Wednesday, February 04, 2009

Always at war with Christmas Eastasia

The important thing at the Fair 'n' Balanced Network isn't who's at war with whom. The important thing is that we're at war, because war is easy to securitize. When you securitize* an issue, you move it from the realm of normal politics and into a magic realm where special powers are needed for the duration (and, centrally, you get a stake in defining "the duration").

In other words, with the War On Christmas on hold, the War On Valentine's Day still brewing and the War On St. Patrick a distant gleam in Sean Hannity's eye, we might as well get lathered up for the War On Prayer, because the Assault On Americana isn't far behind.

"Be very afraid" is a cliche, and it's not really the point of securitization anyway.** Fox will be quite happy if you're Just Afraid Enough.

* In the Copenhagen School's formulation, pretty accurately represented here, for all of Wikipedia's myriad faults.
** If posting is sparse for a bit, it's because a securitization paper is being beaten slowly into shape. If posting is heavy, Your Editor is either procrastinating or rebuilding a 3210 lecture. Both have been known to happen.

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2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

What a minute... "Parades in Peril"?! WTF is that supposed to mean? (Boy, I'm glad I don't live in Fox World.)

10:27 PM, February 04, 2009  
Blogger fev said...

Well ... Snoopy is tied down by a crowd of liberals, so the Red Baron is free to roll out and reduce SpongeBob and every other following balloon to a grease spot on the L&N? Makes pretty good sense to me, but I have a multiple-entry visa for Fox World.

12:39 AM, February 05, 2009  

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