Posted on 08/25/2002 7:01:02 PM PDT by Mr. Mulliner
August 24, 2002
When Did It Happen?
A remarkable transformation has occurred in American thought. It's one of those transformations that's imperceptible while it's happening, but seems breathtaking when looked upon in retrospect. I believe historians will almost certainly remark upon the 1990s as the linchpin decade that marked a radical shift in the American mindset.
Consider a 1950 book called Liberal Imagination: Essays on Literature and Society, by Lionel Trilling. In it, Trilling wrote:
In the United States at this time liberalism is not only the dominant but even the sole intellectual tradition. For it is the plain fact that nowadays there are no conservative or reactionary ideas in general circulation. This does not mean, of course, that there is no impulse to conservatism...but [they] do not, with some isolated and some ecclesiastical exceptions, express themselves in ideas but only in action or in irritable mental gestures which seek to resemble ideas.
Trilling was concerned that, with such a dearth of intellectual challenge, liberalism would become soft, complacent, flabby. He went on to talk about John Stuart Mill, who encouraged liberals to get to know the thinking of Coleridge:
Mill, at odds with Coleridge all down the intellectual and political line, nevertheless urged all liberals to become acquainted with this powerful conservative mind. He said that the prayer of every true partisan of liberalism should be, "Lord, enlighten thou our enemies...; sharpen their wits, give acuteness to their perceptions and consecutiveness and clearness to their reasoning powers. We are in danger from their folly, not from their wisdom: their weakness is what fills us with apprehension, not their strength."
An important thing to keep in mind is that Trilling wasn't being sarcastic. This wasn't some barb he was throwing at his conservative opponents. He meant it. He didn't have any conservative opponents. He worried that, if liberalism is about open-minded truth-seeking, then a dearth of rigorous and logical dissent would lead to the decay of liberalism itself.
In The Age of Reagan, 1964-1980: The Fall of the Old Liberal Order, historian Steven F. Hayward discusses this same intellectual trend, which carried on through the 1960s and 1970s. Conservatism was looked down upon with condescension, when it wasn't feared or demonized. Conservatives themselves tended to internalize this assumption of intellectual inferiority. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a famous liberal intellectual who worked in the Nixon White House, noted how the conservatives he worked with tended to be defensively thick about intellectual ideas. He characterized them as people who withdrew into a turtle-like shell, saying "Middle America is with us" when confronted with arguments they didn't like.
As anyone who remembers that era knows, it was simply considered axiomatic: conservatives were nonintellectual, not very well-educated, not very bright. Or they were dangerous. Not much else.
Yet, a bit over 50 years after Lionel Trilling wrote the words I quote above, one Charles Krauthammer, in the summer of 2002, wrote the following:
To understand the workings of American politics, you have to understand this fundamental law: Conservatives think liberals are stupid. Liberals think conservatives are evil.
The entire column is worth reading. But an important thing to keep in mind is that Krauthammer isn't being sarcastic. This isn't some barb he's throwing at his liberal opponents. He means it.
He's not the first to say it. In March of this year, David Galernter said, "I hate to put it in such bald terms. But right-wingers are just smarter than left-wingers. A lot of people didn't feel that they could say it. But since September, it has become slightly easier to admit that you have your doubts about some aspects of the liberal agenda."
Once again, an important thing to keep in mind is that Gelernter isn't being sarcastic. This isn't some barb he's throwing at his liberal opponents. He means it.
You can argue as to whether or not Galernter is right, but you can't argue with Krauthammer about what conservatives have come to believe. Nor is this a childish, "We're not stupid! You're stupid!" argument. Conservatives just plain believe this. Most would, I hazard to guess, consider it axiomatic. As one guy I know put it: Anyone who thinks tax cuts in the 1980s caused deficits, when you can go right to the U.S. Treasury's web site and see that it ain't so, is just plain dumber than dirt. How can you treat someone like that seriously?
It's also hard not to notice, when surveying the American political landscape at the moment, that there are no great Liberal intellectuals anymore. There are a few bright-minded self-described liberals; Robert Reich comes to mind, as does Susan Estrich. Camille Paglia has a truly original and interesting mind. But aside from a few rare exceptions, most "liberal" argumentation seems to come from one of four places:
1) People who disagree with me are racist.
2) People who disagree with me are warmongers who glory in violence.
3) People who disagree with me want the poor to starve and suffer.
4) People who disagree with me are blinded by corporate brainwashing.
