Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Stanley Crouch Channels David Horowitz and Attacks Cornel West



Is the enemy of my enemy my friend?

Neatly tied together here, Stanley Crouch has chimed in on Cornel West's critique of Barack Obama. Interestingly, Grimace look alike Stanley Crouch defends Obama and the "blackademics" against West's charges that the President's policies are contrary to the good of the Black community.

While it was little discussed at the time, a year or so ago failed academic and bomb throwing polemicist David Horowitz attempted a beat down of Dr. West in a screed called "Hurricane West: Cornel West and American Radicalism." While possessing some pithy prose, Horowitz's assault was predictable and fit perfectly with his Right-wing victimology, conspiranoid fantasies of a Left-wing plot to destroy America.

To my eyes, what is funny/compelling/unintentionally ironic about Horowitz's vicious 2010 hit piece on Cornel West is that in many ways it is a mirror of Crouch's NY Daily News column of a year later.

There, as viewed through Horowitz's lens, President Obama is a dangerous Socialist Progressive anti-American who is in bed with and enabled by Cornel West's activism and ideology, where the latter is a fraud and con artist--he is apparently also an "academic entertainer" and a walking black stereotype:
There is no other explanation for the ability of a shallow, vain, and trivial intellect, a comrade of anti-Semites and violent racists and a friend to America’s enemies, to attain the cultural eminence that Cornel West has achieved....Cornel West can be seen on the one hand as a progressive version of the Stepin Fetchit stereotype — absurd in his stumbling efforts to impersonate an intellectual and to wear the mantle of a prophet of social change. But Cornel West is also the archetype of an American radicalism that has set out to destroy the American experiment, and whose favorite son now occupies the White House as its commander-in-chief. Viewed as a historic force that has conducted a 50-year assault on America’s institutional values and standards and that has driven America’s cultural decline, the progressive Left is a movement that masks malice towards its own country as a love for the world’s powerless and oppressed.
To Stanley Crouch, Cornel West is an out of touch activist type who is a huckster and academic circus freak who plays the over-educated fool for trinkets and gold:
Serious black intellectuals privately dismissed West many years ago as no more than an academic loudmouth with a good show business game. He has perfected a variety of poses - from academic to conciliator to rapper - that are intended to give the impression that a very substantial mind is mulling over something and will soon drop some rhetorical bombs that will blow away all nonsense. A staple figure in American comedy is the pompous, educated fool, drowning in narcissism. West has long fit the bill; Harris-Perry finally exposed him for those who didn't already know.
I hinted at this before, but will be even more direct at present. There is big money to be made in making sure that one gets their 30 seconds of air time on the Obama-West fracas. I don't want to scream that Horowitz, Crouch, and others are haters per se, but I would certainly whisper the suggestion at a decibel level high enough to hear.

The public intellectual controversy game puts money in the bank and butts in the seat. Thus, why so many want to suckle at the teats in order to move up to the lecture circuit, talking head "A-list." Those who sit in the pews of the Church of Black Authenticity Fighting Over President Obama's Politics need to be mindful of how in their worst moments the chattering classes and the Fourth Estate are (often) playing a game of Three Card Monty on the public.

In sum, the opinion leaders and taste makers do not necessarily care about the common good or the interests of the common man or woman for self-interest is their over-riding principle. We should all be mindful of that fact lest we find ourselves exposed, exhausted, and distracted in this time of national peril.

21 comments:

Plane Ideas said...

Stanley has a long history of mining the 'hard nose colored guy" routine for white interests..This is not the first time he has bitch slapped Black activists for the ruling class..

Truth be told he is not the only one who works this corner ... I am taking names...

Chris Albertson said...

Stanley is an opportunist. He was intimately associated with the so-called avant garde jazz movement in the '60s, when I first met him. He made a quick u-turn when he met and grabbed the ascending coattails of Wynton Marsalis, adopting his myopic view of jazz as he went along for the corporate ride. I'm sure he is toadying to Wynton, an Obama supporter.

