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Down With Happy Talk
John Derbyshire performs an autopsy on American conservatism.
We Are Doomed: Reclaiming
Conservative Pessimism
By John Derbyshire
(Crown Forum, 261 pages, $26)
“Civilization is at a crossroads,” wrote Woody Allen, back when he was funny. “One road leads to misery and devastation, the other to total destruction.” Allen was going for a laugh, but conservatives should take this sort of thing seriously, suggests John Derbyshire, author of We Are Doomed: Reclaiming Conservative Pessimism. “The proper outlook of conservatives…is a pessimistic one,” he writes, “at least as far as the things of this world are concerned.”
Derbyshire’s is one of many prescriptive tracts born out of the 2008 GOP losses to the “Politics of Hope” (David Frum’s Comeback, Ross Douthat and Reihan Salam’s and Grand New Party also come to mind). While Doomed may be the least useful as far as developing a winning political strategy (he suggest conservatives adopt the “politics of despair”), it is by far the more enjoyable read.
It turns out we are doomed because too many conservatives have bought into “smiley-face schemes of human improvement,” i.e., the mindset that man is perfectible, and that if we only adopt the right social programs and spend enough money and outlaw guns and educate our young a certain way and leave the rest to intellectuals and social engineers, we can create a more perfect union on the order of Cuba and Berkeley, CA.
Conservatives are not immune from this fashionable nonsense. Derbyshire points to the Bush Doctrine, in particular:
So the survival of liberty Americans enjoy, and which I personally take as the foundation of my own conservatism, depends on what happens in Albania, Bangladesh, and Cameroon? Over which we have how much control? How did liberty survive in our land for two and a quarter centuries while most of the rest of the world was sunk in despotism?
The reality is quite the opposite. Our 18th century progenitors (Adams, Jefferson) were well aware that this transitory world is but a vale of tears, where all men have their price, where every politician must be supposed to be a knave, where the greatest part of men are gross, and, to quote the great pessimist Karl Popper, any “attempt to make heaven on earth invariably produces hell.”
Indeed, conservatism has long had a strong streak of pessimism, from Hobbes and Burke, through Lord Salisbury and Calvin Coolidge. Not surprisingly, Derbyshire proffers Ronald “Morning in America” Reagan as an ideal contemporary model to emulate. Despite his sunny disposition, Reagan was no Pollyanna. He surveyed his times with a cold, realistic eye. He knew that Big Government was the problem, not the solution, and that nation building in Lebanon was bound to fail. He saw clearly that the Soviet Union was an evil empire, and he was free and easy with his veto pen.
Derbyshire accuses conservatives of infidelity, of hanging out with the wrong crowd, and of being influenced by the wrong sort of people. Chief among conservative sins are blithely signing on to diversity ideology, being complicit in the expansion of the federal government, doing little to stem the degradation of our culture and the rising tide of feminism, becoming invested in wrongheaded educational theories, encouraging Third World immigration, and acquiescing to policies of massive spending and unsustainable debt. Rather than profound self-criticism and a return to first principles, conservatives have clung to a curious notion about American Exceptionalism, which has become a lazy excuse for the status quo.
DERBYSHIRE IS that rare specimen, an irreligious conservative, and he is unafraid to say so, whatever the cost. Like that other great pessimist, H.L. Mencken, he is not at all certain that religion makes us better people. Derbyshire, however, is no New Atheist who makes a name belittling believers. Rather he longs for the Old Time Religion, and idealizes New England’s Calvinist Orthodoxy and its fabled “Five Points,” which insisted that man’s natural condition was total depravity, that salvation was beyond mortal striving, that grace was predestined only for a few, that most mortals were condemned to suffer eternal damnation, and no earthly effort could save them.” None of this feel-good religion for Derb.
As the original metrocon, Derbyshire has the cheek to say that he (like most conservative intellectuals) is more comfortable among “New York liberals” than among “red-state Evangelicals.” (Hell, I may as well come out too.) Of course, liberals, too, are pessimistic about some things. Aren’t they forever wringing their hands over big business, straight white men, sexism, poverty, racism, global warming, nuclear everything, war? This is bogus pessimism, says the author. Liberals are confident that they can overcome flawed human nature, and create a New Man and a New Society, just as soon as Barack Obama hits his stride.
If all this sounds hopeless, that’s because it is. While there are things we could do to save the situation, Derbyshire says, we won’t do any of them, because we have sunk into a collective mindset that won’t let us.
But even a book about the importance of pessimism must today end on a high note. And while Derbyshire tries gallantly, he can’t quite pull off the happy ending. His advice: “Brace yourself to ride out misfortunes, and find happiness in small pastimes and the company of friends,” which sounds rather like Monty Python’s answer as to the Meaning of Life. Ultimately, however, it is probably the best advice one can give to such a hopelessly metaphysical problem. As for me, I can think of no better pastime in which to find happiness than to read this very gloomy and very funny book.
About the Author
Christopher Orlet writes from St. Louis.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (91) | Leave a comment
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Appleby| 12.8.09 @ 7:00AM
Having lived for nearly 12 years in Kanukistan, where at least here in the East our motto is *What can you doooooooooooooo?* and the book on How To Be Canadian lists 12 ways to say I m sorry, pessimism comes naturally to me. Passive-aggressive surrender is our mantra and if we cannot do anything to make the world a better place, we can drag our feet, make ourselves as heavy as possible, and whine, so everyone else will be just as unhappy as we are.
