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The Current Crisis
Mencken and Me
WASHINGTON -- Can you believe it? In the public prints, I have been called a "pipsqueak" and a "self-important pipsqueak" at that. The scene of the crime is the current Forbes magazine. The felon is Jonathan Yardley, an elderly book critic at the Washington Post. Yardley was asked by Forbes if any of the "current crop of right-wing pundits" is comparable to H.L. Mencken, the editor and critic best known for his work in the 1920s. I was referred to along with Ann Coulter (who apparently told CNN in 2006 that she is "the right-wing Mencken"), Mark Steyn, and P.J. O'Rourke. Yardley went on to say, "I don't respect a single one of them, much less think that a single one of them deserves to be compared to H.L.M."
I have read Yardley for years, often finding him informative though occasionally disingenuous. Certainly his disapproval of "self-importance" is disingenuous. When he hands down his judgments the organ music is rumbling in his head, the incense filling the room -- the holy man hath spoken. As for the comparisons of me with Mencken, I would have thought that my appraisal of him seven years back would have disqualified me for further consideration. In The American Spectator I reviewed a couple of convincing biographies of "the Sage" and concluded that he was a very amusing, albeit wrong-headed, writer of brilliant prose, who by the 1930s "had become an anti-Semite, a racist, and a reactionary crank." Yet, he was also a fine philologist and editor. The American Mercury, which he founded in 1924 with George Jean Nathan and Alfred A. Knopf, was an exhilarating departure from the musty magazines that preceded it, and the Mercury allowed him to become America's first celebrity intellectual.
He was pronounced by the likes of Walter Lippmann and the editors of the New York Times as a powerful intellectual force. "The most powerful private citizen in the United States," is how the Times put it. Still, after championing a wave of novelists in the 1920s and celebrating the musical masters of the 18th and 19th centuries, he showed no taste for later literary movements and almost no interest in any of the other arts. During years when Eliot, Pound, and Yeats were at work, Mencken dismissed poetry as "beautiful balderdash."
Despite access to some of the finest minds of his time (he died in 1956, age 75), he missed practically every important historic current swirling around him. Though he claimed great interest in science, there is little evidence that he recognized the wonders on the horizon. He also missed the rise and fall of dictatorship, and dismissed democracy's challenge to the dictators as demagoguery. Hitler struck him as "a shabby ass" and an Austrian William Jennings Bryan. As he saw it, World War II was "a wholly dishonorable and ignominious business. I believe that that will be history's verdict upon it." On large matters he was almost always wrong.
He was a very funny writer until his anti-democratic and anti-religious jokes overwhelmed his other jokes and lost the capacity to make readers laugh. That would be in the 1930s and 1940s. In those days he was largely out of the public eye. He attended to his great study of the American language and to notes and memoirs that did not come out until after his death, in some cases not until the 1980s and 1990s. The writings reveal an angry, often confused, bigot and crank. He did publish three merry volumes of autobiography, but they were so marbled with fictions as to suggest escapism. As was true through much of Mencken's life, the popular press misperceived him. Time described him in 1943 as "[t]he nation's comical, warm-spirited, outstanding village atheist." The following year, the "warm-spirited" Sage publicly observed to the interviewer Bob Considine that World War II is "a better state than peace." American soldiers enjoyed the war. President Roosevelt "will keep this war running at least until the end of his fourth term. He knows that if the war stops, he loses his war powers and his jobs." That Time writer may still be at the magazine today.
As I say, on large matters Yardley's Sage was almost always wrong. I think the best explanation for the cruelty of Mencken's private thoughts, his bewilderment late in life, and his frequent misperception of his times, is provided by Terry Teachout, the author of a 2002 biography, The Skeptic: A Life of H.L. Mencken. Mencken was incapable of perceiving the evil that stalks the world. The Sage, writes Teachout, "had no feeling for the darkness in the heart of man. He looked at evil and saw ignorance. To him Hitler was Babbitt run amok…."
