I was in a coffee shop one day, the day William F. Buckley died. Not that Buckley dieing was very significant. Well I guess thats the point. This guy in the coffer shop talking to his buddy goes:
"Hey, did you hear William F. Buckley died?".
"Yeah, thank god".
Thank god? I asked myself. Who the fuck cares about William F. Buckley? He is some blow hard right wing intellectual, not some Fascist dictator. All he did was write in a magazine and had a show neither of which I read or watched, nor very many other people.
Of course as a budding left wing intellectual I have heard of him, have actually read some of his articles on the web through the Yahoo News service. And I knew he was the patron saint of right wing conservativism here in the US. Well lets be clear, the patron "intellectual" saint of conservatism. Conservatism in the US has many patron saints but not many intellectual ones. And that brings me to why I had an interesting reaction to what this guy said. I found his comment stupid and cruel.
He is a human being, sure you may disagree with him because of his "conservative" viewpoints but he is just a human being and one of little consequence to most people. Sure he is a major influence to major people like Ronald Reagan (according to the New York Times in their obituary on Buckley) but is his death worth celebrating because you disagree with him on some political and moral positions? I find myself feeling shy about comparing Buckley to Socrates but I bet many people celebrated Socrates' death. And for what? Because of his ideas. I would hope whatever our philosophical foundations might be, wishing someone dead simply for their ideas is universally distasteful and unjustified.
Remember that I am discussing an off hand comment made by a guy in a coffee shop. If he knew Buckley personally he wouldn't say something like that, regardless of any philosophical disagreements. But you see? Thats what bugs me about the guy's comment. His celebration, as inconsequential and limited to so few words as it is was is simply based on this guy having a disagreement with Buckley ideas. The comment further bugged me because this guy was on my team. I, as a fellow mid-west semi-intellectual lefty(1), was no fan of Buckley's stance on the issues. Did I reserve for Buckley the level of hate required to celebrate his death? No I didn't. If Buckley caused me offense it has been injury due to ideas. Injury due to ideas is a never an offense worth any resentment toward it's author. The things other people do with those ideas, or what the author himself does with the ideas may lead to offenses worth resentment and celebration upon their death. But not ideas themselves.
When I saw a head line from the New York Times that Heston had died I recalled his starring role in Bowling for the Columbine, the movie made by Michael Moore that brought the lefty film maker into a wide audience. Before seeing Bowling for Columbine all I knew of Heston was that he was a has been actor from the 70's who played Moses. But after seeing Bowling, I knew him as a right wing gun toting lunatic. Well that may very well be true. However that comment by the guy in the coffee shop makes me sure that someone is celebrating Heston's death tonight. I find that idea to be repulsive. To celebrate the death of a human being because he is right wing gun toting lunatic who played Moses seems to me a bit of an disproportional response to someone with whom you have disagreement.
Have I celebrated the death of people with whom I disagreed? Yes I have. Like my fellow lefty in reaction to Buckley, when Reagan died a few short sentences of minor celebration escape my mouth. Through that man's comment and my reaction to it I've come to realize why a disagreement based on ideas should never lead to a celebration of death or lead to death itself. And my minor and inconsequential celebration of Reagan's death? A celebration of man's death because of his ideas. Some may disagree and I may not fully understand what Reagan did while in office but in the society I wish to live in a President is a man of ideas and my disagreements with him are based only on ideas and thus my celebration is fully unjustified. This is a Utopian vision I suspect.
I don't want to live in a society where anyone would feel compelled to celebrate the death of anyone with which you had a philosophical disagreement. Nor would I want to live in a society in which anyone would feel compelled to celebrate the death of someone who believes in certain ideas and acted upon them. And of course this is not the world we live in. People have ideas which lead to injustices even if those injustices are not truly compatible with the ideas from which they came. This is not the world we have but this is the world we should want and should create.
(1) (Note: The author has determined that if you are on the left and have even heard of Buckley, this qualifies one as a "semi" intellectual.)
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3 comments:
I have to say that as a liberal (intellectual or not) I am more than happy to celebrate the deaths of Buckley and Heston. They used their celebrity to convince others of their right wing ideas and now that gives me the right to say "I am glad they are silent". Hopefully their ideology will wither as well. I have offered free champagne when Margaret Thatcher moves on!!
There is a difference between Buckley, a man of ideas and words, Heston, a celebrity blow hard and Thatcher, the former Prime Minister of one the most powerful countries in the world. She has the one and only thing to make this world a shitty place, power.
Ideas, much less hack celebrities, do nothing until somebodies does something with them.
Misuse of power is reprehensible regardless of political ideas which may or may not actually provide the justification for those actions.
I don't give a shit if you're a commie or fascist or neither, if you make this world a shitty place then by all means lets celebrate their deaths.
I guess all I am saying is, don't kill the messenger.(ie Heston, Buckley.
Kill the general who sent them.
Celebrating death is only ok when it's our own? Clearly.
But Brando... do you really think that political critics/writers/academics ect. are just messengers? Perhaps it is the other way around... Thatcher is the messenger of the creators of neoliberalism (the idea people who you seem to believe to be harmless)? I dunno... but if one really believes that ideas are just ideas... well then put your pen down, get a job in a business earning as much as you can and drink yourself stupid till you die. Ideas are what make our world and are very fierce tools of opression. All I am saying, is that if we are allowed to celebrate Thatcher's death when the time comes because of the impact she has had on our world, then one is equally as entitled to celebrate the death of the people who gave her those insane ideas she worked with.
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