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What's Still Great
In Praise of M. Stanton Evans
Great men stand out in a crowd without even trying.
The following remarks were delivered at a celebration of Mr. Evans’ distinguished career held at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. on July 12:
I have known Stan Evans for a long time, approximately ten years longer than he has known me.
When I arrived on campus as a college freshman, Stan’s aura was very much present, even though he had graduated some years earlier. Just as it was assumed by us impressionable youth that a lanky prepster named George H.W. Bush might one day play a prominent role in public life, it was assumed, as well, that M. Stanton Evans would leave his mark on American journalism. And so it came to pass.
Stan will have forgotten this historic occasion, but I met him at an all-day meeting convened in Newark, New Jersey to contemplate the future of the Girl Scouts of America. In those hand-to-mouth days for us token conservatives, we would go almost anywhere for two hundred bucks. I was late in arriving and took my seat at the long table of conferees, with the audience rising around us in serried ranks to the top of a modernistic amphitheatre. The ritual introductions were already in progress. They went something like this:
“Hello, I’m William Bigelow from the Committee for Racial Equality. If we do nothing else today, we must confront the racial oppression under which millions of Girl Scouts of color are suffering each and every day.”
Murmurs of warm approval rippled through the audience.
Then: “Hello, I’m J. Somersworth Farnsby, co-founder of the Coalition for a Nuke-free America. I hope that we can all agree that the failure of the Girl Scouts to confront the overriding moral issue of our time — our government’s stockpiling of nuclear weapons — is a national disgrace. That disgrace should end right here, right now.”
There followed a sitting ovation for J. Somersworth.
And then: “Aloha. I’m Rev. Cindy Cistern from the Church for a Better Tomorrow! I’d certainly agree with Somersworth that we ought to rid the Girl Scouts of the badges, the uniforms and all the terrifying emblems of US militarism. And, as William says, racial injustice is clearly omnipresent in contemporary America. But the larger challenge for us is to throw open the doors for all young women to the full range of sexual possibility.”
Thunderous applause for Sister Cistern.
Along about this point in the program, the calculation was hardening that I should have held out for three hundred bucks.
And then … rolling out of the American heartland, came a rich, reassuring baritone voice saying, “Good morning. I’m M. Stanton Evans, a nonpartisan observer of the public policy process.”
Tentative applause, much confusion, as a couple of hundred nervous Girl Scout officials strained to get a glimpse of the nonpartisan observer in their midst.
You will remember those Gahan Wilson cartoons in The New Yorker. Scenes of a movie audience watching a horror flick. People writhing in their seats, screaming, covering their eyes with their fingers. In the middle of the audience sits one weird, pudgy little kid, grinning wildly from ear to ear. That was me. With M. Stanton Evans in the house, I knew that we had them outnumbered. And so it came to pass. That conference proved to be a long day for the forces of peace and sexual possibility.
I learned that day about one of Stan’s signal contributions to the public conversation: by the rigor of his thought, the clarity of his expression and the sheer weight of his argument, he has leveled every playing field on which he has chosen to compete.
About the Author
Neal B. Freeman is chairman of the Blackwell Corporation.
Al Adab| 7.15.11 @ 1:30PM
One of the Founders and early "combatents" in The Conservative Movement. We all owe him and his collegues a debt of gratitude. We must carry the torch and continue the battle for Liberty
"If you break Faith with us who die,
We will not rest, though poppies grow
In Flander's fields"
Alan Brooks| 7.15.11 @ 4:23PM
Stanton's dignified breed are endangered species. I know I put down the Ben Steins of this world too often, but you must admit there is no replacing WFBs and Goldwaters, just as you cannot replace family members who are deceased.
The world of dignity died in the '70s, as I remember.
Alan Brooks| 7.15.11 @ 4:29PM
... for instance, I don't dislike Palin (esp as she is a knockout), however she doesn't appear as Goldwater in intellect, demeanor, and bearing; that is her appeal- as an Everywoman. Yet Everyman and Everywoman is a populist trend; Joe the Plumber likes his broads and cheap entertainment, he isn't WFB at a formal dinner discussing Ike's legacy.
Alan Brooks| 7.15.11 @ 4:34PM
"The world of dignity died in the '70s, as I remember."
Dignity was aging in the '50s;
on life support in the '60s;
died in the '70s
(as I remember it, naturally).
