Editorial
Tyrrell., R. Emmett Jr.
"Editorial" When An Old Republican Virtue Loses Its Luster T here comes a time in the life of every great man when his old virtues hoodwink...
...Consider the Grand OM Party...
...For one thing not all academics are intellectuals...
...Thus enough said about the catastrophe of intellectuals in politics...
...Obviously ideology is very dear to intellectuals and very comprehensive, but generally ideology (no matter which end of the spectrum it shades) does not matter a piffle to plumbers or farmers or latrine stewards...
...This is because anyone else who utters a peep on such matters is immediately plastered in obloquy...
...In short, government officials will have to summon the courage to read The New Republic carefully...
...Fortunately for Republicans, congeries of educated men of intellect now exist whose scholarship is certifying the intelligence of traditional Republican principles...
...In a secular, post-industrial society intellectuals are the only people who speak convincingly about moral principles...
...In this kind of society traditional fonts of Republicanism like the Rotary elicit hoohaws while the American Association of University Professors becomes fabulous in mews eyes -- though its real function appears indistinguishabl e from Rotary and its members are generally less productive and always less couth, Nevertheless, neither is it practicable nor utterly desirable for Republicans to embrace the learned men of the AAUP...
...Nixon is given to calling the silent majority...
...Coolidge's Bascom Slemp or Mr...
...They trust in the same virtues as Mr...
...This principle also holds true tor great institutions and even for political parties...
...Harding's Harry Dangherty...
...In their pristine form they write for The Journal of Law and Ec, onomiCs...
...For years its most winning virtue was that it was considered an abomination by all right-thinking truth seekers, lls candidates attracted snorts of hostility from intellectuals and academics alike, and few Republican candidates ever dared to acknowledge having read a book or smoked a pipe...
...For them political exchange is not the incantation of moral absolutes, and, following Burke, they temper their general theories to political realities...
...Finally, if government is to engage the devotions of the intellectuals government will have to cut defense expenditures when the time is right...
...Notwithstanding tbe~ catastrophic potential there are various little boons intellectuals bring to modern politics...
...The "Egg Heads" were left to the Democrats, while the Republicans made eyes at insurance salesmen, bank clerks and other magnificoes from that vast throng Mr...
...to a prevailing ideology...
...For America is, today, what Peregrine Worsthorne has described as a --post-industrial, affluent, mass society," and in such societies the intellectual community increases awesomely in size and potency...
...R . Emmett T y r r e l l , J r...
...And there is another problem in dealing with intellectuals...
...For an intellectual is a person whose intimate knowledge of one subject has not cautioned him against intimate revelations on all subjects, and in a society which hums along on the combustible material of ideas the average clod inevitably falls for the intellectuals' pretentious, regardless of the intelectuals' often idiotic conclusions...
...This ideology permits them to interpret the past, make sense of the present, outline a shape for the future...
...Such government is not apt to be terribly democratic, it being unlikely that any large pluralistic society will ever muster more enthusiasm for a better worm than tor a better school district...
...perhaps then on to the Los Angeles Free Press and so it will go...
...Such persons possess the inclination and the time to meditate on a philosophy of government...
...The A l t e r n a t i v e J a n u a r y , 1972 3 Editorial When An Old Republican Virtue Loses Its Luster T here comes a time in the life of every great man when his old virtues hoodwink him into mischief...
...It constitutes the essence of their rationality...
...Nixon are erstwhile advertising wizards who consider the potency of ideas a snare and a delusion...
...As Irving Kristol has written, intellectuals 'subscribe...
...Their vested interests are with moral principle, and moral principle does not yield so easily to compromise as does zoning legislation...
...Government will have to end starvation in America when starvation becomes a problem...
...Such a center would closely resemble the Brookings Institute, which has performed equivalent functions for the Democrats for years...
...loosely be called its culture of propriety...
...The Assistant Presidents attending Mr...
...I take all of this to be a very good thing...
...when that beacon of wisdom fades from fashion officials will have to read the New York Review o[ Books...
...And finally, after an exhaustive axiological reckoning, it seems to me manifest that intellectuals, as they disport themselves today, are about as useful to modern man as poison ivy...
...A less radical species, possessed of a broader field of interests, writes for The Public h~terest, and now such men even work for various Senators and Congressmen...
...If the Republicans are to appreciate the benefits of intellectuals they will have to cure the intellectual of his numerous bad habits...
...What political parties need, and what the Republican party now has access to, is educated men of intellect whose ideas are born of experience and whose forte is not brilliance but wise counsel...
...For government to satisfy the ideological desiderata of the intellectuals, government must neglect the interests of nonintelleetuals on a wide range of matters...
...And more recently, the august locutions of Kennedy emboldened us to debase our Republican virtue...
...Democratic government can accommodate the citizenry's disagreements over issues of zoning or water purity or public transportation...
...Now men with influence over style and the power to confer legitimacy even on the bungling of lunk-headed politicoes are enormously valuable to political parties, especially parties in such tender condition as the Grand Old Party...
...In an age of ideas political parties need men of ideas -- preferably men of good ideas, which, of course, precludes many intellectuals...
...But issues that start intellectuals vibrating are not so tractable...
...All things considered, government will have to change drastically ...and so will the worM...
...For another, too many intellectuals can be even more pernicious than too few -- as the Democratic reformers are so imaginatively revealing...
...Government will have to act morally, intelligently and humanely...
...Lamentably this former slrength is now becoming dubious, and soon it will be adjuged an abject vice even by Republicans...
...Further, government will have to hold in reserve enough resources to act immediately and resolutely when the intellectuals discover a new crisis demanding immediate and resolute action...
...But, all the while our embattled planet continues to spin through the cosmos and the luster of yeslerday's virtue begins to chip and peel...
...In the fullness of time, Harding's charisma forced him to carry out his executive duties amongst the galoshes in the presidential cloak closet...
...Yet it remains uncertain whether the Republican party can opportunely discard its old virtue of pooh-poohing the intellectuals...
...There are three essential problems attending the intellectuals" rise in American politics: a) democratic government cannot possibly accommodate the intellectual and remain democratic, b) democratic government can never count on the intellectuals' esteem and c) the intellectuals" penchant for sciolism usually renders his counsel attractively moronic, hence always unreliable...
...If government is to remain democratic intellectuals will have to accommodate their desire for things like a moral foreign policy with the common man's desn'e for things like voluntary prayer -- such accommodations wouM, of course, give intellectuals nausea...
...Thus because of modern society's mindless reverence for the intelect and because of the intellectuals' slovenly use of it, intellectuals are shaping that agglutination of style, sentiment, thought and action that overtakes a society, forming what can...
...Wilson's scholarliness eventually descended into bemused pedantry, and his Meals became harmless flummeries...
...Now rumor has it that the Washington-based American Enterprise Institute is about to provide a think tank where these men can exchange ideas, and where those of them whose livelihoods depend on political fortune can seek refuge when the electorate has turned them out...
Vol. 5 • January 1972 • No. 4