Shady_Grady said...

"Crabby Grouch" rarely has anything intelligent to say and when he does it is normally by accident.

He's a failed black nationalist and failed free jazz drummer and has been nursing grudges against both fields of endeavor for the past 45 years.

Oh Crap said...

Decent interview by Roland M, decent show by CWest. My own focus in this Black A-Listers flap has been more on that q. of why Bro. West would fall for Hedges' old gag, and I do think it's a REALLY old gag. Without mentioning names, Mr. Martin honed in on that issue around 4:25.

Afaic, Hedges used CWest, but then, West allowed it. I'm still trying to figure out how that happened.

As for Crouch, he's mistaken. Again, I say the "narcissistic, a sensationalist, and an “academic loudmouth" is Hedges, who hides behind West's words. I hope C wakes up soon to how he's being used as a device by these PUMA-lite, supposed "progressives", because the last people on earth they are interested in is Black folk of any station. They think we are the competition.

Plane Ideas said...

@OH,

Nonsense CWest owns his words and controls his destiny..Interesting how you promote the myth that a Black man is incapable of directing and orchestrating his tatics and affairs...

Do you always have such low expectations of Black men? Black Folks?

Hedges and others like his ilk are not new to CWest or Black Progressives/Activists.

Nevertheless I do agree with you 10000% that PUMA-lite supposed 'progressives" give less than a fuck about our themes and clearly view us as their adversaries..

Oh Crap said...

Of course they're not new, which is why I have no problem talking about how they are attempting to utilize West. So you can save the big blustery show of indignation.

He decided of his own volition to lend his name to that "New Progressive Alliance" crap, which is running around yapping about "primarying Obama" LOL! He's on the "steering committee", whatever that is.

As for who has the low opinions of Black men and Black folks, here's what they think of us.

WHY he's signed on with a crankodoodle like Cindy Sheehan, well, that's on him.

West's "words" are not sacred utterances, and they don't need any defense or validation from me or you. The brouhaha between him, Glaude, Harris-Perry, Roland, etc is really just a spectacle between Black A-Listers and Ivy Leaguers about the top dog Black A-Lister/Ivy Leaguer. I don't think it's a coincidence Hedges is also another ILer.

This is showbiz.

Plane Ideas said...

Oh Crap,

The only one who clearly has emotional fits over West's talking points are you and angry Black woman like Jill Nelson and the usual ass kissin Black liberal Chatter class pundits ..

My premise about your comments remain the same get over your myths about FREE BLACK MEN.. Save your angst for those people who you are running from as you continue to hide behind a mask ..

As I have noted earlier unlike you I have no probelm with affirming and embracing FREE BLACK MEN like West and others..My ego is not that fragile more importantly I like it when others echo my thoughts..FREE BLACK MEN often do that with each other...

Oh Crap said...

@Thrasher,

I'm not sure how long you've been online, but you do Cornel West no favors by reducing his body of work to "talking points". It's generally taken as an insult.

You're even worse than Hedges hiding behind West to call Obama a Black so-and-so. Self-important may he be, at least he doesn't copy/paste himself over and over, compulsively regurgitating his own phraseology into every 10th post.

Go take out your endless, unchecked aggressions on someone else's posts. You're getting nowhere, as usual, with mine.

Plane Ideas said...

Oh Crap,

SO again I will repost agin and again and again..Why are responding to my comments?? You can't help yourself..Get over me ..Stop obessing over me..lol,lol,lol Recall I am a man not a LGBT..lol,lol,lol

You Doth Protest to Much..BTW now you are Cornel's publicist? You are his arbiter of that determines to talking points are an insult..I thught you resented the smell of IVY folks..WTF

One other note you are not CD's gatekeeper..You don't police nothing on the internet despite your on line seniority..lol,lol,lol

Oh yeah FREE BLACK MEN like me and WEST Have no problem checking Obama that is what we do of course how would you not being one of us..lol,lol,lol

Oh Crap said...

