The Voices Tell Him To Be Angry: Get Thee Behind Me
(Photo: San Francisco Examiner, March 2010)
On his radio show (syndicated by Clear Channel Communications, which also syndicates Hannity, Lard Boy, and Little Mikey 'Savage' Weiner) today, Glenn Beck not only claimed that God has given him a plan, but that he is carrying out god’s will and anger.
Are you here to relax and be entertained, or ... will you pick up the mantle left to you by the Founders [as] a guardian of man’s freedom? Will you do it, because your children will ask you, "What did you do?" I believe your god will ask you, "What did you do?"
...god is giving a plan I think to me that is not really a plan... The problem is that I think the plan that the lord would have us follow is hard for people to understand. Because of my track record with you who have been here for a long time -- because of my track record with you, I beg of you to help me get this message out, and I beg of you to pray for clarity on my part.
Actual Quote (Cartoon: Auth / Philpadelphia Enquirer, 3/14/10)
This isn't the first time Beck has mixed religion and Rightist politics -- but this time, he crossed a line. He was no longer offering political commentary with what he claimed was spiritual underpinning... he was preaching. He was telling people what god wants them to do -- and of course god thinks exactly as Glenn Beck does because god is speaking to him.
Some blog commenters dismiss Beck for his histrionics and his crying, his Boy-Is-That-Out-There analysis of the relation of Religion and State. This time, they're saying he's gone over the edge; that with this Howard-Beal-like outburst, he's painted himself as a genuine, eccentric irrelevancy -- that (depending upon what he does next) this is the beginning of the end of his career.
I disagree. Beck hasn't reached the bottom; he may have just broken through a ceiling -- to a place where Fox 'News' and Little Rupert now support Beck's ridiculous vision of American history... because the 'christian' Right can be exploited, just as the mainstream Right has been.
Beck may be a huckster, not especially intelligent; but I think he senses that this is his breakout moment. It may be the way for him, in his chosen path as a propagandist, to become even more influential than the King, Limbaugh -- by claiming to be the voice of an audience no advertisers have really tried appealing to: The religious, ultra-conservative Right.
Murdoch's News Corp has catered to the Angry-White-Male, working-class conservative since the early 1990's; from a broadcast and advertising perspective, it was uncharted territory, and an undeveloped audience. Murdoch's made Billions exploiting it.
If Fox has been the functional equivalent of The Buffalo Bob Show for the Right -- one, long cartoon -- Limbaugh has staked his claim as the "intellectual" of that same Fox-News, Joe-Sixpack audience. But that audience is nearly all secular -- Rushbo can only claim to speak for social conservatives.
I feel Beck is after another audience altogether -- and it's very possible Murdoch will support the shift he presented. Little Rupert may believe his business model, originally used on the working-class Right, will work on an entirely new audience of religious conservatives... because Rupert may believe there's market share in it, and the advertising revenue which follows.
(Photo: CNN)
The plan that He would have me articulate, I think, to you is: Get behind me, and I don’t mean me, I mean him. Get behind me. Stand behind me; I truly believe I have done years now of reading the Founders, the diaries, their letters;, the Pilgrims, their diaries, their letters... and I will tell you that god was instrumental and they knew it.
Behold, I Stand At The Door And Knock --
Now Open Up, Or I'll Bust A Cap Somewhere
They knew that had very little to do with it. They just stood where they were supposed to stand, and they said the things that they were supposed to say as He directed ...but that’s what He is asking us to do is to stand peacefully, quietly with anger, quiet with anger, loudly with truth.
As usual, Beck was semi-coherent. He added that he was changing his delivery style -- that having already admitted he was an Entertainer, Beck now wants us to believe he's channeling the voice of god, which is telling him to tell people to surrender to god's will and whatever they do will be just right...
When we were -- and I’ve never told this story before -- when we were starting the TV show, there were things that I did that I wouldn’t do now because I had to be more of an entertainer to get people to go, 'What is this show at five o’clock?' I never said anything I didn’t believe, but I may have said things in an entertaining fashion.
Margaret Atwood's Vision Of The Future
There are people who want to force a Theocracy on the population of this country, as surely as there are Islamic radicals who want to see their concept of god controlling the world, delivered by the sword.
The Hutaree militia in Michigan, preparing for "war"; another group in the Midwest recently sent letters (based on a bizarre interpretation of the U.S. Constitution) effectively threatening every sitting state Governor. There are those who send their sons to join the military specifically to obtain combat training, to be used later in 'taking the country back' from godless hippies, immigrants, feminists and liberals. And all this is just the tip of the 'christian' Rightist iceberg.
The escalating language of conflict and hate that the Right has used to organize since the mid-1980's, when the 'Fairness Doctrine' was repealed and Right-wing radio was born, has now mutated into actions. Beck's often bizarre and nonsensical commentary with a definite religious basis has now become Prophecy.
Lies, Lederhosen, And Flirting With Sedition (Phaux)
On March 27th, Beck kicked off his ‘American Revival’ tour in Orlando, Florida. Entitled ‘The Future of History’, it is an eight-hour-long stage show that allows Beck to discuss "Faith, Hope and Charity". For the price of admission, Glenn promises that this event will give "information, inspiration and preparation to turn this country around".
BEck won't usher in the Republic of Gilead -- he's not a big enough false prophet for that, and the timing doesn't feel correct. But if the Rightist media has decided the 'christians' should have the opportunity to dominate social debate over the air, Beck's prancing and spewing may make it possible for someone else, one day, to submerge America in its own long night of repression and evil.
Not only do we have no idea what that means -- we believe such a thing could never happen, in America. Many Europeans, Germans in particular, understand what that means all too well.
UPDATE: From Today's (4/22/10) Beck Radio Dinner Theater Hour
"We are entering a - we are entering a dark, dark period of man. Um, I was, um, I was in the Vatican, and I was surprised that the individual I was speaking to knew who I was. And they said: 'Of course we know who you are. What you're doing is wildly important. We're entering a period of great darkness, and if good people don't stand up, we could enter a period unlike we have seen in a very long time.'
"It was odd to stand in the Vatican and hear those words. Of all places that would understand the Dark Ages. We are dealing with people who want to deconstruct the world. They say they are for progress, but their progress is to deconstruct. Their progress is to go backwards. Instead of inventing our way out of something. Instead of heralding achievement and merit, they destroy it. Instead of respecting life, we devalue it."
Becky doesn't say whether the "individual" was a Catholic priest, a Swiss Guardsman, or his Fox 'News' gofer. Or a voice in his head. But, whatever: What Becky does is not just important -- it's wildly important.
What a narcissistic dullard.
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