More recently, we've had Lewis Lapham running Harper’s magazine while his brother Tony Lapham was the CIA’s general counsel. How tight would you say the connections between the CIA and the media are at the moment, including the new media?
So, Lewis, does America have a ruling class?
And Lewis' daughter married one of Brian Mulroney's sons a couple of years ago, so, yeah. The Security and Prosperity Partnership appears to be driven by blue blood, even if some of it does dissent from time to time.
Posted by: Chris Corrigan | August 22, 2007 at 03:00 AM
Interesting. At least Lewis is helping us understand how his world works.
Posted by: Phil | August 22, 2007 at 08:24 AM
Interesting, too, what Valentine (the author/poet/interviewee) says about Angleton representing "...the literary sensibility the CIA once had, where finding secrets was like teasing the meaning out of a poem."
Posted by: O Lucky Man | August 22, 2007 at 09:40 AM
I took the titles of Lewis' books, fed them into an internets text scrambler, and out came this:
Bush 30 of Lights Notes for Influence Lapham's Criminal of at on Satires Barbarians Kings to America Democracy! Empire Class Waiting Democracy Bay Hotel Camera Gag Pretensions Folly and Fortune's Rules of the Rule Money Child Mammon America the The Administration in the Theater Agony War for Imperial Masquerade of The Wish.
Are we getting closer to the truth? Or does it need more teasing?
Posted by: Sledgehammer's Pies | August 22, 2007 at 09:45 AM
How about using a dare, instead of teasing ?
Posted by: Un Autre Singe | August 22, 2007 at 11:09 AM
When we deny we have a ruling class we are unable to ask the obvious questions:
1. who is in that class?
2. do they know one another by name?
3. how to they network?
4. how is one admitted or excluded?
5. what empires or zones of empire are ruled?
6. how is rule exerted? by delegated authority, board membership, education, propaganda, media, entertaintment, medicalization of anomie and dissent, role of the prison, role of religion, etc? Use of Terror as bogeyman?
7. what role for or against the interests of the ruling class is played by art, literature, satire, philanthropy, carnival, etc?
Since America does not have a ruling class we are spared such questions.
Posted by: Phil | August 22, 2007 at 01:38 PM
To every thing there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven.
WESley says some good stuff on this. Same song, different verse:
Posted by: Sledgehammer's Pies | August 22, 2007 at 03:44 PM
Good suggestion, Monsieur Singe.
Lewis: I dare you to point out one thing you've said publicly that you wish you could take back.
A softball, right? Next.
Posted by: O Lucky Man | August 22, 2007 at 03:46 PM
Re #7, I guess. When I related to my sister the thrust of what I'd read I felt two things:
exhilirated at the chance to communicate it and curious as to how it would come out my mouth
giddy at the sheer absurdity of having tried to address "the enormity" at all
I started laughing and in loving earnest said there's a guy with a blog called "you live your life as if it's real". I think he's got it right and probably will for the foreseeable future.
She smiled, seemed relieved and said, good, that's what I've *been* doing!
In my opinion, and paradoxically, the conversation was entirely inaccessible to "them", and undeniable (to us) by "them". Therefore, for a few moments, we managed to be "free". Oui?
Posted by: O Lucky Man | August 22, 2007 at 03:49 PM
Re #6:
Posted by: O Lucky Man | August 22, 2007 at 03:52 PM
I noted that passage too, OLM, and considered citing it. Capital is consolidated in fewer hands, and increasingly there are not enough Dumpsters to go around for the rest of us, what with the housing bubble bursting and all.
Posted by: Phil | August 22, 2007 at 04:36 PM
Here's the keys to my house ...
I dare you to sell it for more than you'd get if we could sit down and renegotiate a fixed rate of interest, between the two of us, that keeps the mortgage payments the same for the next twenty years.
Posted by: Un Autre Singe | August 22, 2007 at 06:18 PM
You couldn't afford the closing costs.
Posted by: Phil | August 22, 2007 at 07:18 PM
Fees are THE sunrise industry for America, non ?
No wonder everything's being privatized .. annuity cash flows from fees.
Posted by: Un Autre Singe | August 22, 2007 at 09:38 PM
Ever see the picture of two farmers fighting over a cow? One pulls the head, the other pulls the tail. And the lawyer sits on the stool milking the cow.
Posted by: Phil | August 22, 2007 at 10:18 PM
Sledge: thoughts out of season are usually available at a markdown; they tend to sell in thin volumes.
Posted by: Saluk | August 22, 2007 at 11:44 PM
In my bargain noble bookstore there is a section called Good Books that is very hard to leave once entered. Some people say amazing but I think willing grace.
Posted by: Sledgehammer's Pies | August 23, 2007 at 01:53 PM
The best books are often found in the Dumpster.
Posted by: Phil | August 23, 2007 at 02:28 PM