Conservative Historian Blues
Shorter VDH: People are stupid ... except for me.
Seriously ... one cashier screws up Victor David Hanson's change and suddenly there's a newfound education crisis? File this report under "Sunny Conservatism." I'm also mildly curious if there's a genetic predisposition among conservatives that leads them to hold themselves in such higher, loftier self-image than everyone else around them.
CONTINUED: Interesting reading the exchanges between Andrew Sullivan and Hanson today. Something about them seemed vaguely familiar before Sully summed it up best for me ...
Hanson's peroration is a recitation of a creed. This creed endures like all creeds, irrespective of reality. The last five years have told us a lot, and there's plenty to disagree on and think about. If it has entrenched your view that the Arab world is just itching for normal democratic development, that it's another post-war Germany or Japan on the verge of a miracle, then fair enough. But surely it behooves you to say why any sane person would draw such a conclusion. Hanson doesn't. He simply darkly accuses me thus:I am not sure that Sullivan can read the English language.I used to think Sullivan was perhaps unstable, but not necessarily dense. But I fear that he is increasingly both - or more still.
Inability to defend one's worldview in light of the recent turn of history ... resorting to personal insults when an answer doesn't come stammering out. Yeah, seen it at the local level with varying degrees of immaturity and smugness. It'll be interesting to see how so-called conservatives adapt to life after the Bush years.
Arrogance is exclusive to conservatives?
Hanson is a qualified and interesting classical historian, however there comes a time when any academic can overextend himself as a guru of contemporary political affairs.
I'll leave it to people who pay closer attention to sociology than I care to. But it certainly seems that with conservatism being between the rock and hard place of Iraq, Katrina, crumbling infrastructure, budget deficits and an uncertain agenda for taxes, trade & the economy ... it certainly seems like the only option left at times has been to belittle someone. That there are national and local variations of that hardly rank as a shock to me.
That may not actually be exclusive to conservatives. But given the lay of the land, what else do they have to advance their agenda? Certainly not a productive track record.
I've had my own jousts with those to my left who operate in a similar manner. But I don't see the comparison as an outgrowth of ideological frustration - more as an outgrowth of cynicism, frustration and rebelliousness. Both this and the GOP examples are immature. But only one seems more truly connected to the cognitive dissonance between one's conservative ideologicaly and the demonstrably flawed results of same.
In other words, it's hell to defend failure.
Wrong worldview? You guys wrote that book with your defense of the Soviet Union and glorifying of guys like Castro and Guevara.
I'm curious where you read I accused anyone of a "wrong" worldview, G-ster. Naturally, I'm also curious where you've ever seen me defending the Soviet Union or glorifying Castro or Guevera.
Quote me once on any of those, please. Otherwise, I'm just left to assume that you never have anything of substance to contribute to a discussion.
"Inability to defend one's worldview in light of the recent turn of history"
So, in other words ... you couldn't find it, so you invented words of your own. Nice.