Objects of Cultural Disdain

John Podhoretz, the movie critic refers to "Object(s) of Cultural Piety" or OCP. Once something or someone becomes an OCP, it (or he/she) must be the subject of veneration. As a movie critic, he points out that once the commercially genius Steven Spielberg (Jaws, Raiders, Jurassic Park) directed Schindler's List, he went from venerated because he could make money to someone just plain venerated. This is when he became an OCP. No matter what sludge he has produced or directed in subsequent years (Lost World, the latest Indiana Jones movie), no one can criticize him. Podhoretz makes the same case for Pixar whose last two movies have been duds when compared with Toy Story or Nemo.

I was thinking about his great point when I saw this today...

http://hotair.com/archives/2009/06/09/letterman-top-ten-palin-has-a-slutty-flight-attendant-look/

David Letterman's "joke" about 14 year old Willow Palin is so beyond the pale that I couldn't understand how a mainstream TV personality could possible get away with it.... And then I understood. Sarah Palin is an OCD - an Object of Cultural Disdain. All the right people hate her and so they can laugh at the thought of her little girl having sex with Alex Rodriguez in the dugout. And they all think that the people who watch his show would laugh too and it never crossed their small minds that people just might be offended.

Sarah Palin is a big girl and can take it even though the mischaracterizations of her are untrue, unfair and insulting. But you know how far down the "cool" list she is when someone like Letterman feels he can say such crude things about her child and not just get a way with it, but be slapped on the back as a great comedian.

Of course it also made me wonder how fast he would have been fined, fired and roasted over open coals if he had dared say something like that about Malia Obama (she's 11). As well he should be. How much hate does it take for a Letterman (or an audience member or viewer who laughed) to not see that? The problem with the veneration of the Obamas (OCP's if there ever were any) is that the worshipers of gods always need devils to hate. And sometimes those devils turn out to be innocent children.