Stuff and nonsense.
The way forward is to brighten the corner where you are. Remember that your Granny used to ask you what the world would be like if everyone behaved the way you were behaving? Take that to heart. If you cannot change the world, at least change the part where you are. Compliment people, lend them your pen, step out of the doorway to let them inand out of the subway car or the elevator; if someone needs a token or a quarter and you have one, give it. Dont drop your garbage on the floor even if everyone else does, and if you sit down at a picnic table or a lunch table where some pig has left his slop, even if it is not your slop, do not throw it on the floor or eat your lunch surrounded by it. Clean off your table and dispose of the trash in the trash bin. Clean up messes that are not yours, simply because you are better brought up than the pigs and slobs who left it that way. Return a filthy insult with the query *Is that what your Mama says?* in a surprised voice. Restore order when you can, as you can. Make the part of the world where you are an oasis, not a machine gun nest.
Yes, the world is a howling wilderness and you would rather howl too. Brighten the corner where you are and gradually the wilderness will bloom like the rose. It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.
And remember, Mr. Reagan was a realist, but he kept his sense of humour.
Alan Brooks| 12.8.09 @ 1:53PM
John derbyshire is a national treasure. I am not, repeat NOT, saying we ought to be apocalyptic, though (BTW) many Christians think we should be so.
However, chirpy-Gingrich optimism is for public consumption; necessary, but still based on hot air.
Alan Brooks| 12.8.09 @ 1:56PM
pardon, Derbyshire; his name should always be in caps. He is an English treasure and an American treasure all rolled up into one.
Alright, part of my attitude is sour grapes, but when you look at the behavior-- and not what is said-- of youth today, you can perceive the burgeoning brave new world/ clockwork orange of tomorrow.
S.L. Toddard| 12.8.09 @ 2:28PM
I'll be damned if Mr. Brooks isn't right again. Didn't we used to disagree about everything?
Alan Brooks| 12.8.09 @ 2:51PM
It must be my residual familial squishy liberalism that makes these comments "seem" so dodgy.
But let's not get clubby-- we wouldn't want to gang up on these fine ladies and gentlemonsters.
Alan Brooks| 12.8.09 @ 2:56PM
It is a cliche' to say 'it is your problem' (and "cliche' " is a huge cliche' itself) yet all the same those of you have children are stuck with their nihilism for a long time. How long is unfathomable; all I know is they are getting some fairly bad advice from their boomer parents and y - z generation peers.
Alan Brooks| 12.8.09 @ 2:59PM
In summation: Appleboy, it is YOUR kids and grandkids unappetizing dystopia of tomorrow.
Bank on it, bub.
magua| 12.8.09 @ 4:21PM
Well put App, I might add also (with deference to Pink Floyd) , that "hanging on in quiet desperation IS the English way". It's not this Yank's way. Having spent two years of my life living in Britain, I know how true that is. We Americans owe much to the greats of our Northern European heritage ( Burke, Locke and Rutherford to name a few ), but we are distinctly different from our friends from "the Isle". And enormously more realistic and funny as well.
Alan Brooks| 12.8.09 @ 4:38PM
Magua,
More is changing than you think. Globalization, Mexicanization, trashculturalization.
You and Appleboy don't like the complaining? Then don't complain when your grandkids' (or grandnephews, grandnieces, etc) world is more unseemly than today.
It doesn't bother me, except intellectually-- it's all in my mind but not my guts-- my family are mostly dead and gone.
"Culture" will be more from the toilet than you can imagine.
Alan Brooks| 12.8.09 @ 6:43PM
And Future TV will be so post-post modern that if you were so foolish as to watch anything but educational programs you would heave your TV dinner up on the living room carpet.
The future belongs to the strong-- of stomach.
magua| 12.8.09 @ 8:17PM
Al, point well taken, but you misunderstand me or perhaps I need to elaborate. I too study culture and struggle to grasp the peril we and our children face. I am certain these are desperate times and the West seems to be heaving under the tension. Having said that, I hold to the claim there is "nothing new under the sun". The framers and founders knew this. They properly viewed God and Man, thus birthed our remarkable Declaration. Man has "extrinsic" value, conferred upon us by a Holy God, hence "certain unalienable rights", magnificent! Man also is "broken" (i.e. alienated by his true moral guilt before this Holy God), thus the wisdom of the separation of powers. Never before in the history of the human race had such a document laid the foundation for people to claim proper governance. This is my stance(I stand on their shoulders).
I am neither a utopian/optimist/whatever,(which will lead to serfdom/tyranny/get you killed), or a pessimist/cynic/manic-depressive, which will at least drive you crazy. I don't cry myself to sleep at night. I have REAL HOPE, based not in anything finite, but in properly relating to HIM who made me. Where is your hope Al?
Alan Brooks| 12.8.09 @ 10:55PM
Right now we are on Earth and not in Heaven.
So I don't share your hope, only the failth of an ex-liberal.