Al Adab| 7.15.11 @ 4:42PM
Brooks:
Good, dignified, comments today. Thanks.
Alan Brooks| 7.15.11 @ 5:32PM
IMO, dignity is "all" we've lost; materially things have improved, so the younger set doesn't know what it's missing. But I hate being called "Dude", and overhearing a punk talk trash for a half hour on end, it isn't offending, it is boring.
45 years ago it was "a teenybopper laid some acid on me so I listened to Rubber Soul and wigged out in my bellbottoms."
Now it is: "this dude is on probation for meth and the chick he's sleeping with trashed his car and his dad got bent outta shape...................................."
Christians might think it's evil; I think it's merely boring. A few minutes is acceptable, but the trash-talk goes on and on until I want to yell 'Shut the Frick Up'!
Al Adab| 7.15.11 @ 5:45PM
Brooks, I think you and I found some common ground in the decadence of popular culture. Lowest common denominator and all that.
My daughter used to say such people were, "rude, crude and socially unacceptable". She was and is right.
Alan Brooks| 7.15.11 @ 6:01PM
Freeman has a Tom Wolfe-esque style, and Wolfe transcends polemics.
Perhaps ALL we have in common is a hankering for highbrow, or high middle-brow (or low- highbrow!)
I always liked a film such as Man For All Seasons, even Becket with its gratuitous pinch of raciness. Such isn't merely dignified, but also one pays for quality. Why on Earth would I pay six bucks to watch a Johnny Depp-- or whomever the latest latter day James Dean is-- flick? if it hasn't devolved, it has not progressed either. A second-rate costume drama from way back when gives way to a second-rate postmodern costume drama in 2011. A Renaissance robe has been replaced by whatever, like, Justin Bieber wore at the Grammys, Dude. Like whatever, dude & dudettes.
Alan Brooks| 7.15.11 @ 6:35PM
Here's a parting anecdote, before I bore you as thoroughly as a Julia Roberts Flick:
I spent 30 days in jail in 1992, for not showing up in court to pay a ticket. One would eat his bologna sandwich, lie down on the cot after lunch/dinner, or watch Roseanne and Married With Children on the tube. But whether you watched the tube or not you would hear the dialogue & Laff Trak.
There was nowhere else to go!
Roseanne was halfway decent, the fat parents, Saturnine husband and ugly postmodern wife-- so it was Real, nitty gritty, so... '90s.
The most depressing thing was hearing (only watched it when I went out to drink some jail-KoolAid) 'Married With Children'. The theme song would drift in to the cell:
"Love and marriage, love and marriage,
go together like a horse and carriage,
ask you local gentry,
he'll tell you it's element'ry...'
Sinatra was a great singer so the intro wasn't TOO bad, but the sitcom made me want to barf up the bologna sandwich: Al Bundy, Peg, Christina Bimbo-gate; the Eddie Munster-type son.
For 28 days (two days off for good behavior), it was Peg's bouffant, Al Bundy's leering cruelly handsome face, airhead Christina, the runty son. In jail you worry about getting more time tacked on for getting into a fight; you worry you might never get out-- I worried I would be hearing this for the rest of my life:
"Love and marriage, love and marriage....'
Alan Brooks| 7.17.11 @ 8:56PM
'Roseanne' was real-life:
even the kids were ugly-- a far cry from the Brady Bunch.
David Shoup| 7.15.11 @ 1:47PM
I noticed that you said that G.H.W. Bush would play a prominent role in American politics. I noticed that you DID NOT say that G.H.W. Bush would play an important or a conservative role in American politics. Yes, he won Desert Storm, but if his Ambassador to Iraq April Glaspie had been tough enough with Saddam Hussein, then the war would have been completely unnecessary. President G.H.W. Bush was a mediocrity at best.
Alan Brooks| 7.17.11 @ 8:58PM
All he deep-down cared about was his Kennebunkport-cum- Texas dynasty. Ditto Dubya.
masly | 7.18.11 @ 1:37AM
Thank you for reminding me of a true anchor to man's better nature and to God. I need to re-read MSE in lift my spirit. Thank you.
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Cookie Sewell | 7.15.11 @ 3:15PM
Actually that cartoon was a Charles Addams one with Uncle Fester being the cheery soul.
