Lileks Goes Over the Top

 

@jameslileks stormed out of the trenches in the July 6 issue of National Review on Dead Tree. If it does nothing else, his piece, Twinkling’s Canceled, Little Star, will get him the first slot in the train to the reeducation camp — or to that other camp. He finishes with a couple of uppercuts:

The accumulated accomplishments of humanity cast a bright light on their inability to accomplish anything except to accrue debt and tattoos, and they’ll feel better when all these reminders are pulled down.

They can’t do anything about the twinkling stars of old, but they can light enough fires to drown them out.

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  1. Sisyphus (hears Xi laughing) Member
    Sisyphus (hears Xi laughing)
    @Sisyphus

    There are people so crushingly inadequate that they must destroy the world to hide their shame. 

    • #1
  2. Misthiocracy got drunk and Member
    Misthiocracy got drunk and
    @Misthiocracy

    From the article:

    “Pity the person who has to find the problematic problems in “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.”

    Pfft!  That’s too easy!

    It’s problematic because it’s silent on the issues of its own age, let alone today’s, and silence is violence.  What good is making music except to teach and inspire the people?

    “But Misthios,” I hear you replying, “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star does teach and inspire.  It teaches children to be inquisitive about the Universe around them!”

    Bah! Wasting time wondering about the nature of stars doesn’t put food in the bellies of the proletariat! Theoretical astronomy has always been a pastime of the bourgeoisie!

    • #2
  3. Richard Fulmer Inactive
    Richard Fulmer
    @RichardFulmer

    Sisyphus (hears Xi laughing) (View Comment):

    There are people so crushingly inadequate that they must destroy the world to hide their shame.

    This reminds me of one of my favorite quotes:

    Graffiti happens at the intersection of ambition and incompetence: people want to make their mark on the world, but have no other way to do it than literally making a mark on the world.
    Paul Graham

    • #3
  4. Sisyphus (hears Xi laughing) Member
    Sisyphus (hears Xi laughing)
    @Sisyphus

    Life in a modern newsroom has made James a neuron star of sarcastic anti-woke rage, super conducting facetious at faster than light speeds.

    I do think he’s on to something:

    Hence the sloppiness and inattention to detail. When they protest racism by defacing the statues of actual abolitionists, or spray insults on the World War II monument in D.C., you might conclude that their knowledge of history has the characteristics of a slug’s knowledge of celestial mechanics. To the rioters, bad things happened because of white people, and therefore all manifestations of white people in the past are complicit. The past is a charnel house of sin.

    If we can just get them fired up over statues of Communists and abortionists and terrorists and Friends’ stars, some good might still come of all this. Maybe commission statues of certain BLM and Antifa members just to watch the footage in our twilight years. 

    Stellar job, @jameslileks!

    • #4
  5. Unsk Member
    Unsk
    @Unsk

    “you might conclude that their knowledge of history has the characteristics of a slug’s knowledge of celestial mechanics.”

    Wonderful.

    • #5
  6. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    Misthiocracy got drunk and (View Comment):

    From the article:

    “Pity the person who has to find the problematic problems in “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.”

    Pfft! That’s too easy!

    It’s problematic because it’s silent on the issues of its own age, let alone today’s, and silence is violence. What good is making music except to teach and inspire the people?

    “But Misthios,” I hear you replying, “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star does teach and inspire. It teaches children to be inquisitive about the Universe around them!”

    Bah! Wasting time wondering about the nature of stars doesn’t put food in the bellies of the proletariat! Theoretical astronomy has always been a pastime of the bourgeoisie!

    Your brain is going to get stuck like that if you keep it up.

    • #6
  7. Richard Fulmer Inactive
    Richard Fulmer
    @RichardFulmer

    Here’s another of my favorite lines from James’ article:

     The very idea that we want “little” stars to engage in performative “twinkling” negates the life experience of massive gas giants like Betelgeuse.

    He’s like the anti-woke atom bomb.  Drop him into any university and he’d have the whole faculty and student body cancelled within a week.  No one could out-woke him.

