Heart / belly is of course important. Same thing? Let's remember that GWB
famously governs from his "gut." So I'm a little distrustful of these
appeals to emotion. So much of the electorate is butt-ignorant on the
issues, though, that I guess liberals have to consider themselves lucky this
time around that there is a politics of the heart being played out among the
major candidates. The right, too, has a heart candidate: the fundamentalist
preacher Mike Huckabee.
jd
On Jan 9, 2008 9:36 AM, Frederick Pollack <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Mark Weiss" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Wednesday, January 09, 2008 9:24 AM
> Subject: Re: "Poetry" versus "Prose" in New Hampshire
>
>
> > Gore's 2000 image was invented by relentless Republican repetition.
> > Likewise Clinton's ice maiden aura. In each case a countervailing
> > image--Bush the reformed reprobate good old boy, Obama the prophet,
> > flatter national fictions .Obama, at any rate, is probably benign (it's
> > his competence that's in question), but the heart is a questionable
> guide.
> > Think of Bush looking into Putin's heart. As one of the columnists
> > recently noted, Putin was a KGB agent, he had no heart. And in choosing
> > leaders I prefer the head. The heart gave the world Reagan and lots
> > worse--Napoleon, Hitler, Mussolini. Best to use one's head to cut
> through
> > the pretty stories we're all prone to and the machinations of the
> > propaganda machines that feed them.
> >
> > I realize that I speak as the veteran of several marriages. One tries to
> > learn.
> >
> > Mark
> >
>
>
> Mark, your last few e-mails have made excellent points. My only cavil is
> Napoleon. A substantial intellect. Fine mathematician. Remember the
> scientists he took on the Egyptian campaign. Thought strategically on the
> largest scale (and made the largest errors). "Head" vs. "heart" is a
> crude
> distinction, but N's besetting vices were intellectual: opportunism ("I
> saw
> the crown of France in the gutter and I picked it up") and contempt.
>
--
Joseph Duemer
Professor of Humanities
Clarkson University
[sharpsand.net]
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