Not a whole lot, in other words-- you can be a new creature in faith/thinking, but you can't change who you are genetically except through risky science.
Alan Brooks| 12.8.09 @ 10:56PM
failth?? what a slip.
Stuart Koehl| 12.8.09 @ 7:24AM
In spite of all temptations
To belong to other nations,
He remains an Englishman,
He remains an Englishman!
And therein lies Derbyshire's problem--for all that he has become a naturalized citizen, he does not understand America or Americans, and as a result, he completely blows his analysis of American conservativism, which is not, and never has been like European conservatism.
And Derbyshire is very much a European conservative--an old-fashioned English Tory (not the new-fangled Cameronian type) to be precise. Which explains the unmitigated and unwarranted pessimism not only of the book, but of most of his National Review columns, too.
American conservatism is not, and has never been pessimistic. Indeed, we got rid of our Tories back in 1783, so what most Americans describe as conservatism is not recognizable as such in European intellectual circles.
American conservatism, being an amalgam of English and American Whiggery (that is, of classical liberalism) with an admixture of libertarianism, is incurably optimistic within the context of an uncompromisingly realistic view of the fixity and imperfection of human nature. While not utopians (in the sense that American liberals are incurably utopian), American conservatives do believe that mankind is capable of material improvements and the pursuit of happiness. All it really requires is a degree of respect for one another and a government that knows its place.
Derb needs to recognize that the people who founded this country were incurable optimists. To get on a 100-ton wooden sailing ship, travel 4000 miles across the turbulent Atlantic, and then confront the howling wilderness to make a new life is not something that attracts pessimists.
Indeed, Derb should examine his assumptions--it is the Left in the United States that is unrelentingly pessimistic--about everything.
S.L. Toddard| 12.8.09 @ 7:42AM
"Derb needs to recognize that the people who founded this country were incurable optimists"
John Adams was an incurable optimist?
Stuart Koehl| 12.8.09 @ 8:41AM
Crabby New England personality not withstanding, yes, he was. One need only consider the endeavor on which he and the other Founders embarked to see them as being incurably optimistic. Read what he wrote about how Americans would celebrate Independence Day--something written near the low ebb of American fortunes--to see the underlying optimistic Adams.
On the other hand, the John Derbyshires of the time were either hedging their bets or firmly in the Tory camp, since (a) an act of rebellion against a sovereign king is not a very conservative thing to do; and (b) no way a rag-tag mob of tinkers and farmers is going to beat one of the largest 18th century naval and military forces in the world.
To be optimistic--as indeed, every Christian must be, living in the expectation of the Second and Glorious Coming--is not to be a pollyanna. Perhaps Derbyshire's vocal lack of religious faith (again, not a very conservative attribute, since even conservative skeptics know enough to keep their mouths shut about it in public, the lower orders needing religion to keep them in their place and ensure social order) contributes to his pessimism.
S.L. Toddard| 12.8.09 @ 9:15AM
"Crabby New England personality not withstanding, yes, he was."
I'm sorry, but I think you're quite wrong. John Adams, like the dour Puritans and Calvinists of his New England, was extremely pessimistic about humanity. Among many of the founders, countering the optimism of the philosophes and republicans, was a strong conservative, pessimistic streak that profoundly distrusted the goodness and wisdom of humanity, of "The People," being as they are fallen from grace, and therefore mistrusted "democracy" and constructed ample safeguards against it in the framework of the Constitution. To assert that "that the people who founded this country were incurable optimists" is to make a simplistic generalization that has no relation to reality. Some were optimists, yes, but they were largely the more radical and (small-r) republican, whereas the conservatives (like John Adams) were not.
Part of what makes a conservative a conservative is the pessimistic recognition that man is imperfect and imperfectible, which is why we reject Liberal utopian schemes. Kirk's 'Conservative Mind' is chock-full of such pessimists (realists, really).
"an act of rebellion against a sovereign king is not a very conservative thing to do"
Unless it is an act of rebellion to preserve - to *conserve* - the measure of autonomy and liberty to which long use and prescription had given one a right. The revolution was as much a break from the old order as it was to preserve and make permanent long standing local traditions and liberties.
"To be optimistic--as indeed, every Christian must be, living in the expectation of the Second and Glorious Coming--is not to be a pollyanna"
You confuse the spiritual and earthly. To be optimistic about the hereafter does not equate to being optimistic about the perfectibility of man, or of the transformative power of government.
Stuart Koehl| 12.8.09 @ 6:37PM
I do not see anything antithetical in being optimistic about both the expectation of eternal life in the Parousia and with the belief that human beings have the potential to better themselves. As an Orthodox Christian, I believe in the synergia between human free will and the indwelling Holy Spirit; that is, we will be judged by our deeds, and while we are not perfectible through our own efforts, we are engaged in a process of theosis whereby we will become partakers in the divine nature. While well aware of human foibles, I reject the notion of "utter depravity".
That aside, I said nothing at all about the perfectibility of man or the transformative powers of government--in fact, I believe in neither. That has nothing to do with my fundamentally optimistic outlook, or Derbyshire's sour pessimism. As I said, one had to be an optimist to get on the Susan Constant or the Mayflower, and I strongly believe that Derb would have stayed back in Little Dorking or wherever, grousing about those happy-go-lucky Puritans and Merchant Venturers.
