:: Wog Blog ::

:: WHAT AM I THINKING ABOUT? ::

:: Saturday 8 March 2003 ::

Oh fer cryin' outta loud, jackass you freakin' ARE Anti-American.

I know Blair and Parker have posted briefly on this but I too have something to note about Phillip Adam's declaration this weekend.

Essentially, Phil's thesis is this: some of my best friends are American. I unrealistically insist America should be perfect and when she isn't well, I hate the imperfection. Oh and by the way, imperfection means anything that does not fit neatly into my snobbery. And some Americans share my view. So I cannot be anti-American.

The man does not get it. Know why? Becuase he misunderstands entirely what anti-American means. Let us get with the definition. It is Anti-Bush's America.

Now that is a charge that is much much more serious than mere Anti-Americanism.

Know why?

Cos mere Anti-Americanism is stupidity on wheels. I mean, you can hate bits of that giant country, but hardly all of it. As Phil rightly notes, fool. He cannot even run a tight argument.

He is all jazz and Steinbeck about the US but certainy not Ford 500 and "This Old House". Know why? Because he is a A-grade snob on wheels is why. He admits it. He hates Dubya. Dubya isn't jazz and Steinbeck and is much more Ford 500 and This Old House. Ergo, Adam's dislikes him intensely.

That is the extent of the thought and philosophy at work. That is it. There is nothing more at work that snobbery.

What a worldview it takes to actually have not the slightest respect for the President, for Rice, for Little Ceasar's Cheeser Cheeser.

But I know Phil just adores Vienna in Spring and Parma ham and museums.

See, the trick is to like Parma ham and all that AND a bit of Nascar racing.

Makes you more interesting and interested in the world if you do not shut out half of it.

UPDATE: My favorite wanker, Tim Dunlop, has a go at Bush's press conference. Utterly fails to grapple with Hussein, of course. Hussein is not important to Tim. The centre of the whole thing is Hussein. Has been forever. But not for Tim. Just like Adams, he is driven more by his visceral snobbery against Bush than by any other sentiment. Have a read. The centre of the whole thing is apparently Bush, who is evil because he is not a great public speaker. I mean, g'uh.

Really. Snobbery is shit. It really is. All superiority, but rarely substantiated. Jazz, Steinbeck. Bore me to tears why don't you. These are all symbols for 'do not speak with me unless you know the code for my exclusive club'.

I sound like a reverse snob, don't I? I hate the stuff the chattering classes like? Wrong. Opera, art, architeture, industrial design, chess, European history, restraurants, horse racing, museums, reading, public radio, ABC - I can handle all of it, cos I like it. But then we add country music, comics, car design, Tony Roma's Deep Fried Mozzarella Sticks, porn, that F1 racing game at the TimeZone etc etc.

Do not get me wrong. I do not mean to say we should all like everything. Please. I am not some hippie idiot. We should discern between that stuff we care for and that we do not. But really, Adams hardly discerns at all. He is older than me, better travelled, met more poeple. But he has a secret code and it is driven by snobbery. That is not discerning.

The title to his piece should have been "Kick me. I am a snob."

:: WB 4:52 pm [link+] ::