    • #7
  8. 9thDistrictNeighbor Member
    9thDistrictNeighbor
    @9thDistrictNeighbor

    Mozart. Mozart wrote the music.  Is there anyone more privileged than a child prodigy who is now a dead white male?

     

     

    • #8
  9. Sisyphus (hears Xi laughing) Member
    Sisyphus (hears Xi laughing)
    @Sisyphus

    9thDistrictNeighbor (View Comment):

    Mozart. Mozart wrote the music. Is there anyone more privileged than a child prodigy who is now a dead white male?

    I’m thinking the dead are categorically null privilege regardless of other factors. I have a list of candidates if experimentation is needed. 

    • #9
  10. Richard Fulmer Inactive
    Richard Fulmer
    @RichardFulmer

    Sisyphus (hears Xi laughing) (View Comment):

    9thDistrictNeighbor (View Comment):

    Mozart. Mozart wrote the music. Is there anyone more privileged than a child prodigy who is now a dead white male?

    I’m thinking the dead are categorically null privilege regardless of other factors. I have a list of candidates if experimentation is needed.

    This proves your white fragility.

    • #10
  11. Richard Fulmer Inactive
    Richard Fulmer
    @RichardFulmer

    Richard Fulmer (View Comment):

    Sisyphus (hears Xi laughing) (View Comment):

    There are people so crushingly inadequate that they must destroy the world to hide their shame.

    This reminds me of one of my favorite quotes:

    Graffiti happens at the intersection of ambition and incompetence: people want to make their mark on the world, but have no other way to do it than literally making a mark on the world.
    Paul Graham

    Everyone on the Right should keep Paul Graham’s whole quote in their quiver:

    If you disagree with something, it’s easier to say ‘you suck’ than to figure out and explain exactly what you disagree with. You’re also safe that way from refutation. In this respect trolling is a lot like graffiti. Graffiti happens at the intersection of ambition and incompetence: people want to make their mark on the world, but have no other way to do it than literally making a mark on the world.

    • #11
  12. 9thDistrictNeighbor Member
    9thDistrictNeighbor
    @9thDistrictNeighbor

    Sisyphus (hears Xi laughing) (View Comment):
    I’m thinking the dead are categorically null privilege regardless of other factors.

    Mozart Statue located at Mozartplatz in Salzburg.  Statues and real estate. Privilege.  Tear it down.  Occupy the square.

    • #12
  13. Sisyphus (hears Xi laughing) Member
    Sisyphus (hears Xi laughing)
    @Sisyphus

    9thDistrictNeighbor (View Comment):

    Sisyphus (hears Xi laughing) (View Comment):
    I’m thinking the dead are categorically null privilege regardless of other factors.

    Mozart Statue located at Mozartplatz in Salzburg. Statues and real estate. Privilege. Tear it down. Occupy the square.

    If they are even afraid of the privilege of the dead, they are double plus ultra inadequate!

    • #13
  14. Bishop Wash Member
    Bishop Wash
    @BishopWash

    Sisyphus (hears Xi laughing) (View Comment):

    Life in a modern newsroom has made James a neuron star of sarcastic anti-woke rage, super conducting facetious at faster than light speeds.

    I do think he’s on to something:

    Hence the sloppiness and inattention to detail. When they protest racism by defacing the statues of actual abolitionists, or spray insults on the World War II monument in D.C., you might conclude that their knowledge of history has the characteristics of a slug’s knowledge of celestial mechanics. To the rioters, bad things happened because of white people, and therefore all manifestations of white people in the past are complicit. The past is a charnel house of sin.

    If we can just get them fired up over statues of Communists and abortionists and terrorists and Friends’ stars, some good might still come of all this. Maybe commission statues of certain BLM and Antifa members just to watch the footage in our twilight years.

    Stellar job, @jameslileks!

    A Stevie Ray Vaughn statue was vandalized with paint somewhere. Doubt it had anything more to do than it was a statue. 

