Well, P. J. O'Rourke, satirist and NPR panelist, has died. O'Rourke was always on the Libertarian, even Libertine, side of the right-wing cadre, and while he usually punched down, like all conservatives, he didn't do so all of the time, and could even engage in actual, pointed satire to criticize the powerful. That being said, he DID have a naïf view of liberalism, like this claptrap from 2007's Give War a Chance:
At the core of liberalism is the spoiled child — miserable, as all spoiled children are, unsatisfied, demanding, ill-disciplined, despotic and useless. Liberalism is a philosophy of sniveling brats.
Yeah, I'm a sniveling brat for wanting every member of my society, indeed everyone on the planet, to have a shot at being able to sustain himself or herself, to have basic needs met so loftier goals can be achieved- isn't that what every spoiled brat wants?
The earlier O'Rourke wasn't lazy like this, and actually could engage in self-deprecation, such as this dig at himself in a piece written for Car and Driver about driving a Ferrari from NYC to LA:
And I had some other problems, too. I have a daytime job where I'm editor of the National Lampoon and I had fallen grievously behind in potty jokes, racial slurs, and comments that demean women. Deadlines loomed, the art department was in a pet, and down at the printing plant they were snarling in their cages. I had no business taking off just then to go do something silly in a rolling red expense account.
Even later in life, he could produce a solid line, such as his reluctant endorsement of Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election:
"I am endorsing Hillary, and all her lies and all her empty promises. It's the second-worst thing that can happen to this country, but she's way behind in second place. She's wrong about absolutely everything, but she's wrong within normal parameters."
For the most part, though, late era O'Rourke's body of work was a typical farrago of right-wing talking points, lazy and repetitive. I would say that, as he got more conservative, he got less funny.
That being said, O'Rourke wrote one of my all-time favorite lines: It's better to spend money like there's no tomorrow than to spend tonight like there's no money.
It's been a while since I've used that in conversation, but it is a motto I've spouted on numerous occasions while younger and less well-remunerated. For that line alone, I tip my hat to the last funny conservative.
3 comments:
P.J. O'Rourke on South Africa:
The world is built on discrimination of the most horrible kind. The problem with South Africans is they admit it. They don’t say, like the French, “Algerians have a legal right to live in the sixteenth arrondissement, but they can’t afford to.” They don’t say, like the Israelis, “Arabs have a legal right to live in West Jerusalem, but they’re afraid to.” They don’t say, like the Americans, “Indians have a legal right to live in Ohio, but oops, we killed them all.” The South Africans just say, “Fuck you.” I believe it’s right there in their constitution: “Article IV: Fuck you. We’re bigots.” We hate them for this. And we’re going to hold indignant demonnstrations…until the South Africans learn to stand up and lie like white men.
That was one of the times he was funny. That, and maybe The monstrous, Mind-Roasting Summer of O.C. & Stiggs
OMG, there's someone else who remembers OC and Stiggs!
P.J. O'Rourke. Who was that? I remember him, barely, as a brilliant intellectual who sold out. He decided he was more intelligent. He embraced whatever politics would serve him.
He lived a double life. He was always dodging and not telling the truth. He walked a fine line. Now, he is just bones or ashes.
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