Bill, thank you very much for that article.
I can see you went to much trouble to find it (dated Dec 1987) and it certainly amplifies and supports what you have said about Vidal. My difficulty is that I know very little about American history and, in the circumstances, I am not able to support or challenge the details of his position. However, I am still prepared to argue with you on the interpretation of what he is about.
If his position is simply nihilistic, as both you and Prof Thompson suggest, then I question again why does he go to so much trouble simply to destroy. There is no doubt that he is profoundly iconoclastic and has spent his life in the destruction of the American idols and historical fantasy as well as those of organized religion. Wherever he sees a "sacred cow" he attempts to kill it. But, this, in my opinion, does not mean he is nihilistic. I would suggest that he simply wishes to counterbalance the profound mythology and brain-washing which has, in effect, created a religion from American history. The great figures of the American past have been eulogised into saints --- he wishes to show that they have feet of clay --- indeed, are of clay. Fundamentally, he believes that, unless America can escape from the same mindset as beset Rome, with its empire, its idols and its gods all around the pantheon, it is consigned to the same fate. Here the Bush administration has played right into his hands.
And, indeed, one doesn't have to be a rocket scientist to understand why he has done this. In fact, one could almost say he was clairvoyant or prescient in his vision of what was going to befall America. But he went further --- he played historians and academics at their own game. He was even acclaimed by them --- even those who do not like him.
This is where I think critics, particularly those on the political right, don't understand his contribution --- he is not a politician or an academic offering an alternative materialistic solution to enable America to continue on its merry way but is, in fact, a modern mystic. He seeks a supervening truth, maybe an alternative religion, but leaves it unstated. If the reader cannot see it for himself --- when it has been shoved right into his face --- then both Vidal and the reader have, indeed, wasted their time.
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Defending Vidal's contribution reminds me of this bit of Chinese "Greek":
If you meet the Buddha on the Road, Kill Him!
Friends, I tell you this: there is no Buddha, no spiritual path to follow, no training and no realization. What are you so feverishly running after? Putting a head on top of your own head, you blind idiots? Your head is right where it should be. The trouble lies in your not believing in yourselves enough. Because you don't believe in yourselves you are knocked here and there by all the conditions in which you find yourselves. Being enslaved and turned around by objective situations, you have no freedom whatever, you are not masters of yourselves...
O you followers of Truth! Do not be deceived by others. Inwardly or outwardly, if you encounter any obstacles, kill them right away. If you meet the Buddha, kill him! Do not get yourself entangled with any object, but stand above, pass on and be free!
-Lin Chi Yi Sen (?-867 C.E.)
By the way, I would say that is what liberty is all about. No mention of patriotism! |