I would have added "5) People who disagree with me want to oppress women," but that one seemed to fade away after Clinton's impeachment. (By the way, am I the first one to notice that?) In any case, the shorthand terms for all of the above are "right-winger" or "the radical right."
At times it's sad to watch. The mighty New York Times is now a laughingstock. Even people who share the New York Times worldview roll their eyes at it. Left-wing journals of opionion like The Nation and The New Republic tend to be humorless and, while they may be angry or resentful, are usually just plain boring.
Even in the blogosphere, it seems almost painfully obvious: there are few left-leaning blogs, and the ones that exist rarely rise above "Bush is a non-elected President!" and "Enron and Harken and Halliburton, Oh My!" The environment's still going to hell and corporations are still destroying us, according to the Left. But in terms of intellectual thought, serious and robust argumentation? Concrete proposals for change and innovation? The silence is deafening. There seems to be little but ad hominem attacks, seething resentment, and, well, let's face it: irritable mental gestures which seek to resemble ideas.
Somewhere, somewhen, there was a sea change in the American mind. The Left is now generally viewed as being dominated by the desire for coercion and control, while the Right has grabbed "individualism and free choice" as its war cries. And, increasingly, people associate "liberal" with being just plain dumb. Fair or not, that is the ascendant view of the moment.
It's remarkable. Where did it start? I can't quite say. Where does it all lead? The mind boggles. Without question, there is arrogance in this view. Is it entirely without merit? I don't know. But I do know this:
If conservatives want to stay on the intellectual high ground, they might want to start praying: "Lord, enlighten thou our enemies. Sharpen their wits, give acuteness to their perceptions, logic and clarity to their reasoning. We are in danger from their folly, not from their wisdom."
Progressivism Is The Real ProblemI believe what happened is that sometime in the 1960s, liberalism coalesced with a different force -- progressivism, e.g., the type of folks that not only read Mother Jones or the Utne Reader, but believe everything in those fine journals. Hey, I used to read those magazines, just like I used to read TNR (until the publisher accused me of not being a serious person for not voting for Al Gore), and still read the Guardian and the Washington Post. As Liberalism became confused with Progressivism, Liberals could never accept that they had won, by and large. Because they had become Progressives in addition to being Liberals, they began to feel as though they had to keep fighting the dominant paradigm, even if the "the man" or "the suits" or "the establishment" more or less agreed with them.
I'm not exactly sure why postmodernism and deconstructionism became the preferred routes of lunacy the new look Liberals took, but it has led them down some strange paths. Many Liberals these days keep longing for some version of utopia and predicate all their arguments and actions on achieving it, generally through coercive action. Political Correctness is but the most obvious example of the ends justifying the means approach that self-proclaimed Liberals today use to achieve their goals of a perfect society. They are willing to sacrifice what they used to believe was important, e.g., free speech, to achieve other goals that are clearly utopian in nature. This is why I have taken to calling them Illiberals rather than Liberals, and more generally Illiberal Utopian Statists, since they generally seek to use political power to force someone to bend to their will, rather than trying to win the battle of hearts and minds in the free marketplace of ideas. Just pick up almost any blog any day of the week and you'll find a fine example of some Illiberal Utopian Statist trying to impose his or her will through force on someone with whom he or she disagrees, rather to trying to convince anyone of the virtue of his argument.
I pray "Lord, DESTROY my enemies". With extreme prejudice.
Susan Estrich???? That's being a bit generous with the short list. Who's the next entry after Susan--Eleanor Clift?
Mr. M....I think the liberals that have had almost total control of our universities will take exception.
That sir, is the sum total of our current politcal process.
Nice post.
The website for this book can be found here:
This book was published 4 years ago. This explanation is on their web site:
Just after the millennium, America will enter a new era that will culminate with a crisis comparable to the American Revolution, the Civil War, the Great Depression, and World War II. The survival of the nation will almost certainly be at stake.
Part of their theory is that as generations come into adulthood, they are shaped by the events in which they live. According to their predictions, we are entering a time in which civic duty, honor, self-sacrifice, and patriotism will be valued. Those who cling to the ideas of the past 30 years will be marginalized.
I highly recommend this book. It is fascinating.
They stopped that and don't do it any more.............now they just teach Islam.
We are way beyond intellectual discussion and now into a pit of Satanic madness where evil is deceiving the majority that IT is good!
By the way, I just ordered Slander for $12 from ABE Books and am awaiting its arrival. I actually am very backlogged on books to read as I didn't get a chance to read many while in Singapore.
They may indeed...but that doesn't change the fact that alot of people think they're just plain dumb.
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