With Bob On Our Side
I'm not in the habit of reading Ann Althouse's blog, but apparently she set off one of those blogospheric mini-tempests by writing this:
To be a great artist is inherently right wing. A great artist like Dylan or Picasso may have some superficial, naive, lefty things to say, but underneath, where it counts, there is a strong individual, taking responsibility for his place in the world and focusing on that.
Now she's written a long post defending herself against her critics. Here's the only part you need to read:
My observation is that [Dylan] was, at heart, a great artist, and it was not possible to do what was needed to be a good lefty, which would require a strong focus on group goals and communal values. He certainly wasn't switching to right wing politics. He was getting out of politics.
I'm calling that right wing.
I now return to my usual habit of not reading Ann Althouse's blog.
For a whole website devoted to right-wing appreciations of Dylan, go here. For Dylan's most right-wing lyrics, go here. For Dylan's most anti-right-wing lyrics, go here. To see Dylan declaring "give me a thousand acres of tractable land & all the gang members that exist & you'll see the Authentic alternative lifestyle, the Agrarian one" and denouncing "war dominated by finance (lending money for interest being a nauseating & revolting thing)," go here.