S.L. Toddard| 12.9.09 @ 8:17AM
"I strongly believe that Derb would have stayed back in Little Dorking or wherever, grousing about those happy-go-lucky Puritans and Merchant Venturers."
I'm sorry, but talking about happy-go-lucky Puritans is like talking about gigantic pygmies or sincere politicians. It's simply a ridiculous and self-contradictory characterization.
Alan Brooks| 12.8.09 @ 2:02PM
"John Adams was an incurable optimist?"
spot on. You are wise beyond your years, Toddard. PLEASE talk some sense into these pollyannas, they are going to give us four or eight years of anti-conservatism after Obama leaves office in 2017.
Otis, my man!| 12.8.09 @ 9:31AM
I disagree. Derbyshire understands that pessimism and conservatism naturally go together. Conservatives are happiest when they are right, not when they feel optimistic.
He knows it's an axiom that the pessimist's advantage is they are either always right - or pleasantly surprised.
Alan Brooks| 12.8.09 @ 2:07PM
"I disagree. Derbyshire understands that pessimism and conservatism naturally go together. Conservatives are happiest when they are right, not when they feel optimistic.
He knows it's an axiom that the pessimist's advantage is they are either always right - or pleasantly surprised. "
No, you are thinking of the pre- brave new world/ clockwork orange 20th century. If only Reagan WERE still president, and this were still the '80s. We don't know what we have until it is gone.
You are going to be unpleasantly surprised at how aesthetically unpleasant the next decade (v. soon) will be. Guaranteed.
three words: globalization of depravity.
Ken (Old Texican)| 12.8.09 @ 9:43AM
Appleby,
Stuart,
Splendid thoughts, guys. Thank you.
One other thought. I personally DO NOT THINK most "liberals" are "perfectability utopians".
I have observed that as a group, they are the most cynical, despotic wannabes I can imagine.
Stuart Koehl| 12.8.09 @ 6:45PM
Well, I think that there is some cognitive dissonance on the Left. On the one hand, it is an item of dogma that humanity is perfectible through education, proper policies and so forth. On the other hand, they have a generally low opinion of the intelligence and good sense of the common people, who need to be steered by more enlightened people--like them.
In this, they have much in common with, well, European conservatives such as Derbyshire, who by all reckoning has no trust in the common people, thinks they are dim-witted and weak willed (it's all that religion, you see), and need to be guided by more enlightened people--like him.
The only thing that distinguishes the authoritarian left from the authoritarian right is the specific policies they endorse, not their respective mindsets.
Leo| 12.9.09 @ 12:10PM
Stuart,
Thank you very much for pointing out the smug, though erroneous aristocratic assumptions of Mr.Derbyshire. His irreligious conservatism reflects a misunderstanding of American exceptionalism. I am an immigrant from one of those British colonies he speaks of so dismissively. The American dream is an optimistic notion. I came to the United States as a nearly penniless student. I was attracted by the palpable optimism of Ronald Reagan and strove to lift myself up by my bootstraps as he suggested during a visit to my campus. Today I am a professor in a Big Ten university. Yes, I am a Christian, I have children, I live in a red state and am a proud conservative republican! Mr. Derbyshire's ossified, pessimistic conservatism has no room for millions of religious, pro-family conservative immigrants who might well be the future of the Republican party.
S.L. Toddard| 12.8.09 @ 7:41AM
"Derbyshire accuses conservatives of infidelity, of hanging out with the wrong crowd, and of being influenced by the wrong sort of people. Chief among conservative sins are blithely signing on to diversity ideology, being complicit in the expansion of the federal government, doing little to stem the degradation of our culture and the rising tide of feminism, becoming invested in wrongheaded educational theories, encouraging Third World immigration, and acquiescing to policies of massive spending and unsustainable debt. Rather than profound self-criticism and a return to first principles, conservatives have clung to a curious notion about American Exceptionalism, which has become a lazy excuse for the status quo"
I'm not sure that's an "accusation" so much as it is a statement of fact. Derbyshire is absolutely right, and 'We Are Doomed' is a must-read.
unger| 12.8.09 @ 7:47AM
Appleby
'It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness' Clearly you are bleary eyed Pollyanna who has succumbed to wrong headed ideas of progress and charity. You should enjoy small pastimes, plan for the worst and howl all the time like a b*tch birthing a breach puppy. I have been reading Derbyshire for years and while he is entertaining, at his core he is a wretched being. Orlet has been sucked into his bleak metaphysical vision. And no we do not need Pollyannas but we also do not Cassandras.
Grzmlyk| 12.8.09 @ 8:44AM
Sophomania (n):
Unrealistic belief in one's own intelligence; delusion of superintelligence .
Appleby| 12.8.09 @ 9:07AM
While I am no Dr. Panglossia, I do believe that there is no situatino that cannot be overcome, or at least outlasted. It has to quit some time; we don't.
Americans love a challenge. Indeed, humanity loves a challenge.
For proof of this, just look at the ever-shortening time span between the announcement of a counterfeit-proof transit ticket, credit card or unit of currency and the production of the counterfeit.
