Re: Rush Limbaugh’s “Magical Times”
September 25, 2014
But Tom, Limbaugh was right for once. The first Persian Gulf War were “magical times.” Through the use of deception, a good magician creates false images of reality and suspends our sense of disbelief. He distracts the attention of his audience with smoke, mirrors, colorful silk cloths, hastily-shuffled playing cards, and rapid hand movements. He is thus able to bring into existence things that did not exist before (e.g., weapons of mass distraction destruction), make other things disappear (e.g., people and cities), and transform our discomfort of seeing a woman sawed in half into the imagined fear of a mushroom cloud over an American city. The movie, Wag the Dog, must be one of Limbaugh’s favorites!
Butler Shaffer was Professor Emeritus at Southwestern University School of Law. He is the author of In Restraint of Trade: The Business Campaign Against Competition, 1918–1938, Calculated Chaos: Institutional Threats to Peace and Human Survival, and Boundaries of Order. His latest book is The Wizards of Ozymandias.