I agree with Yardley. I am no Mencken.
Bob Tyrrell is founder and editor in chief of The American Spectator. His books include the New York Times bestseller Boy Clinton: the Political Biography; The Impeachment of William Jefferson Clinton; The Liberal Crack-Up; The Conservative Crack-Up; Public Nuisances; The Future that Doesn't Work: Social Democracy's Failure in Britain; Madame Hillary: The Dark Road to the White House; and The Clinton Crack-Up.
He makes frequent appearance on national television and is a nationally syndicated columnist, whose articles have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Baltimore Sun, Washington Times, National Review, Harper's, Commentary, The (London) Spectator, Le Figaro (Paris), and elsewhere.
Bob is also an adjunct fellow of the Hudson Institute and a contributing editor to the New York Sun.
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TennesseeVolunteer| 4.9.09 @ 6:31AM
I'm Spartacus. No, I'm Spartacus!
Martin Owens| 4.9.09 @ 6:55AM
Only Mencken is Mencken.
Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 4.9.09 @ 8:11AM
It could be worse. They could have compared you to Barack Obama, a known liar.
C. S. P.| 4.9.09 @ 8:27AM
To call Mencken a bigot is to miss the point. It implies that he was more favorably impressed with Caucasians than he was with Blacks, which is not the case. He considered the vast majority of human beings to be dolts, and insulted all groups.
He did miss the staggering evil of the Nazi regime, but to be fair he had suffered through the fantastically mendacious anti-German propaganda of WWI, which might almost have been designed to camouflage Hitler's later bestial regime. Having seen the Germans accused of every barbarity in the book by the likes of Wilson and Palmer it was too easy to dismiss the horrible facts of the Nazi regime as more of the same.
His point of view was intensely local and personal - Provincial, if you will. Understood on that basis, his perceptions and opinions are often spot on. He noted early that whatever one might say about the Imperialist Japanese, China at that time represented a chaotic mess that no rational neighbor could leave in place. I consider his an observation that is undeniably true, and which our present narrative of WWII fails to take into account. If he dismissed accounts of the Rape of Nanking, it was because he didn't seriously believe that the Wowsers he despised limited themselves to lying about Germans.
Mencken's writings offer a flawed perspective on his times, but it is at least a grandly flawed perspective. To call him a bigot and an anti-semite is to miss the point, and to imply that he singled out Jews and non-caucasians for disapprobation. Mencken despised almost everybody, and his exceptions were individuals, not groups. He was a Misanthrope, not a racist.
Bilwick| 4.9.09 @ 9:07AM
If Yardley is, as it appears, a "liberal" (not as Mencken was, but in the contemporary bastardized sense), it's hard to imagine any pro-freedom writer he would respect.
Aaron| 4.9.09 @ 9:13AM
Mr. Tyrrell,
On the bright side consider yourself lucky that being labeled a "pipsqueak" is minor in comparison to what some are being called these days. Great article however, I do like reading Mencken just for his use of the language. I've never much cared for his point of view.
Tim| 4.9.09 @ 10:44AM
Jonathan Yardley... Yardley...nope. Never heard of him.
Dave| 4.9.09 @ 11:34AM
I haven't picked up a Forbes in a long time, but since when is one of their staff using terms like "right-wing pundit?"
Pingback| 4.9.09 @ 1:29PM
Mencken and Me « Depravity links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Son Of Sam| 4.9.09 @ 1:40PM
Mr. Tyrell, I believe that we should all do all that we can to enrage the proper people. If blithering idiots are angry at you, you must have said something intelligent. If Kool Aid chugging demagogues are ranting about your "extremism", then you must have done something in the defense of liberty. And if some musty old has been who nobody would recognize in print if he weren't in the same article with you, then chalk it up to the jealous gripings of a pissed off old fogey.
stay strong until freedom dawns,
Son Of Sam
PS I hear that the mouth breathing unbathed lunatics from ACORN are gonna try and crash the Tea Parties. Hope and change, tolerance and diversity indeed!