Vern Crisler| 12.8.09 @ 12:52PM
I love your comments about Derbyshire unger. I usually don't read him anymore -- felt like punching him in the nose when I did -- but my guess is he hates Sarah Palin. Which is why we don't need the Derbyshires of the world in the Republican party or self-identifying as conservatives.
Alan Brooks| 12.8.09 @ 6:18PM
"And no we do not need Pollyannas but we also do not need Cassandras."
Cassandra wasn't always mistaken. If she had bet on horses she would have done okay.
hunter| 12.8.09 @ 7:47AM
I propose the immediate expulsion of all foreigners. I am fed up with the accented voices on tv telling everyone what, when, where and why to think. I had only mentioned this to the wife 15 minutes ago, when Katy Kay was on MSNBC then turned on the American Spectator to have to read this garbage. I say if they don't have a birth certificate of birth in the USA deport them. Look to where the trouble is, everywhere from California to Washington DC. I rest my case.
Grzmlyk| 12.8.09 @ 9:12AM
Derb is right.
One of the pillars that supports the entire edifice of conservatism is the axiom that human nature is immutable. Therefore, the institutions we build must be few and unfettered by the nooks and crannies of bureaucracy that capture so much of the scum that rubs off the underbelly of the human psyche.
Liberals believe that, with enough coersion, they can force everyone to be as "altruistic" as they are - a hubristic mindset that produces no end of hypocritical tartuffe-like whores such as Al Gore.
Liberals believe that if they can just round up all the people who think violence sometimes does solve problems into a circle and shoot them, they will achieve a non-violent world.
Which is rich irony indeed.
The hallmark of the liberal isn't optimism, it's vanity. The modus operandi is always and ever deceipt.
Grzmlyk| 12.8.09 @ 9:20AM
I should amend the statement above to include several hallmarks of liberalism:
Vanity
Craven thirst for power
Greed
Vengeance
Naivete
Hate
Adam Smith| 12.8.09 @ 5:23PM
Left out "Envy"...
and
"Self Loathing"
We'll toss "Sociopathic" in too for good measure.
Ken (Old Texican)| 12.8.09 @ 9:52AM
GRZ
Thank you.
Adding on (above)
Ken (Old Texican)| 12.8.09 @ 9:43AM
Appleby,
Stuart,
Splendid thoughts, guys. Thank you.
One other thought. I personally DO NOT THINK most "liberals" are "perfectability utopians".
I have observed that as a group, they are the most cynical, despotic wannabes I can imagine.
JP| 12.8.09 @ 9:53AM
The problem with Derb's style of conservatism is that it can't win many elections. Well, that's at least my opinion. Derb may be correct, but try his brand of conservatism on the stump in say Shawnee Mission Kansas. You won't win many elections.
So, today's conservative must have two faces; one for the public and one for himself. I think President Reagan was such a guy. Behind his Happy Talk facade was an inner core of pessimissim and sadness. Even his own children complained that they never really got to know thier father. Perhaps the only person who did know him was his second wife.
I would suggest everyone read Derb as well as Mencken, Malcolm Muggeridge, and Francois Revel. A bit of Old Europe is never a bad thing.
Grzmlyk| 12.8.09 @ 10:16AM
Hi Ken:
Thanks - btw, I appreciate your posts - despite our occasional differences.
I think young liberals - like Liberal Reader - tend to be the naive kind. Being in the arts, I encounter a lot of this type, and they're not all young, but they tend to think as children think.
But the Toddards and "Bobs" of the world, along with the Bill Mahers and the Jeanine Garofalos/George Clooneys/Sean Penns/Ben Afflecks/Matt Damons/ etc, etcs, are purely in it for the vanity and the satisfaction that comes from strutting/taunting.
Then you have the Nancy Pelosis of the world, who are in it for the power.
And the Barack Obamas of the world who are in it for vengeance.
Then you have the Wal-marts, which in the last two years has learned to play the game - much to the detriment of its integrity - by paying lip service to the whole health care and climate change issues - this is driven by greed.
And finally you have my ex-girlfriend, as rigid an ideologue as I've ever seen - she's in it for the hate.
(What can I say? She's gorgeous and she seemed to be a sweet person for the first week we were dating. Did I mention she's gorgeous?).
:-)
S.L. Toddard| 12.8.09 @ 11:38AM
"But the Toddards and "Bobs" of the world..."
Man - this guy just can't stop thinking and writing about me. What's Toddard think, why is he the way he is, what's he wearing tonight etc.
In all honestly, he could be my biggest (or at least most obsessive) fan.
S.L. Toddard| 12.8.09 @ 12:21PM
"But the Toddards and "Bobs" of the world, along with the Bill Mahers and the Jeanine Garofalos/George Clooneys/Sean Penns/Ben Afflecks/Matt Damons"
Wow. Grzmlyk thinks of me as a Hollywood megastar. A matinee idol!
Ken (Old Texican)| 12.8.09 @ 10:31AM
Grz
If I may, can you give us a glimpse of the "why" of her hate....or the subject/s of her hate?
I really would like to understand hate better.
