April 3, 2013

At times it occurs to me that my comments are unduly harsh and negative. I tell myself that the targets deserve it, but still . . . . Recently I saw a quote from H.L. Menken, and that led me to reread the essay from which it was taken. Next to it my ramblings are the soul of restraint. Here is Menken on the state of the nation circa 1922:

It is . . . one of my firmest and most sacred beliefs, reached after an inquiry extending over a score of years and supported by incessant prayer and meditation, that the government of the United States, in both its legislative arm and its executive arm, is ignorant, incompetent, corrupt, and disgusting . . . . It is a belief no less piously cherished that the administration of justice in the Republic is stupid, dishonest, and against all reason and equity . . . .

So much for then domestic scene; what about foreign affairs?

It is another that the foreign policy of the United States — its habitual manner of dealing with other nations, whether friend or foe — is hypocritical, disingenuous, knavish, and dishonorable . . . .

The government is awful, but what about the people it so miserably serves?

[I]t is my fourth (and, to avoid too depressing a bill, final) conviction that the American people, taking one with another, constitute the most timorous, sniveling, poltroonish, ignominious mob of serfs and goose-steppers ever gathered under one flag in Christendom since the end of the Middle Ages . . . .[38]

And so on, for another thirty pages. Reassured that I have been, at least comparatively, moderate, measured, tolerant and respectful, I can go on.

A model for insightful, critical analysis combined with style, elegance and restraint is provided by the columns of Anthony Lewis, who passed away last week. I haven’t come across a collection of his columns and, if none has been produced, some publisher should fill the gap.

Lewis retired from The New York Times at the end of 2001, three months shy of his 75th birthday He had seen enough of the effects of 9-11 on the national psyche to recognize its dangers, many of which are still with us. Here are excerpts from his last Times column , published December 15, 2001:

No one can miss the reality of that challenge after Sept. 11. Islamic fundamentalism, rejecting the rational processes of modernity, menaces the peace and security of many societies.

But the phenomenon of religious fundamentalism is not to be found in Islam alone. Fundamentalist Christians in America, believing that the Bible's story of creation is the literal truth, question not only Darwin but the scientific method that has made contemporary civilization possible.

***

Faith in reason was the foundation stone of the United States. The men who met in Philadelphia in 1787 . . . wagered that a national government based on written rules could hold the country together.

***

Of course we have not always been faithful to the vision of the Framers. In time of war and stress, we have yielded again and again to fear. . . .

Today again fear threatens reason. Aliens are imprisoned for months on the flimsiest of grounds. The attorney general of the United States moves to punish people on the basis of secret evidence, the Kafkaesque hallmark of tyranny. . . .

***

The hard question is whether our commitment to law will survive the new sense of vulnerability that is with us all after Sept. 11. It is easy to tolerate dissent when we feel safe.

In the end I believe that faith in reason will prevail. But it will not happen automatically. Freedom under law is hard work. If rulers cannot be trusted with arbitrary power, it is up to citizens to raise their voices at injustice. The most important office in a democracy, Justice Louis Brandeis said, is the office of citizen.

I wish that I could be that optimistic. Perhaps my failing is having less trust and faith in the ability of the American people to live up to the nation’s principles and the better aspects of its history. In any case, the better outcome requires leadership, which at present is in short supply.

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38.Menken, "On Being an American," in The American Scene , pp. 6-7 (essay reprinted from Prejudices: Third Series , 1922).