The Big White Lie

City Journal ^ | April 24, 2007 | Andrew Klavan

[zaxxon]

The thing I like best about being a conservative is that I don’t have to lie. I don’t have to pretend that men and women are the same. I don’t have to declare that failed or oppressive cultures are as good as mine. I don’t have to say that everyone’s special or that the rich cause poverty or that all religions are a path to God. I don’t have to claim that a bad writer like Alice Walker is a good one or that a good writer like Toni Morrison is a great one. I don’t have to pretend that Islam means peace.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Cynic, n: a blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be.

- Ambrose Bierce

[IslandJeff]

Wow. Great read. Thanks.

[Paladin2]

Everyone's NOT special?

Who'da thunk it.

[Aetius]

-—”This is no small thing. To rewrite the rules of courteous behavior is to wield enormous power”-—

Truer words were never spoken. The Left’s ability to set the rules for polite society, to say what can and cannot be said in public discourse and debate is a tremendous advantage for them. And everytime the Right acquiesces to this debasement of debate, they are putting another nail in their own coffin.

[fish hawk]

Great, just sent it to a whole lot of friends.

[Chena]

BUMP!

[SpinnerWebb]

bookmark for later reading

[randog]

Hoo-rah. Great article.

[ghost of nixon]

The Left’s ability to set the rules for polite society, to say what can and cannot be said in public discourse and debate is a tremendous advantage for them. And everytime the Right acquiesces to this debasement of debate, they are putting another nail in their own coffin.

which is why we need courageous commentators like Ann Coulter.

[elcid1970]

“courageous commentators like Ann Coulter”

That describes Lady Ann to a T, and explains precisely why bad people hate her so.

[neverdem]

bttt

[JasonC]

"No one wants to be condemned as a brute"

I do. Their spite is a badge of honor. And oh yeah, they don't have any manners themselves. There is something masochistic about a man who describes as especially polite the boorish brainless slobs who ban him from a poker game or won't play tennis with him because he is a conservative.

They are not polite, they have nothing whatsoever to offer, intellectually or morally. The need to live with them is purely practical - some of them have actual jobs at the same companies as us, or own things near us or that matter for what we do. Otherwise we could just treat them all as bums, which is what they are morally and intellectually.

[Tolik]

Andrew Klavan:

... This is leftism’s great strength: it’s all white lies. That’s its only advantage, as far as I can tell. None of its programs actually works, after all. From statism and income redistribution to liberalized criminal laws and multiculturalism, from its assault on religion to its redefinition of family, leftist policies have made the common life worse wherever they’re installed. But because it depends on—indeed is defined by—describing the human condition inaccurately, leftism is nothing if not polite. ...

... This is no small thing. To rewrite the rules of courteous behavior is to wield enormous power. I see it in Southern California, in the bleeding heart of leftism, where I live. I’ve been banned from my monthly poker game, lost tennis partners, lost friends—not because I’m belligerent but because I’ve wondered aloud if the people shouldn’t be allowed to make their own abortion laws, say, or if the world might not be a better place without the UN.

It’s a rotten feeling. I sometimes think that I’d rather be deemed evil than a boor. Wickedness has some flair to it, even a whiff of radicalism. ...

... This, I believe, is the reason conservative politicians so often lose their nerve, why they back down in debate even when they’re clearly right. No one wants to be condemned as a brute—especially not conservatives, who still retain some vague memory of how worthy it is to be a lady or gentleman.

And because we’ve allowed leftists to define the language of political good manners ... the sort of person willing to speak the truth isn’t always the sort of person you want to be seen with. ... If these people in their public personae seem harsh to more genteel conservatives, it may be because it requires that extra dollop of aggression to shatter the silence created by the Left’s increasingly elaborate sensitivities.

Still, mannerly as we would rather be, truth-telling continues to be both compelling and ultimately satisfying. There is, after all, something greater than courtesy. “Firmness in the right,” Lincoln called it, “as God gives us to see the right.” We find ourselves at a precarious moment in an endeavor of great importance: namely, the preservation of Western rationalism and liberty. It does mankind no good to allow so magnificent an enterprise to slip away merely for fear of saying the wrong thing.

Nailed It!

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[Valin]

When was the last time the Left was correct about any of the BIG things (War/Peace, Size of government, Taxes, Personal freedom/Personal responsibility...etc.)?

[litehaus]

Devil’s Dictionary...........Still have my copy after 40+ YEARS....

[ReleaseTheHounds]

When was the last time the Left was correct about any of the BIG things (War/Peace, Size of government, Taxes, Personal freedom/Personal responsibility...etc.)?

When was the LEFT ever correct about any of the LITTLE things? Gays in the military, patriotism, fairness, the First and Second Amendments, the coarsening of our culture. Our country took a very bad turn in the 1960's and 1970's when my generation adopted moral relativism on most issues and we've never recovered as a society. At least we've found outlets from the old dominant media that promoted all that cr*p. You would think that after all these years and all the PROOF of the failure of their policies and beliefs, they would be in retreat. But I guess this will be the continuing battle of our lifetime.

[Mr. Silverback]

Better take quidnunc off your list. He rode the lightning in Saturday Night Massacre II.

[wafflehouse]

Saturday Night Massacre II?? what happened?

[SE Mom]

Let me give this a well deserved BTTT!!