Skep41| 4.9.09 @ 2:00PM
Mencken's views are irrelevant, it was his ability to let his thoughts flow forth and his command of the language that have created the genre of Gonzo journalism. "...an angry, often confused, bigot and crank..." Hunter Thompson, anyone? If loony views are a criterion for rejecting someone's work shouldnt Ernest Hemingway be scrutinized using the same rules? Mencken was a white rap artist. You might as well analyze the lyrics of some stoned-out off-the-street rapper as Mencken's views. The music is there. I guess most people on the right would focus on HLM's boorish opinion of Christianity but he was one of the only people of his time to protest what a fraud FDR was. When he stopped ribbing William Jennings Bryan and started describing FDR as a 'leering snake-oil salesman' the intellectuals turned on him. His early writings are all well worth reading by anyone who wants to write critically.
Vern Crisler| 4.9.09 @ 2:13PM
I agree with RET on this one. I keep reading Mencken, hoping to find something funny or interesting. I seldom do, though he was capable of a few good one liners.
Mencken's basic philosophy seems to have been a hatred for anything that smacked of ruralism. He often displayed a tiresome cynicism and a one-sidedness in his views on religion, Roosevelt, and World War II.
He can be forgiven to some extent on account of his hostility to Prohibition (a big plus), and for his prophetic description of the current Hollywood crowd: “[N]o man of genuinely superior intelligence has ever been an actor.” (Save one, of course.)
Basically, Mencken was a third rate imitator of Mark Twain -- who was a genuinely funny man, if sometimes confused and wrong-headed. Mencken's basic sin is that he was generally confused and wrong-headed, but seldom funny. One looks in vain for anything in Mencken that could give one a horselaugh.
Big Leo| 4.9.09 @ 2:27PM
Thanks, Vern-- I read lots of Mencken hoping to find something that showed real insight, but except for some insight on the Fascist hysteria of the Wilson administration, he always fell short of entertainment, let alone genius. Your comparison of Mark Twain and Mencken was excellent. I'll steal that and claim I originated it.
Brian B| 4.9.09 @ 3:16PM
I'll take Mr. Tyrell's comments at face value, but as one who began subscribing to the Spectator in the mid seventies when it was still called "The Alternative" I remember Bob as having considerably more affection for Mencken, sometimes what I considered a rather embarrassing amount of affection.
Lord Sebastian Buniontow VI| 4.9.09 @ 3:35PM
I dare say, this Yardley chap deserves a full dressing down.
KyMouse| 4.9.09 @ 3:49PM
Re C.S.P.'s observation, I had an elderly relative who once told me that she took a long time believing what turned out to be true about the Nazi death camps, because she had been told in WWI that Germans ate the babies of people they conquered. I imagine there were a lot of people like that (who took a long time to believe the truth about Nazis -- not who ate babies).
JP| 4.9.09 @ 3:51PM
CSP,
You took the words right out of my mouth. My wife and I are great admirers of his witty, misanthropic prose. By reading his essays, one gets a different perspective of life in the US that one wouldn't normally get by reading other reporters and essayists.
Vern,
I don't think Mencken ever thought of himself as gifted as Twain; both lived totally different lives, and for that matter had very different views on America. Mencken, being of German extraction had a much deeper knowledge and appreciation of Central European culture. This gave him a very different perspective on America than Twain, who by the way had very little affection for the Germans -especially thier language.
Mencken had many faults, of which many are covered here. But the biggest reason I admire him was his very strong libertarian streak. He had little time or patience for the likes of Wilson and his Progressives (Jonah Goldberg did a fantastic job, btw in showing the linkage between the Turn-of-the-Century Progressives and Facsism). The Temperance Movement was part and parcel of the Progressive agenda, and Mencken saved some of his wittiest, and most savage critiques for them.