You're never going to get what you want out of my posts, T.

That's what has you on the verge of blowing a gasket; each post reminds you how much closer you are to spinning out of control.

BTW, this will not surprise you, but I'm not very interested in joining your cut-off, imaginary free world of one, either. So you're on your own with that.

Free men don't get all bent out of shape from a few posts on a comments thread. Don't be a slave to your rage.

It's just the internet.

Plane Ideas said...

I am not interested purging you of your shortcomings..Are you that dense..

Everyone one of your reactionary posts to my salient comments only demonstrate your inability to articulate a point that adds value..

FREE MEN like me make it possible for intellectual cowards like you to hide behind your mask...

FREE MEN like me and West nevertheless understand your tortured nature and need to matter even in an internet forum..

Months ago on this site you railed against me yad, yada, yada, Like a wounded puppy in need of interaction and exchange you keep coming back for more even on the internet..

Oh never again undersetimate the power and influence of FREE BLACK men like me and West....lol,lol,lol

Plantsmantx said...

As I remember, when Obama's campaign first started up, the right accused blacks of not considering Obama to be black. It was a lie, but there were just a couple of well-known black commentators who did express that opinion. One was Debra Dickerson, and the other was...Stanley Crouch.

So when black Americans refer to Obama as "one of us," I do not know what they are talking about. In his new book, "The Audacity of Hope," Obama makes it clear that, while he has experienced some light versions of typical racial stereotypes, he cannot claim those problems as his own - nor has he lived the life of a black American.

http://articles.nydailynews.co...

Plantsmantx said...

The Stereo Review magazine Chris Albertson? Cool:).

Oh Crap said...

@Thrasher

Why have you confused your 1997 AOL-era trolling behavior with "power"?

As for West, he's the one on the steering committee of that inane New Progressive Alliance bunch of crankodoodles, one of whom express the need for Black re-education in the service of white progressive ends. They also place ads on Craigslist for primary challengers to a sitting president. Lol!

Plane Ideas said...

@ Oh Crap,

But you post under a mask in the Post AOL internet world...lol,lol,

You are in a LGBT group that encourages contempt for FREE BLACK Men at their workshops and seminars..

As I have posted many times about your demeanor you are a self rightous pitiful hypocrite who is obessed with me because I am a FREE BLACK MAN like CWest

chaunceydevega said...

@Plants. Thanks for that one...which fits into my bigger thoughts on this. Is appreciated.

Oh Crap said...

@Thrasher, lol I'm not a member of any "LGBT groups". Your compulsion in posting about me is only because I'm the only female attention you've gotten in Jesus X knows how long.

You're the type of male for whom ANY attention is better than no attention, even negative, derisive attention that makes fun of your hurt feelings. It does not take much to lead males like you around by the nose.

Did you hear? the New Progressive Alliance, steered by CWest, just put an ad on Craigslist for a primary Challenger to Obama. You should answer it. They say we African Americans need re-education. I've no doubt you are ideal for that task.

Plane Ideas said...

Oh Crap,

Don't you have some new material..You been ranting about New Progressive Alliance all week...It is showbiz remember

BTW Liberator Mag will be publishing some of my commentaries soon...Put that in your whispher cue...lol

Oh Crap said...

@Thrasher

Why should I get new material, when you've been trotting out the same old three-word cliché in every post?

So when does the NPA Negro Re-education program start?

Plane Ideas said...

@ Oh Crap,

According to marketing guru's one must repeat something at last 30 times before the challenged receiver ( Oh Crap this is you) understands..

So I am half way there with you..lol,lol,lol

Oh Crap said...

Why would you keep repeating something over and over, expecting a different result?

You'll never get what you want from me, though your eyes may shine/your teeth may grit.