    It would be interesting if in twenty years the “woke” culture fully embraces Rev. King’s message of judging by the content of your character and not the color of your skin and BLM advocates become the ones on the chopping block. Of course the types to embrace Rev. King probably wouldn’t embrace the French Revolution aspect of today’s cancel culture.

    • #14
  15. Sisyphus (hears Xi laughing) Member
    Sisyphus (hears Xi laughing)
    @Sisyphus

    Have they gotten around to Forrest Gump yet? Cuz “stupid is as stupid does” seems to be emerging as a possible nuclear missile aimed at the heart of woke. If the dead have privilege, the fictional must be privilege WMDs!

    • #15
  16. Dotorimuk Coolidge
    Dotorimuk
    @Dotorimuk

    Bishop Wash (View Comment):

    Sisyphus (hears Xi laughing) (View Comment):

    Life in a modern newsroom has made James a neuron star of sarcastic anti-woke rage, super conducting facetious at faster than light speeds.

    I do think he’s on to something:

    Hence the sloppiness and inattention to detail. When they protest racism by defacing the statues of actual abolitionists, or spray insults on the World War II monument in D.C., you might conclude that their knowledge of history has the characteristics of a slug’s knowledge of celestial mechanics. To the rioters, bad things happened because of white people, and therefore all manifestations of white people in the past are complicit. The past is a charnel house of sin.

    If we can just get them fired up over statues of Communists and abortionists and terrorists and Friends’ stars, some good might still come of all this. Maybe commission statues of certain BLM and Antifa members just to watch the footage in our twilight years.

    Stellar job, @jameslileks!

    A Stevie Ray Vaughn statue was vandalized with paint somewhere. Doubt it had anything more to do than it was a statue.

    It would be interesting if in twenty years the “woke” culture fully embraces Rev. King’s message of judging by the content of your character and not the color of your skin and BLM advocates become the ones on the chopping block. Of course the types to embrace Rev. King probably wouldn’t embrace the French Revolution aspect of today’s cancel culture.

    The same MLK whose stellar public life contrasts with a seedy private life that would no doubt lead to his cancellation if he had been white.

     

     

    • #16
  17. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    Bishop Wash (View Comment):
    A Stevie Ray Vaughn statue was vandalized with paint somewhere. Doubt it had anything more to do than it was a statue. 

    Austin.

    • #17
  18. James Lileks Contributor
    James Lileks
    @jameslileks

    Thank you all very much. The kind words were appreciated & needed.

    • #18
  19. Hartmann von Aue Member
    Hartmann von Aue
    @HartmannvonAue

    James Lileks (View Comment):

    Thank you all very much. The kind words were appreciated & needed.

    Thanks for writing the piece. It was terrific. 

    • #19
  20. Stad Coolidge
    Stad
    @Stad

    James Lileks (View Comment):

    Thank you all very much. The kind words were appreciated & needed.

    “Athwart” is always great reading . . .

    • #20
  21. Nerina Bellinger Inactive
    Nerina Bellinger
    @NerinaBellinger

    Masterful column, James.  Oops.  I probably shouldn’t use that word.  Well done!

    • #21
  22. Headedwest Coolidge
    Headedwest
    @Headedwest

    James; wonderful column. You made me laugh, and that doesn’t happen much these days.

    I have to confess it was bitter laughter.

    • #22
  23. Douglas Pratt Coolidge
    Douglas Pratt
    @DouglasPratt

    First thing I read in each issue. Then I read it aloud to the family.

    In the culture war, James is the Barrett .50 sniper rifle. You won’t hear it coming, and it hits with devastating force.

    • #23
  24. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Douglas Pratt (View Comment):

    First thing I read in each issue. Then I read it aloud to the family.

    In the culture war, James is the Barrett .50 sniper rifle. You won’t hear it coming, and it hits with devastating force.

    I could post a photo I received of the results of a Barrett .50 on a suicide bomber, but I’m sure it couldn’t possibly be CoC compliant.

    I still enjoy looking at it, though.

    • #24
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