Grzmlyk| 12.8.09 @ 11:10AM
She's an interesting case. Frankly, I don't understand her. I know a lot of it is white guilt which has hardened into hatred. She's an odd blend of traits; she's worked very hard all her life and isn't a party girl in any way; nor does she abuse drugs or get obnoxious at parties.
But there are two red flags: first off, she's an actress (never a promising sign, although at first she seemed totally un-actress-like because she's NOT vain), and second, she makes her daily bread by working for a state agency that cares for the disabled - and is thus completely unacquainted with the world of business, economics, or what capitalism really is. Hence she's a de facto communist as far as I can tell.
I find that people who work with the autistic, the mentally broken and criminal offenders are often people who feel more complete when they are among the bottom rungs of society than they feel when they are among functional, successful people. Such is definitely her case.
She has kindness in her, but it's always for the victim. She lives very frugally - more frugally than she has to, so at least she's not a hypocrite - and her entire existence is unnecessarily meager. She doesn't have joy in her at all. She does have a sense of humor, but it's intermittent and always based on cynicism and/or self deprecation.
Her history with men is pathetic. She's gorgeous, but she's alone. Past boyfriends are a parade of narcissists and sociopaths. When it comes to the opposite sex, she's only really comfortable around gay men - if she weren't so pretty, she'd be the classic "fag hag." There is a genuine sweetness buried deep inside her, but it's really crusted over with, I think, disappointment. So we only lasted a few weeks (although we'd been friends for a long time).
Her dad is a navy guy who developed muscular dystrophy when she was about 12 or so, and he's been increasingly disabled ever since. Her mother was an alcoholic who emotionally abandoned her. There is mental illness in her extended family. She is only really close to her sister, who's about a year younger than she; they have this bizarre and impenetrable bond. Her sister is a PETA activist. Oy.
From the time she was 18 she worked with the dregs of society - her first job was doing some kind of therapy with sex offenders!! A woman who looks like that should NOT be working with sex offenders. She's the VA-VA-VA- VOOM type.
She is all about resentment - she constantly talks about people she hates, and her favorite phrase is, "I hate rich people." Except, of course, for celebrities, whom she idolizes; her downtime is generally taken up with Jon Stewart, Bill Maher, Kathy Griffen (puke) and otehr acerbic TV shows - she doesn't LIVE for TV, but she immerses herself far too much and too completely.
I really don't understand the origins of her hate - I believe that she long ago cut herself off from her intellect. She's not stupid, but she goes by "feeling" more than logic and reason. She feels like a victim and divides the world into victims and oppressors. She is vitriolic with anyone who she deems an oppressor.
I honestly don't know where the hate comes from, but it saddens me greatly, and it affects her acting - she actually has some talent, but onstage she is unable to project warmth, love or joy. And she has very little discipline (although more so than many!).
I wish I could explain her better, but I'm not smart enough.
S.L. Toddard| 12.8.09 @ 11:40AM
"Past boyfriends are a parade of narcissists and sociopaths. When it comes to the opposite sex, she's only really comfortable around gay men"
I'll bet.
Grzmlyk| 12.8.09 @ 11:46AM
Hey, everybody, the Turd made a funny!
Hilarious. What a wit! I laughed till I stopped.
Did you think of that yourself, or did you go to one of your bookmarked pages as per usual?
Big J| 12.8.09 @ 12:38PM
Grzmlyk,
Although I thoroughly enjoyed your description of the ex, I found no humor in The Turd's comments.
I know, I know....you were probably saying it tongue in cheek, but just had to say it.
I love to prod the fools, don't ya know.
Man, when are you ever going to start publishing the gems transferred from your mind to keyboard?
It's a treat to have you stop by, anyway.
Grzmlyk| 12.8.09 @ 12:55PM
Hi Big J:
Thanks - yes, I want to start a blog, but I have mixed feelings and very little time.
Yes, I was being sarcastic about Toddard. He poses as this erudite, above-it-all elitist and then he betrays what is at best a junior-high school-level sense of humor - the cyber equivalent of, "hey, dude, you're a fag!"
And it is curious that one of the enlightened Liberal Souls who regularly graces this Web site with His Presence should view such an accusation as an insult.
Why, if I were gay, wouldn't that elevate me into one of the most elite victim groups out there right now? Why, if I were gay, heaven forbid that I stop at asking society for mere tolerance. No, gays must be kow-towed to, praised, celebrated and emulated, simply for putting together an "outie" with another "outie".
Why, on second thought, I think Toddard has created a moral lapse by making fun at an oppressed minority. Even if it is misplaced.
Because, for me, women are pretty much the most miraculous things in a miraculous universe.
John II| 12.9.09 @ 12:31AM
Grzmlyk: Forget about the blog, for now anyhow. Get off your ass and write a novel, quick.
And cut me in for 2% when it becomes a runaway bestseller.
Carpenter| 12.8.09 @ 2:32PM
My sympathies, Grz. I married one of those. Hard for me to think of her as gorgeous after all the bloodshed, but she certainly had it all in the lookage dept. I fell for her sense of humour, until I realized that denigrating someone else behind their back was an integral part of it. Her worldview is entirely driven by the desire for vengeance for some imagined slight or great unnamed injustice. Liberal, of course.
