Posted on 09/06/2002 12:40:56 PM PDT by Brian Mosely
XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX FRIDAY SEPT 06, 2002 20:32:09 UTC XXXXX
[Filed by Matt Drudge in Germany]
NORMAN MAILER DECLARES: 'AMERICA IS SO VAIN'
**Exclusive**
In an 8,000 word polemic to be published in this weekend's London SUNDAY TIMES [9/8/02], Norman Mailer sounds what he hopes to be a "wake up call for America," the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.
The legendary Mailer rips the United States, calling it "so big, so powerful, and so vain..." and warns "every American has to ask himself, 'Am I ready to die for my ideas?'"
DRUDGE can reveal more of the coming rant, which is sure to ignite controversy on both shores.
Mailer writes:
"This century is going to be the most awesome of all centuries to contemplate - there is a real question whether human kind will get to the end of it... America's so big, so powerful, and so vain, ... I get angry when I see it being less than it can be.
"The British have a love of their country that is profound. They can revile it, tell dirty stories about it. But deep down their patriotism is deep. In America we're playing musical chairs - don't get caught without a flag or you're out of the game. Why do we need all this reaffirmation? It's as if we're a three hundred pound man who's seven feet tall, superbly shaped, absolutely powerful, and every three minutes he's got to reaffirm the fact that his arm pits have a wonderful odor. We don't need compulsive, self-serving patriotism. It's odious...
"When you have a great country it's your duty to be critical of it so it can become even greater...
"Culturally, emotionally America is growing more loutish, arrogant, and vain.
"I detest this totally promiscuous patriotism. Wave a little flag and become a good person? Ugly.
"If we have a depression or fall into desperate economic times, I don't know what's going to hold the country together...
"There's just too much anger here, too much ruptured vanity, too much shock, too much identity crisis. And worst of all, too much patriotism. Patriotism in a country that's failing has a logical tendency to turn fascistic...
"Let's suppose ten people are killed by a small bomb on a street corner in some city in America. The first thing to understand is that there are 280 million Americans. So, there's one chance in 28 million you're going to be one of those people. By such heartless means of calculation, the 3000 deaths in the Twin Towers came approximately to one mortality for every 90,000 Americans. Your chances of dying if you drive a car are one in 7,000 each year. We seem perfectly ready to put up with automobile statistics. I fear I am ready to say there is a tolerable level to terror...
"One of the things I've always found least attractive about Tony Blair was his toadyish attitude toward Clinton...
"Clinton made a point of surrounding himself with people who might be 90% as intelligent as himself, but never his equal. Bush is smart enough to know that he couldn't possibly do the same, or the country would be run by morons."
Developing...
Yup, that's right folks. I've been Carly-Simonized...
Aren't you Norman?
Read my mind like that again, and I shall be forced to hit Abuse.
;-)
When I first read that, I immediately thought of the former Soviet Union.
With sophomoric metaphores like this its no wonder Mailer hasn't been able to sell a new book in 30 years.
Math for Dummies. Ah, too bad, Norm that you or some family member weren't a part of the "tolerable level of terror" statistics. I bet you think this song is about you.
btw....why do all these a$$holes go to Europe and publish a hit piece on the US....Im getting sick of it!....traitors!!!
It isn't every day that America gets direction from a guy with tapioca for brains. Well, actually, I guess it is a daily thing.
Cue up Carly Simon, w/ words revised to:
You're so vain
You probably think this war is about you...
Shaquile O'Neal?
Why, yes, Norman, I swore an oath to that regard some time ago; something a yellow-bellied leftist coward like you will never understand. Know full well, though, that I'll do everything in my power as an American citizen to hold that doorway for the other guy first.
Take a few guesses as to who those "other guys" are.
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