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The central belief of every moron is that he is the victim of a mysterious conspiracy against his common rights and true deserts. He ascribes all his failure to get on in the world, all of his congenital incapacity and damfoolishness, to the machinations of werewolves assembled in Wall Street, or some other such den of infamy. If these villains could be put down, he holds, he would at once become rich, powerful and eminent. Nine politicians out of every ten, of whatever party, live and have their being by promising to perform this putting down. In brief, they are knaves who maintain themselves by preying on the idiotic vanities and pathetic hopes of half-wits.
– H. L. Mencken, _Baltimore Evening Sun_, June 15, 1936
Comment by RDub on 4/24 @ 5:33 pm #
So even back then, there was talk about the youth vote.
Comment by Sean M. on 4/24 @ 5:50 pm #
In other words, RON PAUL!
Comment by The Lost Dog on 4/24 @ 5:51 pm #
I have always aspired to be a world-class curmudgeon. To eat someone alive without a trace of beligerence is a fine art.
H.L. Menckin is one of the two top favorites in my “to learn” book. And W.C. Fields is running neck and neck with him.
I am always amazed at how Mencken controlled his anger enough to put a spear through the heart of progg morons without sounding like an angry mouth breather on DailyKos. I realize that my technique needs a LOT of polishing, but Mencken has staked out the territory where I wish to be.
I salute a man who knew how to kick ass without betraying even one drop of anger.
This man should be a hero to all who have actually managed to attain adulthood in this new millenium. Unfortunately, adulthood has lately become a fearsome task…
Comment by alppuccino on 4/24 @ 5:54 pm #
single tear
Comment by The Sanity Inspector on 4/24 @ 6:09 pm #
Dog,
And reading his imitators, such as R. Emmett Tyrrell, just makes one appreciate all the more Mencken’s acidic genius. The only check on the reader’s enjoyment is the sneaking fear that one’s own turn on Mencken’s dunking platform is coming. In my case, being a Southerner, his “The Sahara of the Bozart” is the dagger to the heart.
Comment by Karl on 4/24 @ 6:10 pm #
Heh. Indeed.
Comment by Pablo on 4/24 @ 6:21 pm #
Is anyone else seeing datadave here?
Comment by Mikey NTH on 4/24 @ 7:01 pm #
Dog, to do that you have to be able to lean back in a chair, light a cigar, open a bottle of beer, and just enjoy what you are doing and where you are. That will settle you in such a comfortable place that you can puncture any one and any thing.
Comment by wef on 4/24 @ 7:44 pm #
Mencken was a great lover of Nietzsche, and wrote “The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche”. And as Charles Bufe notes:
“In terms of attitudes and beliefs, Mencken and Nietzsche shared many. Both were confirmed rationalists and materialists. Both were strong advocates of individualism. Both were deeply opposed to Christianity. Both held somewhat misogynistic views. And both were firm believers in a “natural” caste system.”
To what caste did Mencken thought he belonged, I wonder.
Comment by cynn on 4/24 @ 8:39 pm #
I admire Mencken, Thurbur, Benchley, and Ring Lardner. Your quote is the best definition of modern conservatism I have seen in a while.
Comment by cynn on 4/24 @ 8:51 pm #
And by political party, I am not talking opinion; I’m talking sentiment.
Comment by The Sanity Inspector on 4/24 @ 8:52 pm #
Read it again, cynn: he’s cracking on politicians “of whatever party”. Mencken was a faction of one. The only analogous person I can think of is George Orwell, who was the conservatives’ favorite socialist, and the socialists’ favorite conservative.
Comment by The Sanity Inspector on 4/24 @ 8:53 pm #
cynn #11
Run Rev. Wright’s sermons through Mencken’s filter, and see how they sound.
Comment by N. O'Brain on 4/24 @ 9:03 pm #
Well that one goes into “The Big Book Of Quotes”.
And it reminds me of the “Troother” morons.
Comment by fletch on 4/24 @ 9:18 pm #
cynn-
Your quote is the best definition of modern conservatism I have seen in a while.
