May 7, 2002

5:00 AM

The Middle Mind There is another cultural politics in our midst, perhaps even more organic then the academic Left or ideological Right. It is moving, making its way, accumulating its forces, winning while putative conservatives and tenured radicals beat the bloody hell out of each other to no end at all. This third force I call our Middle Mind. It is a vast mind, my friends, and I fear it is already something towering and permanent on our national horizon.
posted by raaka (20 comments total)

Not much new here since I took GOV 101 these many years ago.

The middle muddle's been there the whole time. The extremes of Right and Left are just that -- extremes -- that help shape our opinions. Because they're exceptional, they get the airtime and the column inches, but they aren't the whole of opinion, or even the majority of it; they're just the ends of the spectrum.

I don't see any movement or accumulation of forces -- unfortunately. Mostly, what I see is an electorate that, when it's paying attention at all, is increasingly feeling alienated from the process of running the country.
posted by alumshubby at 6:26 AM on May 7, 2002

you can feel North America's inquiring minds go, "Uh-oh," in anticipation that this is the sort of question that opens the door to just the people they don't want to hear from
posted by StOne at 6:31 AM on May 7, 2002

Looks like the wrong link the post. The Middle Mind article is in Context #9: http://www.dalkeyarchive.com/context/no9/white.html.
posted by ahughey at 6:44 AM on May 7, 2002

And here I was about to tell alumshubby to RFTA, since the article was about cultural theory and all that. (But then how could alumshubby have RFTA?)
posted by mcwetboy at 6:47 AM on May 7, 2002

a culture of mediocrity that forbids real intelligence

Doesn't much like the Middle Mind, does the author. Contempt for the intelligence of those outside the academy, of culture deemed "unsophisticated". Boy have I seen that before.
posted by mcwetboy at 6:55 AM on May 7, 2002

Fpr a writer to take Terry Queenan's humor with the degreee of seriousness this guy does is to be way off the mark. Whol would take with any seriousness a guy that writes in so sloppy a manner?
posted by Postroad at 7:04 AM on May 7, 2002

I can't help but be reminded of a history teacher I had in high school--we often referred to her as "the raving moderate." Her political views could only be described as moderate or centrist, but she held them very strongly.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 7:04 AM on May 7, 2002

I first read part of this in Harpers a few months ago and have to agree with mcwetboy. I found this to be a pretentious piece of academic slop.
posted by anathema at 7:11 AM on May 7, 2002

I used to have these beliefs to justify my former drug use
posted by sahrens428 at 7:16 AM on May 7, 2002

I used to have these beliefs to justify my former drug use
posted by sahrens428 at 7:16 AM on May 7, 2002

whoops double comment sorry
posted by sahrens428 at 7:17 AM on May 7, 2002

"It wants to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and has even bought an SUV with the intent of visiting it. "

It, perhaps, needs it's head examined... This reminds me of the explanation for the light on the vacuum cleaner - It's there so you can see where you are going if the power goes out...

I'll second the "pretentious piece of academic slop" motion.
posted by revbrian at 7:35 AM on May 7, 2002

I will now summarize that article in one sentence.
Stupid, stupid bleating sheeple.
posted by darukaru at 7:58 AM on May 7, 2002

I believe this is a double-post, even though I can't get the search to find it.
posted by briank at 8:08 AM on May 7, 2002

From the perspective of the theorized Left academy (of which I confess myself an ineluctable member--with reservations)

wow, never would've guessed that.
posted by jbelshaw at 8:27 AM on May 7, 2002

Whoa there wingers!! Wasn't it your beloved Tricky Dick Nixon that invented this "middle of the road" American, or also the "silent majority." Are you now renouncing that philosophy since it isn't coming from your favored mouthpiece?

I agree it's a pretty crappy argument the article makes but my hypocrisy detector is going off when I read your responses.
posted by nofundy at 9:00 AM on May 7, 2002

Standing up for the average Joe is a Republican sentiment now? Holy shit.
posted by darukaru at 9:09 AM on May 7, 2002

The actual "middle mind" essay (link corrected by ahughey above) reminds me vividly of Dwight Macdonald's old diatribe in The New Yorker, later reprinted in the collection Against the American Grain, about Masscult vs. what he called "Midcult." (Macdonald was at some pains to argue that The New Yorker wasn't midcult, which of course it is.)

As for Curtis White, one wants to point out that by definition nothing that appears on a web page can be any higher than midcult, so he may want to locate a more exclusive venue for his rants -- one where he won't have to rub elbows with Bubbles Powerpuff so often.
posted by jfuller at 10:26 AM on May 7, 2002

I'll second the "I used to have these beliefs to justify my former drug use" comment. Twice. Oh, and when was it that "radicals" became "liberals" and "reactionaries" became "conservatives" and "agitators" became "activists"?

About the same time they decided it was easier to get what they wanted if they pretended to be "Middle Way" rather than "Lunatic Fringe."
posted by kablam at 10:48 AM on May 7, 2002

Oh, that link was to the wrong article. Still, I loved that line I quoted.
I count myself as one of those people nobody wants to hear from.
(and yes, the whole "Middle Mind" thing reminded me of the "Silent Majority" too...and Agnew's "nattering nabobs of negativity.")
posted by StOne at 11:09 AM on May 7, 2002