Radio Voices

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Clarissa

October 17, 2014

Today I got into my car, turned on the radio, and started listening to Fox News, the only station I ever listen to.

This morning’s program really freaked me out, though. Instead of the angry, pugnacious commentators, I heard mellifluous, apologetic tones that insistently brought to mind the word Liberal. Then I realized that my husband had been in the car and changed the station.

I wish there were a station for fiery, self – assured liberals. A radio station you listen to while driving shouldn’t be making you sleepy.

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15 responses to “Radio Voices”

musteryou

October 17, 2014

I realized today what the engineering problem was that has upset the political structure of Western culture, and that it may be in the notion that one cannot be authoritarian (or even authoritative it seems) whilst being extremely liberal. It seems to me, from recently blasts of wind/knowledge though my head that I have always been both of these things at the same time, but people see one side of me and register it as right-wing and then they see another side and think I tricked them.

The idea that to be liberal one must be extremely mild and symbolically gendered in the mode of the Christian-feminine type, or that by being firm and (yes even) authoritarian, one is taking the side of a masculine purposefulness or agenda, has led to the complete and entire corruption of Western civilisation. A well-rounded or broad based personality simply cannot function in it anymore. At least I cannot, because I am too much what I am.

How can you function if only half of yourself at any one time is permitted to operate publicly — and then when people catch sight of the other side, they accuse you of fraudulence?

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1. Clarissa
  
  October 17, 2014
  
  That’s exactly what I’ve been trying to articulate, thank you.
  
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2. Shakti
  
  October 17, 2014
  
  It’s a unfortunate side effect of Cartesian duality and dialectical thinking; you can be one or the other but never both. If your soul hasn’t been centrifuged, you don’t exist.
  
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  1. musteryou
    
    October 17, 2014
    
    It’s really not dialectical though, is it? This binarisation pertains to static thinking, but dialectics is by its nature dynamic and transformative.
    
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Shakti

October 17, 2014

As for the radio, I channel surf incessantly because too much time listening to anything will cause me to tune out and nothing is more dangerous than tuning out in the middle of bumper to bumper rush hour traffic.

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Shakti

October 17, 2014

It’s really not dialectical though, is it? This binarisation pertains to static thinking, but dialectics is by its nature dynamic and transformative.

Well, no. A lot of this is going through a motion of a dialectic to arrive at one or another side in a dualism. For example, I knew a lot of people who went from one extreme to another, but pretty much had the same philosophical underpinnings throughout. Or people who proclaim that they’re “moderate moderates” like they’ve thought about it, but upon examination they veer so strongly in one direction they effectively function like a partisan or they’re forever triangulating between two points to end up at the mathematical middle regardless of what it actually does. It is why most debates function as exercises rather than a genuine inquiry.

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1. musteryou
  
  October 17, 2014
  
  Dialectics involves an interchange and sublation.
  
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Ol.

October 18, 2014

You cannot expect to hear fiery, self-assured liberals, because liberals tone down and edulcorate everything. You can barely hear and read some more self-assured voices to the left of liberals on the radio. I can only think of one or two examples, in French.

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1. Clarissa
  
  October 18, 2014
  
  Yes, they edulcorate and the result is unpalatable. I always feel I’m about to choke on so much sweetness.
  
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David P. Bellamy

October 18, 2014

Clarissa, your intellectual detachment amazes me. I could not listen to Fox News without getting so uncontrollably angry that I would not be able to drive safely.

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1. Stringer Bell
  
  October 18, 2014
  
  I think it helps if you think of it as entertainment. That’s what I do. EBOLA AT OUR SHORES! BENGHAZI! WAR ON CHRISTMAS (COMING SOON)! So much drama in your news, what’s not to like?
  
  NPR. on the other hand, bores me to death.
  
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  1. Clarissa
    
    October 18, 2014
    
    It’s really great entertainment. Every day, there is a new topic of fake outrage. And the talk show hosts repeat “Seriously? I mean, seriously?” dozens of times in a row in a tone of offended innocence. And the topic of fake outrage are what we call in Russian “sucked out of a finger.”
    
    Hilarious!
    
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2. Clarissa
  
  October 18, 2014
  
  “Clarissa, your intellectual detachment amazes me. I could not listen to Fox News without getting so uncontrollably angry that I would not be able to drive safely.”
  
  – It was angering at first. VERY angering. But after a while, you begin seeing patterns in the newscasts, and the whole thing becomes very very funny.
  
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Jones

October 19, 2014

Again, unlimited medium-bitrate Internet + portable streaming player + 3.5mm stereo patch cable + car stereo with aux input = you can have your own radio station in the car … 🙂

It works considerably better these days than a car radio with shortwave reception.

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1. Clarissa
  
  October 19, 2014
  
  It just sounds like too much trouble. I could just go to books on tapes when I get bored with these radio stations.
  
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