Return of the Paranoid Style

In 1964, in reaction to the presidential nomination of Barry Goldwater, historian Richard Hofstadter penned a piece for Harper's magazine identifying the "Paranoid Style in American Politics."  To Hofstadter, Goldwater was an enemy to the New Deal political order that Hofstadter valued, and said that he was "a vital blow at the American political order."  Hofstadter identified Goldwater as a bigger threat than Joseph McCarthy; McCarthy had been one man and one issue, but Goldwater and the conservative movement was a "permanent force."  For Hofstadter, Goldwater, like McCarthy, held to a government conspiracy controlled by powerful elites (Goldwater's "paranoia") and was apt to "heated exaggeration," "suspiciousness," and conspiratorial fantasy -- the three habits of the paranoid style.

In the April edition of The Atlantic, Ross Douthat explores "The Return of the Paranoid Style" and sets his sights on "the paranoid style of American cinema."  He argues that the Iraq War and President Bush have sent the movie industry back to the 1970s and explores the culture that has spawned "our neo-'70s moment," which aligns with Hofstadter's habits of paranoia.  Be sure to give it a read.