The late Saul Bellow believed that the downfall of Mencken could be his viscious attacks on FDR. Many of Menckens biggest fans were those under 35, and many believed that FDR would deliver them from thier financial plight. Where Mencken saw another Fascist (a rather dim one, in his view), his readers saw a savior. Mencken never recovered from this loss of followers. He went downhill from there. His kind of iconclastic writing would be forgotten until a new generation of iconclastic writers came forth in the 1960s.
Colin| 4.9.09 @ 5:17PM
Not being an educated student of history -- I took a quick look at the photograph of Mencken on the top of this article and decided that if I'd been granted the opportunity to have a face to face with him -- the first question I might ask would be:
"What's up with your hair?"
Mike Gebert| 4.9.09 @ 5:25PM
Asking Jonathan Yardley who the new Mencken is is like asking Aimee Semple Macpherson who the new Spinoza is.
Mike Gebert| 4.9.09 @ 5:25PM
Asking Jonathan Yardley who the new Mencken is is like asking Aimee Semple Macpherson who the new Spinoza is.
edward del colle| 4.9.09 @ 5:27PM
it is verydisturbing dr, tyrrell to read you speak of the sage of baltimore, the man who you emulated in style in your books , the liberal crack up, public nuisances, the conservative crack up as if you're fearful of bob bartley's ghost! come on, man, stand up! mencken was the most well read man in america, he was the best book reviewer ever, he helped young writers, several of them afro-americans in their career's, he brought to the public's attention some of the greatest novelist's , to wit; conrad, dreiser! terry teachout is not the last word on mencken, open your damn ears with their waxed in complacency! manchester's bio of mencken describes his sojourn to europe way before the brownshirts where mencken noted that the animal spirits he could sense portended a revolt and in that process a lot of jews would be killed! in fact, when the buzz reached the american shores concerning the rounding up of jews mencken aided in getting people out > where was the anti-semitic catholic church, that;s what you should ponder. mencken wouild have considered albert j nock his intellectual equal, where was there a more literate, erudite individual. make out the point, dr. tyrrell, individual! the sage wrote and spoke in very colorful language and he said many mean things, we all can do that! but you;re required to show that he belonged to some jewish, and or black hate groups and supported them financially before you, and dr. bartley, dr. teachout and charles angoff, a third rate man compared to mencken, before you can sum him up as an anti-semite, etc! he exposed institutional religion for the farce and evil force that it is. stick to sticking it to the prig, scold, and foolish, foolish imposter that resides at 1600 pennsylvania ave! do something worth your salt!
Shamus| 4.9.09 @ 6:57PM
Does Mr. Tyrrell smoke a pipe, and has he ever produced copious quantities of alcoholic beverages?
These may be significant differences.
Zak Klemmer| 4.9.09 @ 8:29PM
HLM's comments on the New Deal always amused me. One of my favorite quotes was: "Every election is an advance auction sale of stolen goods." But unlike many of his contemporaries HLM didn’t covet power over others like FDR, didn’t betray his country like Alger Hiss and didn’t join a cult like Henry Wallace. I think that Mr. Yardley is only using HLM as a straw man to tear down conservatives, libertarians and right-wingers such as Coulter, Steyn, O’Rourke and yourself.
Alan Brooks| 4.10.09 @ 12:26AM
Mencken would not be have been a bigot meeting a Thomas Sowell, but meeting OJ he would have heaved.
He was way ahead of his time in comprehensively appreciating the failure of social engineering.
Alan Brooks| 4.10.09 @ 12:29AM
sorry about "would not be have been"-- the sort of bad grammar HLM couldnt stand.
Yeats| 4.10.09 @ 1:58AM
Lol, don't get ahead of yourself, your'e no Mencken.
Mr. T| 4.10.09 @ 2:01AM
And this is the Current Crisis? God you wingnuts. I pity you fools.
