The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Marty Peretz Declares Victory in Iraq

Posted on | March 7, 2010 | 7 Comments

It’s a rather idiosyncratic argument that will be of interest mainly to foreign policy junkies, which I’m not. Still, you’ve got to love the money quote:

Frankly, I couldn’t quite imagine any venture requiring trust with Arabs turning out especially well. This is, you will say, my prejudice. But some prejudices are built on real facts, and history generally proves me right. Go ahead, prove me wrong.

I’m not saying I agree with that, you understand, but it’s delightful to see anyone publicly confess to a prejudice, without apology.

You see, that in this enlightened age I am bold enough to confess, that [the English] are generally men of untaught feelings; that instead of casting away all our old prejudices, we cherish them to a very considerable degree, and to take more shame to ourselves, we cherish them because they are prejudices; and the longer they have lasted, and the more generally they have prevailed, the more we cherish them. . . . Prejudice is of ready application in the emergency; it previously engages the mind in a steady course of wisdom and virtue, and does not leave the man hesitating in the moment of decision, skeptical, puzzled and unresolved. Prejudice renders a man’s virtue his habit; and not a series of unconnected acts. Through just prejudice, his duty becomes a part of his nature.
— Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France

One of the problems of discourse in the age of political correctness is that everyone is required to pretend that they are completely free of prejudice. The logical obverse is that people think they can win a debate merely by accusing their opponents of prejudice.

Debate over post-9/11 policy was crippled from the outset by these tendencies of our politically correct culture, and even now we cannot discuss the successes and failures of the Bush era without tripping over the PC barbed wire strewn about the rhetorical landscape. No one can say a favorable word about Bush foreign policy without being accused of being that awful thing, a “neocon,” nor can anyone criticize Bush foreign policy without being accused of being that much worse thing, an anti-Semite.

Whenever debate is hemmed in by such strictures, truth is necessarily obscured and unnecessary antagonisms aroused. I am convinced, for example, that we still don’t know the full and accurate history of Communist subversion in the 1940s and ’50s because the backlash against “McCarthyism” discouraged further investigation. To advocate such investigation was to incur the charge of leading a “witch hunt,” of being a paranoid who saw “Reds under the bed.”

Thus, for decades, respectable liberals were required to presume that Alger Hiss and Julius Rosenberg had been victims of anti-Communist “hysteria.” Then when the Soviet Union collapsed, researchers gained access to KGB files, and we learned that Hiss and Rosenberg were guilty as hell. Yet your child’s high-school history textbook still portrays “McCarthyism” as a greater menace than Communism in post-WWII America.

And I have no doubt that 50 years from now, students will be presented with an even more distorted and oversimplified account of our own age, because political correctness has become so ascendant in elite culture.

Category: Culture, Foreigners, History

Comments

7 Responses to “Marty Peretz Declares Victory in Iraq”

  1. Ro
    March 7th, 2010 @ 3:53 pm

    If a belief is built on “facts and history” is it “prejudice”?

    Is it “prejudging” to rely on history and facts when formulating an opinion about a particular political process or issue???

    Perhaps we need the pundits to start every article with their definitions of terms. Seems that they have gotten pretty idiosyncratic.

  2. Ro
    March 7th, 2010 @ 10:53 am

    If a belief is built on “facts and history” is it “prejudice”?

    Is it “prejudging” to rely on history and facts when formulating an opinion about a particular political process or issue???

    Perhaps we need the pundits to start every article with their definitions of terms. Seems that they have gotten pretty idiosyncratic.

  3. A couple good articles from The New Republic « A Conservative Shemale
    March 7th, 2010 @ 12:52 pm

    […] The Other McCain has more on The National Review’s declaration of victory in Iraq. Possibly related posts: […]

  4. chuck cross
    March 7th, 2010 @ 7:04 pm

    Well said Mr. McCain.

  5. chuck cross
    March 7th, 2010 @ 2:04 pm

    Well said Mr. McCain.

  6. kyle klouzal
    March 8th, 2010 @ 3:10 am

    During McCains run for the presidency he acted like a little girl every time Obama called him out. During the health care summit when Obama reminded him who won the Presidency, McCain tee hee’d that he had been reminded of that many times before. The response of a real man should have been, “I realize that and look how badly that has gone for the American people.”

    McCain is an embarrassment to the conservatives in his party. He has bluffed his way as far as he should be allowed to go. It is time to elect a Senator who is not afraid to stand up and fight when he is abased. We need someone who is pro legal immigration and will approach health care with the knowledge that illegal’s are the people driving up health care costs.

    Please see http://www.political-bull.com/ for more

  7. kyle klouzal
    March 7th, 2010 @ 10:10 pm

    During McCains run for the presidency he acted like a little girl every time Obama called him out. During the health care summit when Obama reminded him who won the Presidency, McCain tee hee’d that he had been reminded of that many times before. The response of a real man should have been, “I realize that and look how badly that has gone for the American people.”

    McCain is an embarrassment to the conservatives in his party. He has bluffed his way as far as he should be allowed to go. It is time to elect a Senator who is not afraid to stand up and fight when he is abased. We need someone who is pro legal immigration and will approach health care with the knowledge that illegal’s are the people driving up health care costs.

    Please see http://www.political-bull.com/ for more