Monday, November 27, 2006

Neoconservatism Explained: An Interview with Dr Clam

Dr Clam, a Neoconservative has been defined as 'a liberal who has been mugged by reality'. Do you think this is a reasonable definition?

I would put it slightly differently. I think every Neoconservative has reached a point where they could take one of two paths. They could forget everything that they had experienced and remain in the world they thought they lived in, or they could chose to see things as they really are, knowing that there was no going back.

So having taken the second option, Neoconservatives see the world differently from the rest of us?


Yes. They're aware that the world we think we inhabit is a fraud, a construct, and with this knowledge they gain special powers to remake what we call reality. The laws of the world we think we know no longer apply to Neos.

So how is the world the Neoconservatives perceive different?


Well, we think we are free, but Neos know that we are slaves of the system. The system is parastic on us and keeps us totally inert, unable to act or interact with the world as it really is. Neos want to destroy this system.

Uh huh. It has been said that Neoconservatives are deluded, that they can't face the complexities of the real world, and so have projected a fantasy world where everything is black and white and they can fight an abstraction of evil. Do you think that Neoconservatives have a case to answer?

Well, the Neo worldview does have elements of apparent wish-fulfillment, but at the same time it is a harsh and uncomfortable existence. People don't realise that even with superpowers, its pretty hard fighting multiple copies of Hugo Weaving.

I guess it would be. So, granting for the moment that all this true, what is the ultimate goal of Neoconservatives?

Well, basically, Neos want to destroy the system and give us freedom.

Some people would say that was an impractical dream. Some people would say that the majority of people, even if you showed them the world as Neoconservatives perceive it, they would want to stay in the world they know.

That's understandable, I guess. Not everyone is destined to be a Neo. But we will free them whether they want to be free or not.

Thank you, Dr Clam.

No worries.

5 comments:

Dr Clam said...

Damn. I thought this was funny. Didn't anybody else think this was funny? I must have lost it :(

Marco Parigi said...

A scary D4 kind of post. Puts the evil back into evildrclam :)

Dave said...

I thought it was funny, but I've only just read it (been away up north).

Not as funny as the assertion about the reasons for failure of the Iraq campaign a couple of posts later, mind you.

Dr Clam said...

Thanks guys!

And, er, you did get the most dark and cynical result possible on that 'what sense of humour do you have' quiz, didn't you, Dave?

Dave said...

Hardly, though I certainly leaned that way :)