Gearjammer| 12.8.09 @ 10:37AM
The question for these times is simply how have insane, destructive liars taken control of almost nearly everything ? The people who know better have no fight in them to defeat this enemy. The only weapons they launch are words. We need not grab our muskets or march in freezing snow with rags on our bleeding feet. Just an organized powerful economic consumer strike would do it. Let it all fall down. Then rebuild. The nuts get their half of America and we get our half. But it would be a decade of real hell and alot would be at risk. Freedom is not free after all. None of the chattering class conservative crusaders are willing to give up one second of their yummy lives in NEW YORK NEW YORK, or in some opulent life style in a gauche palace on the Florida coast. Talk tough and live having more fun than a human being should have-the modern conservative credo. I remind you Reagan did not die a particularly rich man.
Gearjammer| 12.8.09 @ 10:43AM
Grz, import a bride from Asia or the Czech republic. Give this lefty goofball a kick in the ass. Be a man. Get rid of her. You are sleeping with the enemy.
Pingback| 12.8.09 @ 11:32AM
The American Spectator : Down With Happy Talk links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
toddes| 12.8.09 @ 11:47AM
After reading the book I believe that Derbyshire's pessimism is as much a result of his agnoticism as his conservatism.
R. Dittmar| 12.8.09 @ 12:32PM
I haven't read his new book, but I have followed him for years and I think that the Derb has turned into a scientist. He thinks the only truth in the world is found in the ideas currently in fashion amongst Ivory Tower eggheads. That's the reason I believe he's become more and more stident in his atheism. Ultimately scientism and conservatism are incompatible though given that scientism is just another form of liberal elitism. If the only truth in the world comes from the mouths of eggheads, then it’s not too far a leap to start arguing that we should do whatever they tell us to do vis a vis global warming for instance. The Derb bought that whole hoax hook, line and sinker.
toddes| 12.8.09 @ 2:44PM
If I remember correctly Jonah Goldberg made a similar observation about Derbyshire on the National Review Online blog the other day. That is, that Derb seemed to be moving toward scientism or, at least, skating on the edge with it. Derb offered a defense of his position but it did not change my opinion of the man's worldview.
R. Dittmar| 12.8.09 @ 3:23PM
For what it's worth, I think this scientism is key to understanding what's become of the Derb. Even this currently pessimistic take of his is a function of what the pointy-head he’s been reading lately have been saying. I’ve also seen him admiringly tout speculation by a different set of futuristic pointy-head that a “singularity” is near and some computer artificial intelligence will take over and solve all our problems! Nutty eggheadery here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T.....ingularity
If the voices of the “Nirvana is near” pointy-heads get a little more insistent, the Derb will drop the pessimism in an instant and start immanentizing the eschaton.
Ken (Old Texican)| 12.8.09 @ 12:34PM
Toddes, everyone,
I detest it when people commend a book to me, then I get it and it is slop.
Nevertheless, I am going to break my rule.
"Man's Search For Meaning" by Victor Frankl. A perrenial bestseller for over thirty years, as it should be.
Dr. Frankl was chosen to be Freud's successor at the Vienna Polyclinic.
toddes| 12.8.09 @ 2:47PM
It's been on my To-Be-Read list for some time. Unfortunately that list is quite extensive. Thank you for the recommendation.
Liberal Reader | 12.8.09 @ 1:02PM
You all should listen to this interview with Republican Jim Leach.
PCP Smoker| 12.8.09 @ 2:14PM
Derbshire is a scumbag. Reclaim "gloom and doom"- what a pointless argument. It was this creep along with Dumpshit and Frump who were criticizing anyone on the radio arguing against the Obama agenda, while trying to sell their pathetic books.
Fuck him and his band of boutique conservatives. Hope someone puts bullet holes right in their faces.
It was this creep
Alan Brooks| 12.8.09 @ 2:17PM
"For proof of this, just look at the ever-shortening time span between the announcement of a counterfeit-proof transit ticket, credit card or unit of currency and the production of the counterfeit."
Appleboy, you don't know how aesthetically unappetizing (is this redundant?), the future is going to be. You ARE a Pangloss, in that sense.
I talk to transhumanists, extropians, "futurists" every day, and they lack a non-academic appreciation of what they and others are doing. They think the world is a canvas they can paint on.
Too bad the painting is a Jackson Pollock.
Derek Leaberry| 12.8.09 @ 3:19PM
I agree that pessimism is in order. America is a cultural sewer. But for the ability to print money at the Federal Reserve Board, America is fiscally bankrupt. A vast majority of Americans want something for nothing from the government which is the main cause for massive deficit spending. Worse, since the 1965 Immigration Law, America has imported millions more who want something for nothing. We have a two-headed plutocacy, the one head being the Democrats who hate the historic American country but who are in love with all progressive new trends, the freakier the better, and the other head being the tool of big business, the Republican Party.
Better to turn one's back to politics except as amusement and devote oneself to your family, your church, your neighborhood and your ancient culture, the one that grew from birth of Jesus and gave us notables from Charles Martel, Charlesmagne, Da Vinci, Michaelangelo, Dante, Shakespeare, Washington and Lee. The world of Obama, Oprah, Tiger, Tony Blair and the Clintons offers insanity.
