Posted on 10/11/2008 3:14:03 PM PDT by Urbane_Guerilla
In either the last week of August or the first week of September, 1970, just before I arrived at college, I had the extraordinary experience of going to Sharon, Connecticut, to the home of William Buckley. With several hundred other young conservatives (I was 17), I gathered for a couple days to validate my totally-against-the-crowd perception of life, a perception inspired in large part by William Buckley, one of the giants of the 20th century.
Buckley's inspiration was not a new or different perception of life. To the contrary, his perception was an explication of life, a logical and spiritual appreciation of the mystery of life. A perception on how we all should treat each other, for our mutual benefit.
When I read Buckley and was inspired by him, inspired to open my mind, he was regarded as a freak, a demented lunatic. I remember that all too well. But he rescued the idea of America, and of Western Civilization, almost by himself.
A number of years later, I forget how many or where, his son wrote a public statement. His son, Christopher, wrote he was in the Buckley mansion when that gathering took place. Christopher said he was smoking dope (I think he said hash) and he and his buddy were laughing at us from the window in the mansion.
I was a 17 year old boy, from a single mother family, five kids, on welfare in those days (does anyone remember?) when welfare meant government peanut butter, butter, lard, flour and surprise visits to see if you had a telephone.
I remember those details as distinctly as if they happened yesterday. And I remember William Buckley just as distinctly, because the man was a true human being, a blessed soul, a man who made sense. He was a free man, not a slave to cant, to bombast, to peer pressure, to junk thinking, to bigotry or to government.
A couple years later I met him personally before a Firing Line episode. What a gracious, lovely man. I was nothing, and he treated me with an understanding and affection I will never forget. It was not special or unique. It was simply William Buckley, acting on principle, that every human being counted - - the essence of conservatism.
When I read Christopher's account of laughing at me and my comrades, while Christopher was stoned, and if I remember correctly it was not a statement of regret, I literally could not believe it was true. I was inexperienced enough to believe that fathers have something like definitive influence over sons.
Only years let me realize how little influence fathers can have.
I do not mean to be dramatic. But I remember days when the kids in my family looked for pop bottles to turn in the deposit (it was 2 cents at the time) to get money for food. It was not a big deal. We never felt like victims. It was just what needed to be done. Poverty is a state of mind.
When I went to college I literally had no conception how wealthy people were, how they took so much for granted. And when I went to college, before I met wealthy people, I was inspired by William Buckley, because what he said was so true and so human.
The bane of great wealth is spiritual poverty.
Christopher Buckley is pretty impressed with himself. A bane.
I respectfully disagree. WFB was a rara avis. It was not an English accent he had. It was his accent. He was a performer, no doubt. His accent was part of his performance. Buckley was the Ann Coulter of his time mutatis mutandis (although far more consequential).Naaah... Coulter and WFB as close to polar opposites as you can get. Anne is an entertainer, she says a lot of stuff but she really doesn't believe much of it(look into her personal life if you don't believe me). WFB was all about being a public intellectual and the "alpha male" of his particular jet set. That's why he did all the cruise stuff. That's also why he quietly fired anybody at the NR that might outshine him too.
Wrong.
Buckley didn't fancy himself an aristocrat, and there wouldn't be any FRee Republic -- or any other modern conservative institutions -- if it hadn't been for him.
His accent resulted from the fact that he learned English in France, at the age of seven. He was born in Mexico. His first language was Spanish, and his second was French.
Wrong.Trust me. WFB was perfectly able to speak unaccented American English. He was more interested in sounding upper class and smart.Buckley didn't fancy himself an aristocrat, and there wouldn't be any FRee Republic -- or any other modern conservative institutions -- if it hadn't been for him.
His accent resulted from the fact that he learned English in France, at the age of seven. He was born in Mexico. His first language was Spanish, and his second was French.
Not in the least.
Not in the least.Ooooh... consider me zinged.
William Buckley was just 2 years younger than his brother James (N.Y. Senator, 1971-77), who spoke with no noticeable accent. Both were born in New York City.
If it helps any, I agree with you. :) Could never stand the phony way he spoke.
Buckley fils is typical third-generation trust fund trash. One of his stated reasons for supporting 0bama is that he is a Harvard Man, and another is his horror at Palin's gaucherie. So his support is simply a matter of class judgment. His smarm will earn him plaudits among the social circle in which he considers himself a member. But his position of privilege is built on his grandfather's oil money, and oil is dirty.
I hope you're correct. But, my money's on the establishment's continuing its leftward slither. Never before have I seen such a gulf between it and its rand-and-file.
So what?
Mr. Buckley at a press conference in 1965. His greatest achievement was making conservatism - not just electoral Republicanism, but conservatism as a system of ideas - respectable in liberal post-World War II America. He mobilized the young enthusiasts who helped nominate Barry Goldwater in 1964, and saw his dreams fulfilled when Reagan and the Bushes captured the Oval Office.
If it helps any, I agree with you. :) Could never stand the phony way he spoke.thanks :)
What a sad and disturbing article. Obviously the “predeceased” part is some legal lingo, but the sentiment stinks.
And as for Christopher, my goodness, and I suppose he thinks he’s got couth!
Since his father died Christopher is probably not getting invited to the fancy parties by people trying to get close to his dad. By supporting Obama he will now become the darling of the liberal set and get back on the A-list.
Christopher Buckley is just another hot-tub conservative, like David Brock. And the “Sorry, Dad” column was nauseating - - that simple narcissist Christopher Buckley couldn’t care less what his father would have thought of his betrayal.
Ah, so you are familiar with the huge block of “USDA Cheese.” A friend of mine who was raised in the Red Hook projects (but now a senior manager at a market research firm) told me how she refused to eat cheese for years.
Buckley spoke with “Locust Valley Lockjaw” which was the common accent of the Anglo and Dutch elite in the northeast (think FDR, Thurston Howell). You really don’t hear it much anymore.
When I met WFB as an 18 year old, he was kind, gracious, and a bit intoxicated. My kind of guy.
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