I guess I will have to read the book because we don't get SHOWTIME --- But I can definitely explain the intensity of the opposition. Oliver Stone is a proven force in American cinema. When he produces a film, people watch it. The fact that he did JFK which sent the establishment into apoplexy (whether he's right or wrong) has them "loaded for bear" whenever he appears on the scene with his next iconoclastic project --
And this one is perfect -- he blasts away at "American exceptionalism" -- he is probably in the tradition of Bill WIlliams and the Cold War revisionists (but I will see that for myself when I read the book) -- who have been forgotten pretty much by the general public and the intellectual opinion-shapers. (An irony of this is that two of the first right-wingers out of the box with critiques of the series were themselves former Cold War Revisionists Ronald Radosh and David Horowitz (Radosh claimed to have been a great admirer of Bill WIlliams) --- here they are trying to continue currying favor with their new right-wing sugar daddies -- Radosh was an Olin Fellow and Horowitz's organization has undoubtedly been well funded by the right -- by reminding them of how much they have repudiated their pasts!) The idea that a new generation (perhaps of college students whose "tenured radical" professors will maybe assign Stone's movie and/or book) might be "dangerously exposed" to this "bad" way of thinking is too much for these guys. They want the public to believe that Oliver Stone is a looney and his book is a piece of garbage -- just the way former BU PRez John Silber tried to dismiss Howard's work!--. Fortunately for us, it won't work. Stone's book and movie will have a good impact -- We can take advantage of the discussion to rebut the right wing attempt to dismiss and deny the veracity of the film/book (and of course there might be errors there -- what work hasn't got them?) -- and that becomes another teachable moment for how the American version of thought control (or as Noam Chosky would say "manufacturing consent" works). Can't wait for the episode where he shows how the US created Osama Bin Laden and the "freedom fighters" that "freed" AFghanistan from the Soviet Union -- armed them, financed them -- and then let them loose on AFghanistan -- only to find them with bigger targets -- Saudi Arabia and then US! [assuming he'll get that close to the present!]
_______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
