I read everything he writes (or try to!). His regular NRO feature, "Impromptus", often feels like a cozy chat amongst friends after Saturday night dinner; or reading a (hand-written) letter from a friend on a Sunday morning over a cup of rich coffee. Or simple, funny tours through the thought of a non-confrontational conservative.
Or something.
Anyway, his newest column contains something about the word "fascism" that I think is required reading by anyone intelligent. Find the original column here. Below is the relevant excerpt:
A word about the French: After Sarkozy's election, hundreds of university students in Paris "went on strike." What does it mean to go on strike, if you're a student? To refuse to attend class? Isn't that called hooky? And who cares, really, if these students go on "strike"? Whom are they injuring, other than themselves? (Actually, the less Parisian education they have, the better off they may be.)
But this is not so amusing: Student and other demonstrators shouted, "Sarko, fascist! The people will have your hide!" (A Reuters story is here.) That, I submit, is the authentic voice of Leninism. Note the reference to "the people," the presumption of speaking for "the people" - and this was after a free and fair election, in which "the people" really and truly spoke! It was the kind of election that these demonstrators would never permit, in their ideal society.
And "The people will have your hide." Yes, behind these shouters is Leninism, or Jacobinism, or whatever we choose to call it. We are reminded that it never dies; that civilization must be always on guard against it.
And then there is "fascist": "Sarko, fascist!" All of us who are conservative, or classically liberal, have had to be called fascist. It goes with the territory. And yet it's no fun. I have been called fascist since I was in college. And those who do it are either malicious or ignorant - sometimes, I guess, they are both (and what a brutal combination: malice and ignorance).
Ordinarily, it does no good to try to reason with people: Fascists are centralizers of power; we are decentralizers. Fascists are nationalizers of industry; we are free-marketeers. Fascists are collectivists; we are anti-collectivists. It is no use to say any of this: "Fascist" is an epithet used by mean or stupid people against those they dislike who are perceived to be "on the right." One result is that, when a real fascist comes along, there is no word left for him.
How odd that we who want to fight tirelessly against jihadists, or Islamofascists, are called "fascists"! How perverse that we liberal democrats, who wave the flag of universal human values, are called "fascists"! If you follow Jefferson and Locke and Lincoln and Churchill and Reagan - why, you are a fascist, at least according to some (to many).
But one must not whine. The other day, I brought up the "fascist" business with Roger Kimball, the conservative writer and editor. I said, "Are you ever called a fascist?" Brightly - for he is a bright kind of guy - he said, "Early and often!" In the past, I knew of Reagan-supporting Jews who had tattoos on their arms who were denounced as "fascists." (And when I say tattoos, I'm not talking about the biker kind.)
Anyway . . . an old, old story. But annoying all the same.
Every word is spot on. And the deeper implication unmistakable. It is found in this statement: "We are reminded that it never dies; that civilization must be always on guard against it." I'm reminded of one of my favorite definitions of creativity: finding new solutions to old problems. And that French student's views are a very old problem, even as dressed in seemingly evolved, progressive garb. But those clothes mask the truth.
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