... it's both instructive and eerie to re-read Richard Hofstadter's classic essay, "The Paranoid Style in American Politics." Conservatives have never been fond of the essay, since its chief target is "the Goldwater movement." But Hofstadter was careful to note that the conspiratorial bent has infected disparate ideological movements over the course of American history. And today, though Hofstadter's description fits some aspects of neoconservative discourse, it applies with far greater force to neoconservatism's wild-eyed critics.
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Pilot of an antique future
An email I've just received says:
… I have created this whole site just for fun, not to make money. I hope you all visit and enjoy it. I will ensure it stays on the net for many, many years to come.
If any of you are feeling generous, I would greatly appreciate it if you would add a link to my site from any sites you run, if you haven't already.
I'm delighted to do so. The site in question is Dan-Dare.net, dedicated to the pipe-smoking all-Brit hero who was Pilot of the Future in my long-gone past.
Actually Dan survived in various forms long after I'd given up reading the equally pipe-smoking all-Brit comic Eagle and even after that incomparable publication died. But I can't recognize reincarnations as the real thing. (Just as Dr Who fans get imprinted with the Doctor who was current when they were most impressionable and regard all others as inferior.) I find the Dan Dare animation presently running on Channel 5 on Saturday mornings quite unbearable. Not only does Dan have an impossibly wimpy voice, but his eyebrows are all wrong. And his eyebrows were a crucial part of Dan's charisma. Everything else is wrong, too …
Don't get me started. If you don't know what I'm talking about, then study and grow wise. Beginning at Dan-Dare.net. And savour the marvellous artworks of Frank Hampson.