Alan Brooks| 12.8.09 @ 4:53PM
Derek, you got it.
Pingback| 12.8.09 @ 3:32PM
The American Spectator : Down With Happy Talk | alba news links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 12.8.09 @ 3:32PM
The American Spectator : Down With Happy Talk | alba news links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Alan Brooks| 12.8.09 @ 4:50PM
you got right to the [family jewels]--
this is a family site--
One day an Appleboy is complaining of the decline of standards and the callow youth of today, and then he is on about silver linings and lighting candles and picking up your trash and... yuch.
He isn't just contrarian; no, Appleboy is a smarmy contrarian.
Alan Brooks| 12.8.09 @ 6:32PM
If we needed your chirpy Reader's Digest GOP Kool Aid, we'll read Norman Vincent Peale, and chant
"day by day,
we are getting better and better
in every way"
No one except Daphne Kenward and a few eschatologists thinks the world is ending.
But, just for starters, are you satisfied with publik skools?
Pretty disheartening, eh? you don't always feel like dancing a jig when you contemplate the next decade, do you?
A long row to hoe before Jesus clasps you to his bosom.
Ken (Old Texican)| 12.8.09 @ 6:47PM
Alan, DerekDork,
Thank you very much for your positive contributions here. We all appreciate a cold bucket of water thrown on our heads as we labor to figure out solutions and routes up the mountain.
We also appreciate your whinings. Nice music to work by.
I personally am so glad you both could find a comfortable place to defecate upon the heads of people trying to keep your basements at mommie's dry.
It is just so delightful to have our difficult work properly critiqued. (damned if I know how to spell that) by such discriminating souls as yours.
Questions though: Have either of you kindred spirits EVER done anything?
Have either of you ever built anything?
Do either of you support a family?
Do either of you make payroll for other families?
Of course not, so why would we do anything but chuckle at your childishness?
Personally, I enjoy laughing at both of you.
Thank you.
Alan Brooks| 12.8.09 @ 7:54PM
And thank you for, in chronological order,
for renominating Bush 41, after he demonstrated his post Cold War cluelessness
nominating Dole instead of Kemp in '96
George W. Bush's waste of eight years
the tortured 'Nam vet, 2008
Thanks so much for squandering the post Cold War legacy. Now the big question is: who are you going to nominate in '12?
Tricia Nixon? Whomever you end up nominating over two and a half years from now, I thank you in advance.
Ken (Old Texican)| 12.8.09 @ 8:03PM
**************(world's smallest violin playing "My heart bleeds for thee".)
Well, arsewipe, we WON the cold war. We will win these.
Without your help, thankyouverymuch. Heh!
I can just hear your whining when Reagan took command. Hah Hah Hah! were you out of diapers yet?
Alan Brooks| 12.8.09 @ 8:09PM
No, the people on the ground in Eastern Europe won the Cold War. Reagan helped them. But you can't think you can end a war and then lose the peace-- unless you are senile and in diapers at an assisted facility.
Alan Brooks| 12.8.09 @ 8:03PM
Route UP the mountain? This country is in decline. You had your chances, and you BLEW IT.
You violated the social contract by offering us mediocrities for twenty years-- the social contract is good leadership as well as all the rest.
And you still; STILL, cannot figure out why Obama is was elected? Never have so many burghers been so thickheaded for so long. Twenty years wasted, not eight years as the Derb wrote.
The Derb's fault is he is too kind.
Gearjammer| 12.8.09 @ 9:05PM
Well Alan Brooks right now political leaders who do nothing seems better than those who wanna "do" just about everything.
Alan Brooks| 12.8.09 @ 11:05PM
ooohhh!
So doing nothing CAN be preferable to doing something (and please don't amend what you wrote)? Tell it to Old Mexican and Appleboy. They want CHANGE. PROGRESS. GROWTH.
Or maybe they are confused. Golly Gee whiz.
Evanston2| 12.9.09 @ 1:22AM
Derbyshire is not a conservative. He is McCain with an English accent.
Derek Leaberry| 12.9.09 @ 9:03AM
Ken
I am long married, have six children and own a business. If you do not see the cultural rot that has devasted America, the long-term insolvency that looms in America's future, or the demographic revolution America is undergoing, you are a fool.
I am also man enough to post under my own name, unlike yourself.
Matt| 12.9.09 @ 2:41PM
Derbyshire is NOT a conservative. He is a reactionary, which is very different. He promotes a brand of far right pessimism which includes abortion, racialism and euthanasia. Just being "anti-liberal" (selectively at that) is not going to help the problem.
Alan Brooks| 12.10.09 @ 9:35PM
"Reactionary" is an epithet directed at conservatives you don't like.
Just as a 'fascist' can be a rightist you don't like.
Richard Baker| 12.13.09 @ 9:42AM
The last thing I need is this dotty Englishman trying to tell me how to run America. With people like this, it's hard to believe, sometimes, that England gave us Magna Carta and the Common Law. When Churchill died in 1964, the last man to understand the greatness of traditional English ideas was gone. Mrs. Thatcher tried valiantly to stem the tide but the rot of socialism was in the English bones by then.
www.us-bapeoutlet.com | 4.3.10 @ 9:10PM
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