Although supposedly buried in reams of notes and revisions of his forthcoming book, the Professor surfaced long enough to forward these musings upon a literary evaluation of the current political scene as inspired by an article called Sex, Race and Gen Y Voters by Rosa Brooks as published in the LA Times.
To read the article, click here.
After reflecting on the article, Professor John forwarded the following commentary speculating on how the current postmodern trend in American philosophy has extended itself even into our electoral process:
Just a simple post about the Democratic race shaping up about who is more politically correct, the cool black friend everyone wants (Jackie Robinson with no Duke Snyder…) or the steely eyed woman of purpose breaking through the ultimate glass ceiling, for the prize of winning the Presidency for the Political periphery and disenfranchised. And the Republicans? A Mormon stake leader [exact title: stake president JAB] (the equivalent of a church hierarch in western Christian denominations), a POW survivor who rose from the dead — who then divorced his crippled wife for a trophy, a libertarian with a racist history, a thrice-married cafeteria-Catholic running on family values, and a Pundit preacher governor whose best selling book was about how weight loss is a Christian priority (shades of Sylvester Graham!).
This is the most postmodern — denial of the center to claim the center — election ever. Look for the clouds to be parting over Jerusalem.
Some interesting points to ponder — and I’d like to see more discussion — but I think the “the equivalent of a [Roman] Catholic [RC] Bishop and in many cases Archbishop)” is very misleading.
I’m not LDS, but it’s a common enough religion in this area. A “stake” averages a half-dozen or so congregations (wards), and can have a maximum size of sixteen wards (minimum is three). I’m not sure how that translates into other traditions, but I would guess that most RC dioceses have more than 6-8 congregations and more than a few thousand members.
Oh, and, Rosa Brooks left out the TV star, who, at lest at the time I’m writing, is still in the race (and doing rather better than the racists somewhat-libertarian (small ‘L’ please). 🙂
You don’t have to register to read this commentary article. Simply Google part of the first line–Even the dimmest media bulbs + Rosa Brooks–and it takes you right to it.
I thought the slant on postmodern youth fit very well with John’s writings in Unlocking Harry Potter on postmodernism.
Remus Loopy is chasing Curious Black again…
Responding as my normal ID to avoid excess confusion…:-)
With respect to membership numbers and population CBI is quite correct, a Mormon Stake is far smaller than a Roman Catholic Diocese would be, just as the Mormon Church as a whole is minuscule compared to the Roman Catholic Church in terms of membership.
However with respect to rank within the Ecclesiastic Hierarchy of the Church and hence Authority of the office, and the presumed Devotion to the Church of an incumbent, the office of Mormon Stake President is pretty much as John has described it.
Thank you, JAB, for keeping the show afloat here! It’s a great relief to me.
My only point about the primary and caucus candidates above is that even in my lifetime, few if any of these candidates would have been considered “Presidential material” but they are now — and often because of the very things that would have been their “disqualifiers.” Postmodernism and its assertion of the periphery as the more objective “center” is important for understanding Harry Potter and for Presidential politics.
I cleaned-up my original LDS/Roman Catholic parallel lest I distract anyone else with that detail from the point of the post.
Hattip to Arabella on the article! Thanks, again, JAB, for steering the boat…
Grateful John, peeking in