5.30.2008

On George Will


I'm not a big fan of George Will (oh, don't act so surprised!), but I had a hard time even making it through the first sentence of his latest column. It starts, " Most improvements make matters worse..."
I think maybe he needs a dictionary; as Julie pointed out, he's no William Safire.

Will continues, "most new ideas are regrettable..." I'll concede that this is merely a fairly literal rendering of what it means to be a conservative. "Most" is a pretty big word, though. I'm tempted to make a Straw Man argument here (Straw Person for those of you who went to school after gender inclusiveness had reached the logicians), suggesting perhaps that George Will would prefer a monarchy (which may in fact be true), or that he doesn't like fire, the wheel, the internet, etc. This won't work as a tack, because all he would have to do is point out that some new ideas are in fact good, but "most" aren't. (I wouldn't put it past him to construct a Straw Man of his own, suggesting that the problem with liberals is that they uncritically accept any new idea.)

RE: the cartoon, it's yet another Enneagram reference, for those of you who aren't familiar with the arcane jargon and categorizations of the contemporary liberal seminary.
And for those of you who are, I apologize.

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