Camille Paglia is a self-professed liberal who happens to be one of my favorite conservative writers. No, that isn’t a thoughtless typo. Paglia is not one of the brainwashed sheep pining for nanny-state socialism like most liberals today, but is rather an old-style liberal who wants justice and liberty for all. Classical liberalism has been hijacked by whiny, snobby, pseudo-intellectuals who want to control the masses, not serve them.
I disagree with Paglia on many issues, especially social ones, but I am attracted to her towering intellect and her disdain for the politically correct idiocies of the modern world. She can be paradoxical, as shown by what she told The Morning News:
I really respect mysticism and the spiritual dimension, even though I don’t believe in God. And I am saying that secular humanism right now by denigrating religion is merely reactionary, is corrupt or whatever, OK. It has cut our best people, our most talented people off from responding to some of the greatest artwork ever done—the Sistine Chapel, or you name it. The minute the pope died, I said, “Now, the American audience is going to get an education in art and architecture — there was a full page in the [Philadelphia] Inquirer as I prophesied, there it was, a diagram of the Vatican, the altars. Bernini did this, Bernini did that. I thought, “Oh, OK, this is what the universities should be doing.”
Another example of her paradoxical nature is that she’s a lesbian who claims that “heterosexuality is nature’s norm.” You never know what to expect from Paglia except a rapier wit, an exceptional intellect, and provocative writing that gives one pause for thought.
C.S. Lewis had a respect for genuine atheists. Not the immature, simpering, “merely reactionary” variety of atheists, but people of intellect who weighed the evidence and found the evidence for God wanting. In “That Hideous Strength,” Lewis included an atheist, Mr. MacPhee, as one of the members of the inner circle fighting the demonic National Institute for Coordinated Experiments (N.I.C.E). The character is probably based on Lewis’ most influential teacher, William T. Kirkpatrick (aka “The Great Knock”) who was in large part responsible for encouraging Lewis to use reason rather than appeals to emotion. Little did the atheistic “The Great Knock” know that Lewis would be using his reasoning skills to become one of the greatest Christian apologists of all times. God uses people in strange ways.
Thoughtful Christians and conservatives need to make Camille Paglia a regular read. You may disagree with her, but her works provide the much-needed voice of a intelligent, reasoned, skeptic, like Lewis’ “The Great Knock.” In days like these where Chris Matthews is consideredFrom her latest column at Salon.com.
Hillary’s willingness to tolerate Bill’s compulsive philandering is a function of her general contempt for men. She distrusts them and feels morally superior to them. Following the pattern of her long-suffering mother, she thinks it is her mission to endure every insult and personal degradation for a higher cause — which, unlike her self-sacrificing mother, she identifies with her near-messianic personal ambition.
It’s no coincidence that Hillary’s staff has always consisted mostly of adoring women, with nerdy or geeky guys forming an adjunct brain trust. Hillary’s rumored hostility to uniformed military men and some Secret Service agents early in the first Clinton presidency probably belongs to this pattern. And let’s not forget Hillary, the governor’s wife, pulling out a book and rudely reading in the bleachers during University of Arkansas football games back in Little Rock.
Hillary’s disdain for masculinity fits right into the classic feminazi package, which is why Hillary acts on Gloria Steinem like catnip. Steinem’s fawning, gaseous New York Times op-ed about her pal Hillary this week speaks volumes about the snobby clubbiness and reactionary sentimentality of the fossilized feminist establishment, which has blessedly fallen off the cultural map in the 21st century. History will judge Steinem and company very severely for their ethically obtuse indifference to the stream of working-class women and female subordinates whom Bill Clinton sexually harassed and abused, enabled by look-the-other-way and trash-the-victims Hillary.
How does all this affect the prospect of a Hillary presidency? With her eyes on the White House, Hillary as senator has made concerted and generally successful efforts to improve her knowledge of and relationship to the military — crucial for any commander-in-chief but especially for the first female one. However, I remain concerned about her future conduct of high-level diplomacy. Contemptuous condescension seems to be Hillary’s default mode with any male who criticizes her or stands in her way. It’s a Nixonian reflex steeped in toxic gender bias. How will that play in the Muslim world?
Give Camille Paglia a try. You just might find her a refreshing voice rising above the meaningless cacophony that constitutes what passes for modern intellectualism.
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