Ariana Huffington: being pissed off as a profession--no matter the age
Friday, July 17, 2009 at 12:01AM BOOK REVIEW: "The Puffington Host: The many versions of Ariana Huffington, and their consequences (Right is Wrong), by Isaac Chotiner, The New Republic, 17 June 2009.
Actually, I'm not interested in Huffington herself. I find her hard to follow and understand, and--frankly--I find the site subpar as a news aggregator. It just strikes me as a concentration of opinion fluff and celebrity gobbledygook. My eyes simply glaze ove the minute I start scrolling pages.
But I do like the opening here, and so I repeat it verbatim:
When did you last read a book or an essay or a post that claimed America, or modern civilization, or "the West," was in decline, or that the United States had "lost" its innocence, or that is was "falling behind" in its educational standards, or that comity has tragically disappeared from a partisan and polarized Washington, whereas once upon a time representatives came to the capitol only to do the "people's business"? Not too long ago, I suspect. But one may read exactly such laments from fifteen or thirty or even eighty years ago. Earlier prophets of doom were humming the same rueful tune. Maybe doom is just a trope. And yet the staleness of American punditry from one generation to the next is disturbing. It numbs our language, and blinds us to the ways in which our institutions are changing, or even disappearing.
Amen
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