Alan Brooks| 4.10.09 @ 2:02AM
I can touch my own ass. Deep.
Party Monster| 4.10.09 @ 2:03AM
Dance Party! *Reagan senility theme* OH YEAH!
Reggae for a Retard| 4.10.09 @ 2:09AM
Reggae for REAGAN! Braindead Song! Alzhiemers is a bitch, lets give him one more song, that lousy fucker.
You Make It Easy| 4.10.09 @ 2:17AM
Mencken suffered a stroke that left him aware and fully conscious but unable to read, write, or speak.
Typical Wingnut Hero. Ouch, leave the dude alone.
Future as a member of the work| 4.10.09 @ 2:21AM
ing class. Why did you cut off my email? Jerks.
That guy has murder in his eyes. I DARE YOU TO LOOK IN HIS EYES. It was scary.
Pumping Iron| 4.10.09 @ 4:47AM
Mencken was BiCurious too. *thumbs up*
American Spectator nails it yet again!
Sherlock Jones| 4.10.09 @ 4:54AM
i Herd meat joe steen likes game shoes! And that joes (?) jeews (?) loves money! Can I have some money joes? Yay! Damn those protocolos of zion!
Tesla| 4.10.09 @ 5:22AM
"Can you believe it? In the public prints, I have been called a "pipsqueak" and a "self-important pipsqueak" at that."
I CAN believe it, douche bag. Don't cry, shorty, its just the radio...
Deborah| 4.10.09 @ 7:40AM
The people who make no sense on this thread are you're friendly neighborhood wackos from the left side of the political spectrum. Wow...bored today?
Deborah| 4.10.09 @ 7:41AM
Oops... "your" not "you're"....sorry.
Bilwick| 4.10.09 @ 9:02AM
Vern Crisler writes: "One looks in vain for anything in Mencken that could give one a horselaugh. " Shows you how subjective humor is. I'm not sure if a horselaugh is equal to a belly laugh, but I've had a nunber of belly-laugh moments reading Mencken. His William Jennings Bryan "tribute" comes immediately to mind.
bg| 4.10.09 @ 10:10AM
Most people often confuse the term "intellectual" with that of "practiced," as in those that have mastered a certain behavior. Yardley is akin in his skill to the Apalacha banjo player in "Delieverence." He's really good in picking at those strings, and has a good ear to mimic the noise around him, but is retarded in everything else that matters. If an "intellectual" fails to recognize or refuses the Truth around them, then an "intellectual" he is not. He's just well "practised." Similar to most Liberals, chimps can be very entertaining, but I wouldn't go to sleep when they're at the wheel.
MadoffEmanuelAxelrodSoros| 4.10.09 @ 11:29AM
"had become an anti-Semite...,"
Huh? There was one?
John Jamieson| 4.10.09 @ 11:44AM
Mr Tyrrell is a pipsqueak compared to H.L. Mencken. Sorry, the truth often hurts. The latter was a journalistic genius, flawed no doubt but he was also the wittiest newspaperman of modern times. Many of Mencken's pieces are still very funny, and anyone unable to find humour in his writings is a sourpuss indeed. Mr Tyrrell is (or perhaps was) a clever and amusing writer, but he will never be in the same class as The Sage of Baltimore. There is nothing to be ashamed of there. Very few physicists can be compared to Einstein.
Agape Fool| 5.7.09 @ 11:05AM
Mencken is a godless bastard with a beautiful mind. The savior of atheists and the Christ of the secular world. I love him to DeAtH...wished I'd never heard of the jerk.
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Rolfsy| 9.24.09 @ 8:59AM
We don't have freedom. Teh president is a demmycrat. Mencken was wrong because he didn't like God and was bicurious which makes baby jesus cry. I love my freedom but fear mah gubbermint. Liberal from 1820s is better than liberal from now which are Libstains.