Kitsch Warriors
Rummy said while resigning that the war in Iraq was complex, and that history would give Bush credit, but Sidney Blumenthal writes that it’s all really kitsch and delusional self-flattery:
Kitsch is imitative, cheap, sentimental, mawkish and incoherent, and derives its appeal by demeaning and degrading genuine standards and values, especially those of modernity. While the proponents of the faux retro style claim to uphold tradition, they are inherently reactive and parasitic, their words and products a tawdry patchwork, hastily assembled as declarations against authentic complexity and ambiguity, which they stigmatize as threats to the sanctity of an imaginary harmonious order of the past that they insist they and their works represent. Kitsch presumes to be based on old rules, but constantly traduces them.
The Bush kitsch warriors have created a cultural iconography that attempts to inspire deference to the radical making of an authoritarian presidency. These warriors pose as populists, fighting a condescending liberal elite. Wealthy, celebrated and influential, their faux populism demands that they be seen however as victims.
I must say, though, that kitsch can also be inventive and liberating; if Blumenthal wants to be accurate, why doesn’t he just call this crew criminal?
