i watched an entire hour of Glenn Beck last night (2AM). he was at his blackboard, building a case for Obama's “socialism” - weaving themes of abandonement, childhood exposure to Marxist thinking (his parents, grandparents, & a Black mentor), and his continuing ties to folks with Marxist-leanings (as expected, Rev. Wright & Van Jones – also throwing Sojourners’ Jim Wallis into his conspiracy brew). curiously, Beck failed to even mention of BO’s “pal,” Bill Ayers – perhaps tonight.
any-way, claiming that he really admired the president’s intelligence, was only engaging in some “honest questioning” of POTUS’s free-market credentials. Beck concluded that, given Obama’s unstable family life and childhood exposure, how could the poor man become anything other than a Marxist bent on “fundamental transformation of America.”
in all fairness, Beck was more subued than i've ever seen him. this isn’t to say that his case wasn’t as loopy as ever, just that his usual theatrics (tears & bombast) were toned way-y-y down. it struck me with that the word “sedition” swirling around media coverage of Christian milia cultmembers - with ties to Timothy McVeigh’s Michigan alma mater - might have had a sobering effect on the tone and amplification (if not the content) of Beck’s usual performance.
as i watched in fascination, an old memory stirred, and Beck was revealed as the ringmaster of a flea circus, skillfully directing audience attention to a set of props fabricated to convince that there were highly-trained fleas, riding bicycles, swinging on trapezes, walking the highwire, & lifting great weights ...
i suddenly recalled a passage from C.W. Mills’ (1956) The Power Elite:
“below the elite...are those professional celebrities who live by being continually displayed...[they] are not at the head of any dominating hierarchy [but] have the power to distract...[agitate] the masses...[and] gain the ear of those who do occupy positions of direct power...such celebrities and consultants [e.g., Beck, Palin, Hoover, AEI] are part of the immediate scene in which the drama of the elite is enacted. But that drama itself is centered in the command posts of the major institutional hierarchies.”
Uh-huh … coming to a TEA Party fundraiser near you, check out at the Evil Kineval flea on that miniature motorcycle doing a loop-de-loop while Sarah Palin sings “Leader of the pack.”
“Glenn Beck': Will White House Refute Beck's Evidence?”
