I may have mentioned before that Crichton makes Rove look like an amateur. State of Fear is up there with 24 as exciting, compelling, ideology. So, I started to wonder, how did Crichton do it? What made the book so entertaining--beyond the breathless, action-filled, story line? I think the answer is that its structure repeats a common narrative--fascist anti-semitism.
Here's how: fascism (qua Nazism) relied on a weird equation, that of banking and communists. What enabled this equation? The Jews. Jews were central to the alliance of bankers and communists, an alliance the notion of which is bizarre, to say the least, given that it combines opposites, enemies. Yet, by positing "Jews" as the link, fascism equated the seemingly incommensurable.
Crichton equates lawyers (and Hollywood actors) with thuggist eco-terrorists. His smooth lawyers for environmental interest groups, lawyers who raise money and make deals, are the cover for global eco-terrorists. The lawful and the lawless. The official form of law (and power) and its obscene underbelly. All that is missing is the prefix for lawyers and the discussion of the old Hollywood studio system. But, Crichton doesn't need that anymore. Perhaps the current formation doesn't need such explicit equations. Perhaps they've vanished as mediators.
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