Critic Carlin Romano asks, How Dumb Can Political Philosophy Get?

April 15, 2012

'Ameritopia': How Dumb Can Po­lit­i­cal Phi­los­o­phy Get?

By Car­lin Ro­ma­no

Take a look at the photo on con­ser­va­tive talk-show host Mark Lev­in's best sell­er, Ameritopia: The Un­mak­ing of America. If it doesn't scream out to you, "I am the Sultan of Smug!," then Rick San­to­rum is a cross-dress­er and Newt Ging­rich an "in­vent­ed" Pal­es­tin­ian. 


More: http://chronicle.com/article/Ameritopia-How-Dumb-Can/131485/?sid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

The Republican Right taps into our most primitive instincts: greed, ostentation, and superstition.

OSTENTATION

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potlatch:

"Before the arrival of the Europeans, gifts included storable food (oolichan or candlefish oil or dried food), canoes, and slaves among the very wealthy, but otherwise not income-generating assets such as resource rights. The influx of manufactured trade goods such as blankets and sheet copper into the Pacific Northwest caused inflation in the potlatch in the late 18th and earlier 19th centuries. Some groups, such as the Kwakwaka'wakw, used the potlatch as an arena in which highly competitive contests of status took place. In some cases, goods were actually destroyed after being received, or instead of being given away."

SUPERSTITION

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14339a.htm


GREED

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_worship_of_Mammon.jpg