Monsters

What would you call a guy who held a giant party for the purposes of flinging poo at a the image of a United States Senator, building a styrofoam wall to keep the bad people out, and burning a giant swastika because horrible people have utterly ruined the West?  You'd be perfectly right to call him a self-promoting jackass.  You could call him a representative Montanan, but I'd think you something of an idiot for doing so.  Me?  I'd call him a monster maker.

Those of us far too engrossed with the horror movie genre use the term "monster makers" as an affectionate label for the special effects masters who bring our most frightening fantasies to life, on film at least.  I've noticed now that there is a concerted effort on the parts of some, here in the fear based American society of the new millennium, to give a vision to fantasy terrors.  I'll call them the new monster makers, and like the effects people in the film industry their job is to show us horrors that we can viscerally react to.  Stokes is such a person, offering symbols to attack in lieu of actually facing what we fear. 

In terms of argumentation, these horror constructs have been called "Strawmen", used in the illogical strawman fallacy.   But pointing out when someone is using the strawman fallacy of argumentation is no longer productive or successful.  It's useless to point out to someone that they are mischaracterizing your position as a rhetorical tool, when they are deeply afraid.  Surely they must be afraid of something?  The job of the monster makers is to give them that thing ... reality be damned.  Once a "real" vision is given to a fear, one can stand opposed to the monster instead of dealing with issues as a rational person would.  Opposition, battle, combat is much more appealing and personally ennobling than compromising, persuading or accepting.  Even Christians are figuring this out, and engaging what I can only refer to as Pop-Xnity-insanity.

Its not a mystery that the monsters now haunt every facet of our political lives.  Republicans have become the sweaty bloated bloodsucking demons of public enslavement.  The Democrats have become the bony chattering insects of parasitic hive mind.  And how powerful one must feel with such awful forces of evil to oppose!  This ain't the movies, though.  The monster makers can do their best, but an image is still just an image, terrific for entertainment but very poor as a pattern for your thoughts.  I'm not attempting to promote a change of discourse with this observation, rather a change in channel.   If I can work up the give-a-shit, I'll write more on this later.

Comments

[Jeff]

There's more information about that Stokes guy at Orcinus:

http://dneiwert.blogspot.com/2003/03/rush-newspeak-and-fascism-part-12.html

[Jeff]

Er, sorry about the link. Here.

[Wulfgar]

Thanks, Jeff.

[Evan]

I liked the headline in The Week in Review in the New York Times yesterday. Reviewing the inaugaration it titled the article "A Speech About Something, Nothing, Everything."

[Bill]

Wow, I did not even hear about this untill I read your blog. I think that most of his pranks will be mis-understood for something entirely diffrent. I came across your blog by way of my own blog, where you had commented on a posting. Thanks for visiting. I am glad to find other Montana bloggers and have sdded your link to my site under fav blogs.