Roger Kimball is one of my favorite thinkers alive today. I love that he often uses really big words I’ve never heard before and have to look up, but it’s the incredible insight behind his words that impresses me most. His breadth of classical learning is amazing, which no doubt contributes to his wisdom about the nature of things. The reason for the quote below isn’t the FBI raid, which is old news now, but the second paragraph. First, it is an excellent example of the dissembling dishonesty of our cultural elites. David Brooks and the New York Times couldn’t get any more elite. Second, he exposes how dishonest and innacurate qualifiying words can so easily distort the truth.
I’ve always despised the term “social justice” because all justice is social. Mostly I despise it because of the Marxist-leftist-progressive baggage that comes with it. Christians should never use the phrase, although sadly many do, including many who should knoiw better. What he says about “absolute truth” could not be more spot on either.
It’s because he is nervous that Brooks wants us to close our eyes before he moves on to the next bit of his column. OK, maybe there is “a core of truth” to Trump’s narrative. But really—close your eyes now, and hum loudly—that narrative “simply assumes, against a lot of evidence, that the leading institutions of society are inherently corrupt, malevolent and partisan and are acting in bad faith.”
Let’s leave out “inherent,” since it’s just an unearned intensifier like “absolute” in the phrase “absolute truth,” deployed by people who want to criticize someone for believing that there is a difference between truth and falsehood. Either X is true or it is not; trying to undercut it by perpending the adjective “absolute” is akin to adding the word “social” to “justice” and then thinking you have improved on the concept of “justice.” Is “social justice” more just than plain old, unmodified justice?
— Roger Kimball – A Token of the Managerial Age Bewails Trump’s Surge: David Brooks is very worried the FBI’s raid of Mar-a-Lago helps Trump
Recent Comments