Point taken -- not everyone is a mindless idiot willing to go along with the liberal drift of the audience.
The Big Kahuna| 7.15.11 @ 3:32PM
One of my favorite Stan Evans quotes is, "I alway have a smoke and and some coffee in the morning, because breakfast is the most important meal of the day"
Derek Leaberry| 7.18.11 @ 2:58PM
I had the good fortune to attend his school. He had a brilliant sense of humor.
doolittle| 7.15.11 @ 4:06PM
having just read Stanton's book "Blacklisted by History" I can surely agree with the author of this piece..that book ought to be required reading for anyone with any interest in American history
TrueBlue| 7.18.11 @ 7:15PM
Which means it'll soon be banned in all public schools.
George True| 7.15.11 @ 7:34PM
I must confess I never heard of Stanton before. He sounds like someone I would enjoy learning more from. Will check out his writings.
Alan Brooks: I too have a pet peeve about being called "Dude". I have been the recipient of dumfounded stares from many twenty-somethings after correcting them for calling me dude. Usually I say, "Don't call me dude, OK? A dude is a tourist at a horse ranch. Got it?" The look of total uncomprehension on their face is actually kind of priceless.
I went to a concert at a local venue about 10 years ago to hear a band that I kind of liked. At the time I was in my forties. I was the only non-twenty something there. One of them was trying to ask me something, but the music was loud and I didn't know he was addressing me. He finally yelled out, "Hey! OLD dude!" That got my attention.
Also Brooks, I kind of got to like Married With children. But I could never understand why poor old Al never wanted to do his wife. In the earlier days of the series, Katey Segal was HOT.
I could never watch Roseanne without feeling some level of disgust and revulsion. She is a foulmouthed, foul tempered lefty. No class or dignity. Not as bad as someone like Joy(less) Behar, but in that same genre. To me, this came through in her acting.
Quartermaster| 7.15.11 @ 9:34PM
Comparing Evans with Simon Wiesenthal is silly. Wiesenthal was a fraud, and accomplished next to nothing while taking an immense amount of credit. Evans is the real deal and has the scars to prove it.
Also, WFB and Goldwater seemed to lose it as they aged and became mediocrities. Evans has held it all together and towers over the rest by a lot.
Alan, evil is often quite boring. That's why evil so often advances - it bores the intelligent out of their minds and they do almost anything to get away from it.
vatvince37| 7.15.11 @ 9:52PM
I have just finished re-reading "Blacklisted by History," a book essential to those who wish to understand and clarify the issues that dominated post WWII America. The "myth" of McCarthyism was born in the 60s, and a half century later, that flawed intepretation is the only one taken as gospel amongst those in the halls of academe and government, especially in the US Foreign Service, from which I am retired. Many "conservative" academics will attempt to resuscitate the image of Nixon, but steer clear of McCarthy, despite the former's close alliance with the latter. Yet to anyone of a certain age - mine - it was Stan Evans (along with Arthur Herman) whose prodigous research brought this "revisionism" into the public eye.
It is my understanding that Stan Evans is preparing a follow-up to "Blacklisted," although he knows the MSM will cut off any attempt to discuss his work. If, then, only for the sake of historical truth, I wish him God speed with his project.
crookedwren| 7.16.11 @ 12:32PM
I have begun "Blacklisted. . . " but put it aside for a moment. Fellows well met -- sharing a lunch table at crowded Mt. Vernon on 8/27/10 -- sent me an old copy of "None Dare Call It Treason," a fitting sequel to my reading of Whittaker Chambers' "Witness."
If you haven't read these two, you need to. Want to get back to Evans' book as soon as I can.
But it's hard to find time to read here. We're battling ICLEI & Agenda 21 here in VA. We've got state mandates to create UDAs and the forfeiture of development rights to private property through sale of those rights (from "sending areas" to designated "receiving areas") in perpetuity.
The battle is darker than I'd dreamed.
Last night I learned of the fate of the town (Hohenwold?) in Lewis Co., TN. They have become -- thanks to their "useful idiots" who run the town -- a PERMACULTURE, an official "TRANSITION TOWN" who will only permit agriculture (no industry allowed) and have created their own local currency (which, of course, cannot be accepted by any other town, state, country).