Let me get this straight…
–You “admire” Mencken.
–You offer no rebuttal to his (IMO, ‘accurate’) statement.
–You think the quote ‘best defines’ modern conservatism- this, while the actual quote reads “Nine politicians out of every ten, of whatever party“…. Apparently, you must be trying to say “modern liberals” are less truthful than “modern conservatives”.
–You are a pathetic, drunken left-wing troll.
(Hint:– I haven’t voted for either “major party” Presidential candidate since Reagan in 84- how about you?)
Comment by cynn on 4/24 @ 9:22 pm #
I agree that Wright could conceivably be stuffed into Mencken’s remarks referenced earlier. But Mencken couldn’t contemplate Wright’s position I would argue. Walk the situation into modern times: Things are the same, adjusted for inflation.
Wright is inflammatory, and intentionally so. Run his remarks through any filter you want, and the result is a response. And that’s what religion is about these days, unfortunately.
Comment by B Moe on 4/24 @ 9:24 pm #
He ascribes all his failure to get on in the world, all of his congenital incapacity and damfoolishness, to the machinations of werewolves assembled in Wall Street, or some other such den of infamy.
Oh, yeah, it is always those conservatives hatin’ on Wall Street and all. The progressive just love them some big ass Wall Street corporations and hedge fund managers…
Comment by cynn on 4/24 @ 10:04 pm #
I will agree that Mencken’s statemtnes impugn a certain mentality. I say it’s yours. No hard feelings; could just as easily be mine. Isn’t that his point?
Comment by Ric Locke on 4/24 @ 10:18 pm #
Sanity Inspector: Thanks for that link. I hadn’t encountered that essay before.
As Mencken himself says in the introduction, the piece is dated and was even then. Still, though, it’s hard for a Southerner to read it without wincing in a few places.
Regards,
Ric
Comment by Big Bang Hunter (pumping you up) on 4/25 @ 1:22 am #
- One needs to remember the backdrop to this essay, which centered on Roosevelts efforts to begin reversing the first leg of the “Great Depression” when the common wisdom was to vilify all things Capitalistic, the all too handy boogeyman scapegoat for all manners of damnfoolishness. Most erudite thinkers of the time such as Mencken recognized that no progress could be made until people stopped wasting time with windmills and concentrated on the root causes. These types of essays had little visable effect on the general conditioned thinking, and with the 2nd leg of the Depression, as well as the “recession within a depression”, circa 37-38, its doubtful that any significant turnaround would have ensued well into the 40’s without the advent of WWII in the mix. Unemployment had soared to 19% again near the end of 38, but as things turned out, that pretty much ended it, thanks to Adolphs meglomania.
Comment by Little Miss Attila on 4/25 @ 2:55 am #
1) I haven’t read a great deal of Mencken, but I do have the impression that he looked at all women through one lens (not, BTW, a positive one).
2) As far as the anger-management issue is concerned, there is that quote on Ace’s banner about slitting throats. Is the the cool, detached type of throat-slitting, or one with a bit of motivation involved? Just askin’.
3) The man was a great prose stylist, but he certainly didn’t walk on rhetorical water. And he could have used a decent haircut.
Comment by Rob Crawford on 4/25 @ 6:27 am #
That anus won’t come near this thread.
Comment by mojo on 4/25 @ 8:15 am #
“Juries are populated by idiots too stupid to get out of jury duty.”
Mencken was a well-respected cynic of the first water.
Comment by McGehee on 4/25 @ 8:17 am #
Mencken’s statements certainly impugn a mentality that would like to believe his statements only impugn other people’s mentality.
Comment by Smirky McChimp on 4/25 @ 9:54 am #
Reading “Sahara of the Bozart” makes me ponder the general anti-intellectualness that languidly sits in the heart of our culture. On this, though each blames the other, socialists and conservatives seem to agree.
Comment by cynn on 4/25 @ 9:47 pm #
did this little fletch prick actually happen here?
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[...] is new..again Here is a terrific quote I ran accross over at PW. I don’t know who Mencken is but I will do some looking since it sounds like I should.: The [...]
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