The Curious Connexion Between Tommy and Glenn Beck

Leader of the Teabag Movement.  He has eclipsed damned old Limbaugh and even Hannity as the moon baying leader of the Right.

Interestingly, he is an addict, just like damned old Limbaugh, but he flaunts it.  At least his addiction was to a legal substance, unlike damned old Limbaugh.

But, after his rhetoric, there are several threads that connect him with Peter Townshend’s seminal work (and I think the best of Mr. Townshend’ life, the very second rock opera, Tommy.  (The very first one was also by Townshend, A Quick one While He’s Away)

To put us in the mood, let us start listening to Tommy.  Thanks to the good folks that post at U-Tube for things like this.  There is not a link to the entire opera in one take, but you can this link to find other bits of it.

Beck seems to be deaf, dumb (not in the not being able to speak sense), and blind.  He spouts off extreme right nonsense as if he believes it, and I think that he does.  I do not think that he is truly evil, like Limbaugh almost certainly is, nor just a hack like Hannity almost certainly is.  I really think that Beck has deceived himself to the point of believing the filth that he spouts.

After numerous failures, he was finally hired in Florida in 2000 (does that year sound interesting), and created The Glenn Beck Program.  It almost instantly took that time slot into first place in the market.  Leave it to Florida to ruin things for everyone.

He was soon picked up by the Premiere Radio Network, the same one that syndicates Limbaugh, Hannity, and other nefarious folks.  That was in 2002, and then the worst happened.

Here is where the similarities get interesting.  Beck, like Tommy, was essentially dumb for decades until, by some bizarre decision by CNN put him on the TeeVee in 2006.  Before then he was essentially a tiny voice on the radio in local and some syndicated markets, barely getting an audience.  Thus, he was dumb.  But after Ted Turner sold CNN to Time Warner, bizarre things started to happen.

CNN hired him for the flagging Headline News channel of their network, and he caught on with a fringe element.  That was early in 2006, then he got a radio talk show gig, still being dumb, and since then he has metastasized into an actual cultural icon.  Since the Fox “News” Channel brought him over on 20000119, he has had runaway ratings.

Along with his radio show, he is (and this is controversial) either second or third to damned old Limbaugh’s audience, with the screamer Hannity in the running.  I recommend that all progressives listen to him, and then write his sponsors to tell them that there is no way that you will purchase their products as long as they advertise with him.

He is the nuttiest of the nuts, and stupid as well.  Perhaps that has to do with his self confessed brain damage from too much drink (that he almost daily brings up to the audience), but I think it is because he is just fundamentally morally and intellectually derelict.  He has not any shame at all, and lies and confesses hatred on a daily basis.

For example, every time that he mentions President Woodrow Wilson, he says under his breath, but into the microphone, “I HATE that guy.”  Then at the end of his TeeVee show he quotes Gandhi.  Go figure.

Now here is the similarity to Tommy Walker.  Tommy came to prominence after being cured, just as Beck purports to have done.  Tommy gathered a huge following by telling them what they wanted to hear, and the hanger-on around him made money, as did Tommy.

So far, so similar.  But the followers of Tommy learnt that Tommy really did not know what he was talking about, but rather he was just a shill, put up by others, to make money for them.  Beck will find the same fate some time.  He seems to believe what he professes, but he has no logic about it.  He is deaf to reality, dumb intellectually, and blind to what really needs to be done to further our Nation.

Glenn Beck is a cancer on our society.  His jingoistic manner is destructive, and his mannerisms are offensive.  He thinks as deeply as the dog that visits my front yard to mark my mail box on a daily basis, and otherwise is not as charming.

I will not say what he does.  I do not hate Glenn Beck, but I despise his techniques.  He is just not correct in his thinking, is a jingoist, a conspiracy theory promoter, and, well, just a hater.

On the good hand, his gravitational well of extreme right wing thought is attracting the entire Republican (sorry, I will not sink the the depths of Limbaugh and Malkin by calling it the “Rebublic” Party) and that will be their undoing.  I guess that he thus serves a public service in that regard.

I am always interested in your thought, dear readers.  Please comment freely.

Warmest regards,

Doc

Crossposted at Dailykos.com