OKAY, it's Spring Break, and it's beautiful bicycling weather, so it's basically Later, Dudes around here (and, look, nothing could possibly get me interested in reacting to what The World's Most Pathetic High Court says during oral arguments, no matter the topic, no matter how much free time I have).
But, if I may, if you've saddled yourself with political bedfellows of the angry racist variety--and where are the polite racists of yesteryear, anyway?--you really don't need to score points with 'em first before denouncing their vile battlefield excrements:
There are really two Victor Davis Hansons. One is a cracking good military historian, the author of Carnage and Culture, the guy Hollywood calls when it wants to make sure it's got the Spartans' helmets right.
No. He's not. He's a small-town classicist milking the History As Simple Moral Tales for Children of All Ages scam real historians abandoned decades ago. And Carnage and Culture is a prime example, a collection of just-so stories about how White People won all the important battles except Cannae, which the Africans weren't smart enough to capitalize on.
Which, naturally, requires that we grade the Tet Offensive on a curve.
And, no; has anyone but Frank Miller ever called on ol' V.D. for anything? And that was just because Tom of Finland was already dead. He's got a fucking IMDB page, Dave.
The other is a conservative columnist who relies on the sort of rigor and research normally reserved for the dream journals of Twilight fans.
Please, please can we get ourselves a Press whose every cultural reference isn't pop trash? Like only 98% or something?
No. They're identically slipshod. And they're identical to all other "reasoning and rigor" on every public issue from every Republican of the last forty years. White People=Civilization=Great, except for your modern European. That's the Romney campaign right there, and he's the most rational of the bunch. Maybe you should ponder that. Maybe you 30-something Insiders who imagine racism is going to disappear from the Republican party when old coots like Hanson die off oughta be asking yourselves how old George Zimmerman is.
8 comments:
*Sigh*... The second part of Weigel's piece wasn't bad. These days, I'm just grateful for any small scraps that come my way. Also, too... I thought we Americans graded the entire Viet Nam War on a curve... as in the trope most often heard at American Legion halls: "Well, we won all the military engagements, by Jeezus!"
Hi Doghouse,
You might enjoy what the War Nerd has to say about the illustrious Victor Davis Hanson.
http://exiledonline.com/the-war-nerd-vs-neocon-knucklehead-victor-davis-hanson-a-war-nerd-classic/
The "polite racists of yesteryear" would include Geraldo Rivera, who cautions about wearing hoodies in sundown communities such as Sanford, FL.
Re Zimmerman as card-carrying racist, it seems to me that he's pulled off (so far) a successful high tech lynching, which is being defended by whole teevee networks because lynching still do what they always did--assert white supremacy and terrorize black people. It used to take a whole mob to accomplish this. These days it's just one fat skinhead and his retired judge daddy.
Where's Tennessee Williams when you need him?
"Maybe you 30-something Insiders who imagine racism is going to disappear from the Republican party when old coots like Hanson die off oughta be asking yourselves how old George Zimmerman is."
I'm so old I remember being told in 1980 that racism was going to disappear from the Republican Party once the old coots died off. How old was VDH then? 20?
Those who fail to learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them. Those who learn the lessons of history from Victor Davis Hanson are just plain doomed.
At best, at very best, Carnage and Culture is an ideologically driven recapitulation of long cherished and mostly refuted myths concerning histories of human conflict. Victor David Hanson, as far as I can tell, is a reasonably competent scholar of ancient Greek texts. He even made a contribution to scholarship by penning the introduction to Robert B. Strassler, The Landmark Thucydides: A Comprehensive Guide to the Peloponnesian War. Aside from that, and perhaps a handful of little things, he stands mostly as evidence of the Peter Principle in action: he labors and is amply rewarded at the level of his incompetence.
Several years ago, I wrote "Carnage and Culture: An Overview" with the intent to follow it up with more detailed dissection of the errors in his history. I regret my failure.
His work is stimulating. So is watching FAUX "News" and reading the Wall Street Journal. At least reading WSJ gives me glimpses of how competent conservatives think. I cannot make such a bold claim for Hanson.
People less learned that Victor Davis Hanson? Low bar.
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