Probe: Naomi Wolf as CIA Cultural Cold War Asset
Posted: Mon Jun 17, 2013 9:07 pm
Fellow Vermonter Dave Littendorf's recent rant about Naomi Wolf being an NSA agent got me thinking, thinking about some thinkings I've thunk before.
See, back when Naomi Klein was getting mixed up with Naomi Wolf, I was lamenting the fact that Klein's book on "Disaster Capitalism," while flawed, strident and one-sided, was still an extremely important argument ... and one that looked even better compared with the tome that Naomi Wolf was touring in support of, The End of America. In fact, having been subjected to Wolf's documentary effort of the same name, I was struck by the fact she was doing a very partisan paint-by-numbers pastiche of pretty much everyone else who was already on the scene, saying the same shit, only better. (And for a long time prior to 2007. Naomi Klein among them.)
Anyways, I casually brought this up to an academic friend, and to my surprise, she jumped onboard and provided me with another datapoint: her own conspiracy theory that Naomi Wolf was a CIA "cultural asset" who was put into play to counteract Camille Paglia. She discussed this at some length, brought up a lot of fishy stuff I've long since forgotten, and impressed me with how fleshed out and considered her presentation was.
So, being reminded of both this week, I perused her biography and found my first data point: Naomi Wolf published "acclaimed" and heavily promoted books in two fields: 1) Feminism, where her 1991 book "The Beauty Myth" presented a toned-down and photogenic counterpoint to Camille Paglia's ambitious and political 1991 book, "Sexual Personnae" and 2) Left Politics, where he 2007 book "The End of America" provided a talking-points manifesto complete with astro-turf marketing "movement" the same year as Naomi Klein's ambitious and original 2007 book, "The Shock Doctrine."
The fact Naomi Klein was a Rhodes Scholar does not exactly hurt my case.
http://www.nndb.com/people/454/000117103/
Anyways, a parting study in paranoid patterns of thought. I banish with laughter and mean the woman no harm, her agitation for the human vagina is a welcome signal and probably the best use of the 2012 zeitgeist.
See, back when Naomi Klein was getting mixed up with Naomi Wolf, I was lamenting the fact that Klein's book on "Disaster Capitalism," while flawed, strident and one-sided, was still an extremely important argument ... and one that looked even better compared with the tome that Naomi Wolf was touring in support of, The End of America. In fact, having been subjected to Wolf's documentary effort of the same name, I was struck by the fact she was doing a very partisan paint-by-numbers pastiche of pretty much everyone else who was already on the scene, saying the same shit, only better. (And for a long time prior to 2007. Naomi Klein among them.)
Anyways, I casually brought this up to an academic friend, and to my surprise, she jumped onboard and provided me with another datapoint: her own conspiracy theory that Naomi Wolf was a CIA "cultural asset" who was put into play to counteract Camille Paglia. She discussed this at some length, brought up a lot of fishy stuff I've long since forgotten, and impressed me with how fleshed out and considered her presentation was.
So, being reminded of both this week, I perused her biography and found my first data point: Naomi Wolf published "acclaimed" and heavily promoted books in two fields: 1) Feminism, where her 1991 book "The Beauty Myth" presented a toned-down and photogenic counterpoint to Camille Paglia's ambitious and political 1991 book, "Sexual Personnae" and 2) Left Politics, where he 2007 book "The End of America" provided a talking-points manifesto complete with astro-turf marketing "movement" the same year as Naomi Klein's ambitious and original 2007 book, "The Shock Doctrine."
The fact Naomi Klein was a Rhodes Scholar does not exactly hurt my case.
http://www.nndb.com/people/454/000117103/
Anyways, a parting study in paranoid patterns of thought. I banish with laughter and mean the woman no harm, her agitation for the human vagina is a welcome signal and probably the best use of the 2012 zeitgeist.