incidental
[Neo-Cons:]
So go if you're able to somewhere unstable and stay there
Whip up your hate in some tottering state
But not here, dear, is that clear, dear?
Oh what I'd give for a hundred years
But the physical interferes
Every day more, O my Creator
What is the good of the strongest heart
In a body that's falling apart?
A serious flaw, I hope You know that
Of course this jibes with the original musical's Eva (Peron) and Che (Guevara) too, so that's probably why the politics fit so well. In any case I think it's a pretty apt description of the two camps in American politics today, especially as they deal with third world countries - which is, really, the only reason I even care about their petty love/hate relationship. I am bad at domestic politics. Keep abortion legal, help poor people, keep church away from state is pretty much all I've got in that department.
Behold:
[Wilsonian Liberals:]
Tell me before I waltz out of your life, before turning my back on the past
Forgive my impertinent behavior - but how long do you think this pantomime can last?
Tell me before I ride off in the sunset, there's one thing I never got clear:
How can you claim you're our savior,
when those who oppose you are stepped on, or cut up, or simply disappear?
[Modern Neo-Cons:]
Tell me before you get onto your bus, before joining the forgotten brigade
How can one person like me, say, alter the time-honored way the game is played?
Tell me before you get onto your high horse just what you expect me to do
I don't care what the bourgeoisie say -
I'm not in business for them, but to give all my descamisados a magical moment or two
[America in General:]
There is evil, ever around, fundamental
System of government quite incidental
[Neo-Cons:]
So what are my chances of honest advances?
I'd say low -
Better to win by admitting my sin than to lose with a halo
[Liberals:]
Tell me before I seek worthier pastures and thereby restore self-esteem
How can you be so short-sighted to look never further than this week or next week,
To have no impossible dream?
[Neo-Cons:]
Allow me to help you slink off to the sidelines and mark your adieu with three cheers
But first tell me who'd be delighted if I said I'd take on the world's greatest problems
From war to pollution, no hope of solution, even if I lived for one hundred years?
[America in General:]
There is evil, ever around, fundamental
System of government quite incidental
[Neo-Cons:]
So go if you're able to somewhere unstable and stay there
Whip up your hate in some tottering state
But not here, dear, is that clear, dear?
Oh what I'd give for a hundred years
But the physical interferes
Every day more, O my Creator
What is the good of the strongest heart
In a body that's falling apart?
A serious flaw, I hope You know that
no subject
Date: 2008-09-29 07:10 am (UTC)this also reminds me of something Bourdieu said about politics (of course, haha), about the sense provincial French people have that no one in Paris is on their side, no matter what party...oh, here it is:
"Now we must take on the question of televised debates. First of all, there are debates that are entirely bogus, and immediately recognizable as such. A television talk show with Alain Minc and Jacques Attali, or Alain Minc and Guy Sorman, or Luc Ferry and Alain Finkielkraut, or Jacques Julliard and Claude Imbert is a clear example, where you know the commentors are birds of a feather. (In the U.S., some people earn their living just going from campus to campus in duets like these ...) These people know each other, lunch together, have dinner together. Guillaume Durand once did a program about elites. They were all on hand: Attali, Sarkozy, Minc ... At one point, Attali was talking to Sarkozy and said, "Nicolas ... Sarkozy," with a pause between the first and last name. If he'd stopped after the first name, it would've been obvious to the French viewer that they were cronies, whereas they are called on to represent opposite sides of the political fence. It was a tiny signal of complicity that could easily have gone unnoticed. In fact, the milieu of television regulars is a closed world that functions according to a model of permanent self-reinforcement. Here are people who are at odds but in an utterly conventional way; Julliard and Imbert, for example, are supposed to represent the Left and the Right. Referring to someone who twists words, the Kabyles say, "he put my east in the west." Well, these people put the Right on the Left. Is the public aware of this collusion? It's not certain. It can be seen in the wholesale rejection of Paris by people who live in the provinces (which the fascist criticism of Parisianism tries to appropriate). It came out a lot during the strikes last November: "All that is just Paris blowing off steam." People sense that something's going on, but they don't see how closed in on itself this milieu is, closed to their problems and, for that matter, to them.
There are also debates that seem genuine, but are falsely so. [. . ."
no subject
Date: 2008-09-29 07:17 am (UTC)this also reminds me of something Bourdieu said about politics (of course, haha)
LOL.
no subject
Date: 2008-09-29 07:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-09-29 02:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-09-29 02:48 pm (UTC)