Sarah Palin offers the most resonant Gothic image of the health care reform debate. Behold the death panel:
It's barkingly insane, literally fantastic. And in the world of fantasy, what an evocation of terror! It has the full Gothic stretch of family horror, body horror, and even a political tyrant.
It's not the America we know and love, but it's very familiar nonetheless. How many books, stories, movies have featured exactly this moment?
If she replaced "government" and "bureaucrats" with "insurance companies" she might be on to something.
Posted by: saramin | August 12, 2009 at 08:33
My personal fantasy is that everyone on the extreme right who is making these insane comments is doing so in order to land a spot on some grotesque reality show. The idea that someone is actually either stupid enough or narrow-minded enough to believe this crap is scarier, in some ways, than the crap they're spewing.
Posted by: Andy Havens | August 12, 2009 at 22:46
Like many conspiracy theories, it's an exaggerated fear of something real.
Posted by: Jesse Walker | August 13, 2009 at 16:29
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Posted by: Michael | September 02, 2009 at 18:32