W&I©

I agree to this Constitution with all its faults, if they are such: because I think a General Government necessary for us, and there is no Form of Government but what may be a Blessing to the People if well-administred; and I believe farther that this is likely to be well administred for a Course of Years and can only end in Despotism as other Forms have done before it, when the People shall become so corrupted as to need Despotic Government, being incapable of any other.

Benjamin Franklin, 1789
after the Constitutional Convention,
on our brand-new Republic.

Benjamin Franklin here smacks of what Andy Sullivan calls "a text-book case in the virtues and merits of today's academic elite. They [in this case, blogger and history prof. Juan Cole] can marshall great scholarship and knowledge; but their ideological extremism taints it all." What he calls ideological extremism I would prefer to all terminal pessimism. Or, more accurately, Hunter Thompson's Disease. In any case, yes, I think the academic elite often come down hard on America, especially history professors; but it is for the same reason Franklin had his doubts about our constitution. To the layman, it is self-evident that America's founding document is a blueprint for a good government, a noble thing. To someone who has studied history, it is also self-evident that our country will eventually collapse anyway, because that is what happens to nations. Just as bad gives way to good, good gives way to bad, and it is possible we are witnessing the sunset.

Another point: we all have our biases, and they are almost always crippling. I do, Andrew Sullivan does, and Susan Sontag does. In fact, if you follow the link to Andy's blog, above, you have to scroll past a post on why Susan Sontag is a communist to get to the entry on academic elites. No, not kidding; and entry on how Susan Sontag is a communist. Now, I should point out here that Susan Sontag is a communist, but Sullivan, in an example of bias, writes:

Sontag is urging on America "convulsive" social change to produce "new versions of human nature." Lenin, anyone? No wonder she has found members of al Qaeda to be more moral than American soldiers.

Well, perhaps all of America's enemies are pinkos, be they Isamo-Fascists or Susan Sontag or, well, actual pinkos. But I wonder: is Juan Cole is a communist?

A final point on Juan Cole: His blog has almost the same name as mine and the same design I used to use. This, I assure you all, is a complete coincidence and not a communist conspiracy.

Post a Comment