Boyle is a 'Symptom' of Western Decline

pettyfog · Apr 20, 2009

Whatta ya do when a writer uses the wrong examples to make the right points?

That's what happens here, when Robert Spengler writing in Asia Times, says Boyle is pretty ordinary and we are enthralled by her just because we settle for so little.

Why the West is Boyle'd

The West still has no idea what kind of trouble it's in.

Singer Susan Boyle, our latest instant celebrity, reminds me of any number of singers I conducted in amateur renditions of the easier Schubert or Haydn masses, or the sort of matron who sings "Katti-Shaw" or "Buttercup" in the local Gilbert and Sullivan production. Musical talent springs up like grass, and engaging voices are a dollar a dozen. That Boyle has come to embody the triumph of ordinary people over obscurity, complete with invitations to appear on Oprah and Larry King, is disheartening. The popular audience in the West likes to validate its own
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His core points, I agree with. But what he should be writing about is how it's a shame she missed out on formal voice training ... no amount of formal training for those millions of oriental kids is going to give them the natural ability she has. I cant sing and I cant play a musical instrument but I can hear a waver or sour note or a flat a mile away. My music teacher told me so.. and suggested I give up and take music appreciation or something instead of try to make my fingers do things they didnt want to. Susan doesnt have that problem.
If Spengler wanted to make his point of the ordinary blown up to stature, he could have used THIS KID, whose video I first saw labeled "..next Susan Boyle". Now THAT is pretty freakin 'good but ordinary'.

And here's another total mismatch when it comes to using focus on image:

Palin's Personal Choice

I'd like to thank Sarah Palin for her bravery in explaining the importance of a woman's right to choose. Even braver, the Alaska governor made her eloquent case for choice at a right-to-life fundraising dinner.

That was not, of course, Palin's intention in revealing that she momentarily considered having an abortion. Twice, actually -- once when she discovered she would be a mother at 44, again several weeks later when she discovered that her baby would have Down syndrome.

I'll quote Palin at length, partly because I want readers to see that I'm not taking her remarks out of context, even more because the account of her anguished choice about whether to "change the circumstances" is so gripping and so genuine. Instead of the Tina Fey caricature, we see a flesh-and-blood woman whose moral certainties are being put to a real-world test:

"I had found out that I was pregnant while out of state first, at an oil and gas conference. While out of state, there just for a fleeting moment, wow, I knew, nobody knows me here, nobody would ever know. I thought, wow, it is easy, could be easy to think, maybe, of trying to change the circumstances. No one would know. No one would ever know.

"Then when my amniocentesis results came back, showing what they called abnormalities. Oh, dear God, I knew, I had instantly an understanding for that fleeting moment why someone would believe it could seem possible to change those circumstances. Just make it all go away and get some normalcy back in life. Just take care of it. Because at the time only my doctor knew the results, Todd didn't even know. No one would know. But I would know. First, I thought how in the world could we manage a change of this magnitude. I was a very busy governor with four busy kids and a husband with a job hundreds of miles away up on the North Slope oil fields. And, oh, the criticism that I knew was coming. Plus, I was old . . .

"So we went through some things a year ago that now lets me understand a woman's, a girl's temptation to maybe try to make it all go away if she has been influenced by society to believe that she's not strong enough or smart enough or equipped enough or convenienced enough to make the choice to let the child live. I do understand what these women, what these girls go through in that thought process."

Except that, of course, if it were up to Palin, women would have no thought process to go through. The "good decision to choose life," as she put it, would be no decision at all, because abortion would not be an option.
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What a total misreading! Abortion has always been an 'option' and always will be.
Let's look at it in another light, when someone accosts and assaults you, murder is always an option as well. Afte all you may have that "I'll kill the sum'bitch!" visceral reaction.. for a fleeting moment, at the least.

If someone walking in front of you drops an expensive piece of jewelry and walks on un-noticing, keeping it is also always an option. You'll SURELY think about it. That doesnt make it right.

If you have access to your company's bank account, and you're behind on your bills, skimming out a little 'just till next payday' is also an option. Bet you'll think about it.

The point being those are all TEMPTATIONS to do what's easy at the time.

It speaks to our character both individually and as a nation whether we make it 'easy' or we have to muddle through difficult times.
Too bad Marcus wasnt raised to believe that. Or maybe she was and she is self-justifying... we shouldnt really care. The point is she took an admission of temptation by the confessor and used it in a political manner.

The 'Easy Way' of making her point.

Boyle is a 'Symptom' of Western Decline

pettyfog Well-Known Member

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Boyle is a 'Symptom' of Western Decline

pettyfog Well-Known Member

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