Tuesday, October 20, 2009

The War on Rush

Sometimes it seems like I can understand the headlines by reading Up From Liberalism (1959). This was the first of Bill's books that I read (see pp. 11–13 of Right Time, Right Place). For the war on Rush, I turned to the foreword by John Dos Passos.

The "liberal" mentality which Mr. Buckley puts over a barrel in this book is, I am beginning to suspect, the ideological camouflage of the will to power of [a] new ruling class. I can't find any other explanation of these fits of hysteria, these fixations which time will prove to have been irrational. . . . Only some such phenomenon as the solidarity and esprit de corps of a class recently risen to power can account for the lynching spirit aroused against those who have sought to dislodge any fraternity member, whether bureaucrat or college professor, columnist or commentator, from an entrenched position of power. This disparity between the provocation and the reaction is, as the emotions of the moment cool, what stands out more and more as the characteristic trait of the "liberal."

Me: The class is not recently arisen to power — 1959 was 50 years ago — but the shaky old are perhaps as insecure as the newly arisen. In Rush's case, the fit was designed, not to defend a comrade, but to strike an alien aspirant to mainstream prominence.

Otherwise, Dos Passos could have written this at 10:00 this morning.

10/20 10:55 PMShare