Patriot groups in towns in MD, VA, SC, even CA have fought back and kicked ICLEI out & reneged on their agreement with ICLEI. (Go to their website. They're an ngo that's working for the UN & Agenda 21.) Other Patriot groups are battling throughout the country.
Go check it out, folks. In Miami, land has been grabbed. We have SMART METERS now. Scary.
The delusion is being perpetuated by using pretty terms: sustainable development and smart growth amongst the most popular.
CHECK IT OUT.
Wish we had more of M. Stanton Evans to help us fight for the Constitutional Republic we've nearly lost.
POST American| 7.16.11 @ 12:06AM
AS we're coming off of decades of FAKE
Bush/RIIA/CFR Chatham House
'conservative' implementation of Globalization
and RED China sellout
--and as the likes of cap stone EYE-cons
Rick Perry and Mitt Romney are being touted
as the'REAL men who'll put things back in
order' ---AND AS --that most famous of
NEO-con redoubts 'Bohemian Grove' is,
as we write, cremating 'CARE' ---what exactly
was the lasting contribution of Stanton Evans?
AGAIN ----WHAT?
Dan Mathewson| 7.17.11 @ 11:55PM
Don't forget the BIG QuEsTiOn asked by everyone, and by everyone I mean some; Has it?
Ivan Ivanovich| 7.16.11 @ 6:42AM
Hunting Rats? That's funny!
My Granny owned a Manchester Terrier, which I found out latter is also called a rat terrier because they were bred in Manchester for killing rats. Limmie was a good dog and so named because my Granny was a Scot and thought of Englishman as dogs.
Steve B | 7.16.11 @ 10:45AM
I've only met M Stanton Evans once, or actually "been in the same room with M Stanton Evans once" would be more accurate and have always regretted not having had the opportunity to know this fascinating man.
It was at an author's party for "Blacklisted by History," and friends described how during the years he was writing it he lugged all his manuscripts around with him all the time, in a rolling suitcase.
I thought that was terribly appropriate. In Eastern Europe during the Soviet occupation, they used to say you could always tell a dissident because he carried all his manuscripts around in a knapsack (or plastic bags in the poorers parts) for fear the secret police would steal them from his apartment.
A while back I read the "Mt. Vernon Statement," billed as an "updating" of Evan's "The Sharon Statement."
http://www.stephenwbrowne.com/.....&submit=Go
Comparing Evans' clear thinking and masterly prose with that collection of hackneyed cliches... as I can say is, they did it better 50 years ago.
Tina B| 7.16.11 @ 1:54PM
I have just ordered "Blacklisted..." and have already learned (through TAS posts) more conservative history than ever in just over an hour. Hats off to you all. . .
vatvince37| 7.16.11 @ 4:44PM
To: Tina B and other interested parties:
As an extra "add-on" to Stan Evans' book, I would suggest Arthur Herman's, McCarthy & His Enemies," published five or six years before "Blacklisted." Herman, who was at one time a historian for the Smithsonian, began a process that is unfolding about the McCarthy
"myth," albeit not as explicitly as Evans; still, it was a beginning.
Of greater importance is the Herbert Romerstein and (the late) Eric Breindel's, "The Venona Secrets," which verifies and demonstrates the truth of McCarthy's charges of Communist influence in high places and the apparent unwillingness to do nothing about it. And what about Alger Hiss, who went to his grave protesting his innocence? Allow me to invoke a slightly different version the Latin plea: de mortuiis nihil nisi bonum. He was guilty as sin.
Chef Schnauzer| 7.17.11 @ 11:54AM
Thank you for reminding me of a true anchor to man's better nature and to God. I need to re-read MSE in lift my spirit. Thank you.
Tina B| 7.17.11 @ 3:50PM
Thanks vatvince37.
dale| 7.17.11 @ 8:24PM
Quartermaster--WFB a mediocrity? Kiss my ass, Dude.
Westie| 7.18.11 @ 3:55PM
After reading the Venona Files, Blacklisted by History and Comrade J in succession I too realized that "The battle is darker than I'd dreamed". Since the 2006-08 election disasters and further readings of past Republican Presidents and Congress criminals I realize that we Traditional American Conservatives have ZERO allies in the Federal Gov. We are all fighting the Statist that seek our destruction.
PS...I still marvel that anyone can call Bill Buckley a Conservative after what he turned into what I would call a pure elitist statist later in life.