New at Reason

December 26, 2006

John McClaughry looks at a new and essential history of American radicals.

Comments

Guy Montag|12.26.06 @ 12:36PM|#

Wow, I had hever thought of being able to appreciate someone who hates interstate highways, Wal-Mart, National Review and Ayn Rand. But this Kauffman guy sounds pretty interesting.

Might add this to my "need to buy" list for the "need to read" pile.

|12.26.06 @ 1:05PM|#

I for one am not intrigued by Mr. Kauffman's longings for the simple life, but Mr. McClaughry has been chugging, if not mainlining, Mr. Bush's Kool-Aid to produce a putdown like this one: "none of us can flee from the second and more menacing fact that in a cave in Pakistan, a coffeehouse in Cairo, a mosque in Riyadh, and a bunker beneath Tehran, well-armed and inventive villains really, really want to kill the peaceful people of Elba, New York, and wherever else we Americans dwell. They want to do so because their reading of their holy book commands them to purify their faith by extirpating the infidels, and in so doing reaffirm their divine right to rule the world."

Uh, no. Al Qaeda just wants us out of the Middle East, so they can kill Jews (and onery Muslims) in peace. We're in the Middle East because we don't want to see Israel destroyed and we do want lots and lots of oil (for all the world, not just us) at "reasonable" prices.

To get less tongue in cheek, Christian Alfonsi, in his excellent study "Circle in the Sand," includes the text of a number of warnings sent by the U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia that the continuing presence of U.S. troops in that country following the first Gulf War was likely to provoke a terrorist response.

9/11 was not the result of the "Axis of Evil" invented by President Bush to justify his invasion of a country that had not attacked us and had no intention of doing so. Bin Ladin does not want to rule the world. He just wants to rule Saudi Arabia (and maybe kill all the Jews). We do face another long struggle against Muslim fanatics, but it is a much more manageable conflict than the power-hungry Bush Administration wishes to admit. And we don't need to give the President the power to lock us in jail, deprive us of all our rights, and even torture us, all in the name of "security." Or has Mr. McClaughry stopped believing in freedom?

Guy Montag|12.26.06 @ 1:14PM|#

And also in Reason H & R, Alan Vanneman posts above that the whole world is a Zionist conspiracy. Well, except the parts of the world that wish to exterminate Zionists and their conspirators.

|12.26.06 @ 1:19PM|#

"Uh, no. Al Qaeda just wants us out of the Middle East."

Al Qaeda, Hezbollah, Hamas, pfft. All the same crap, right? Sunni, Shiite, wahhabi...etc. All the same thing, right? C'mon Alan, the only thing remotely accurate in your post above is the fact that people in small town America have an irrational fear of being bombed.

ron|12.26.06 @ 2:00PM|#

the end of this article really went off the deep end... i was kind of enjoying it until it went all AM radio on me.

|12.26.06 @ 2:04PM|#

"That semi-mythic era of the happy, contented rural village-its land-owning swains and lasses farming and blacksmithing and barn raising, quilting and square dancing and parenting, worshiping and burying and remembering, oblivious to the greed, passions, and nation-state criminality washing over the rest of the planet-has, on the whole, receded far beyond recovery."

Three cheers for the word "semi-mythic"!

...and I'm not so sure it's far beyond recovery for everyone. My childhood had brushes with the semi-mythic, and I've known some who've led and I think may still lead semi-mythic lives.

"...none of us can flee from the second and more menacing fact that in a cave in Pakistan, a coffeehouse in Cairo, a mosque in Riyadh, and a bunker beneath Tehran, well-armed and inventive villains really, really want to kill the peaceful people of Elba, New York, and wherever else we Americans dwell. They want to do so because their reading of their holy book commands them to purify their faith by extirpating the infidels, and in so doing reaffirm their divine right to rule the world."

There are lunatics among our enemies, and there are lunatics among us.

I doubt that bit accurately describes the objectives or motives of the people of Pakistan, Cairo, Riyadh, and Tehran. ...change the locations around, however, and it might accurately describe the objectives and motives of the lunatics among us.

Rhywun|12.26.06 @ 2:35PM|#

i was kind of enjoying it until it went all AM radio on me.

Megadittoes!

the metric system

I've never understood why cranks like this hate the metric system. Is it an aversions to powers of ten? Or some sort of blood-and-soil nativism?

Guy Montag|12.26.06 @ 2:59PM|#

Rhywun,

The metric system of weights and measures was created by literature majors who never mastered fractions.

|12.26.06 @ 3:01PM|#

I've never understood why cranks like this hate the metric system. Is it an aversions to powers of ten? Or some sort of blood-and-soil nativism?

Well, there is a whole lot of inertia one has to overcome to make the changeover happen. Just off the top of my head: most interstates I've been on number their exits to match the nearest mile marker, so you know right away that if (say) you've just passed mile marker 177, then Exit 139 is roughly 38 miles away. (Or, at least, as close to "right away" as one can mentally perform subtraction.) Replacing that would be a pain.

Guy Montag|12.26.06 @ 3:23PM|#

Son of a!,

Georgia used to (not sure if they still do) number their exits sequentially. If the exit matched the exit it was by accident.

Virginia used to number their exits sequentially, but changed it to the mile marker system and, for a while, had "old exit X" signs up by the ones that changed. Have run into quite a few people who still think it is that way.

Rhywun|12.26.06 @ 4:12PM|#

I think we keep the old system of weights and measures simply because we can. I guess to some people it's a sign of American superiority or something.

|12.26.06 @ 4:14PM|#

"We are in a global struggle we would rather not have to contest but which now makes American withdrawal from the world a matter of possibly mortal consequence."

Anti-statism, republicanism, decentralization, it's all changed. Why "9-11 changed everything", because the Middle East has problems that spun off dangerous cranks that managed to blow up stuff. Ooh and we have to multiply that by a billion Muslims so we can feel ooey gooey good and ignorant-shit scared. And conquer the world in the name of making sure it isnt conquered.

Guy's a dork, disappointing column, with an intriguuing start and development.

(Meanwhile, in fairness a number system based around 3s and 12s is better than decimal. Still metric is standard.)

:-|12.26.06 @ 4:20PM|#

Why is it that "radicals" are always so friggin' boring?