More Fallacies
Dubious ideas that are taken for granted as true in American public discourse:
Government and Big Business are enemies.
The U.S. practices a free-trade policy.
Wars are bad except those carried out by the U.S. because our intentions are always benevolent.
It is good that our daughters now have equality with our sons in the military. Next they should be allowed to participate equally in draft registration.
All children are equally intelligent but some have better schools than others, and we all know that spending more money makes better schools.
Detroit is in terrible shape because of insufficient federal aid.
A college education is always a good investment.
A majority of citizens are opposed to Obamacare, affirmative action, immigration, and gun control. However, freedom and democracy require that we obey these policies.
All cultures are equal, therefore immigrants should be allowed to preserve their cultures. However, when Westerners immigrate to Uganda, Pakistan, or Guatemala, they should respect the national cultures.
Entries(RSS)
Government and Big Business are enemies: I believe that it was Allen Tate in "Who Owns America" who points out that even Marx understood that corporations were the stalking horse for socialism in that while legal ownership of the corporation might rest with the stockholders (citizens of a state), the effective ownership lies with the upper management and members of the board (politicians, ideologues and bureaucrats of the state). The collusion between government and big business is more, however, than mere analogy and metaphor. It goes to the very heart of our current darkness.
The U.S. practices free-trade policy: NAFTA and Globalism are not free trade. Perhaps free trade is as bad as some say; however, in my sixty-three plus years, I have not experienced free trade, so I cannot judge what has not been.
Benevolent U.S. wars: Regrettably for too many of us Southerns have come to believe this, Ol' Dixie having been driven down by a "benevolent U. S. war" notwithstanding, and have become the willing Janissary of at the bleeding edge of a series of "benevolent U.S. wars"!
"...our daughters now have equality with our sons...." Yes, we now hurl our daughters into the bloody trenches and demand that our sons be in delivery rooms. Once, wars were places where men faced death in order to preserve the lives of the nurturers (women) and the to-be-nurtured (children) of their communities by facing death; and delivery rooms were where women with their unique courage faced death in order to give life. Evil has become good; and good has become evil.
"...spending more money makes better schools." Think about how much smarter John C. Calhoun would have been he received federal aid for his early backwoods education!
Regarding the North American “Free Trade” Agreement, consider: “The mammoth NAFTA document is 1,700 pages of government intervention. The treaty itself is ‘only’ 741 pages, but there are an additional 348 pages of annexes and 619 pages of footnotes and amplifications. Free trade and 1,700 pages of bureaucratese amount to a contradiction.” (http://www.stoptheftaa.org/artman/publish/article_76.shtml)
Don't forget: "Politicians run for office because they want to serve the public."
"Detroit is in terrible shape because of insufficient federal aid."
And here I thought it was because of two unnecessary world wars and the attendant expansion of federal government-backed war industry, which led to the rapid migration of Southern blacks to fill the factories, which led to the riots which ultimately left the city a dysfunctional shell of itself.
May I make a request I missed putting into the last thread, Professor Wilson? Could you please recommend a book or two on the Reconstruction/post Reconstruction/beginning of segregation period?
Government and Big Business are enemies.
( To the crowd gathered inside the beltway: "Please don't laugh !! Hear him out. The professor is serious. Order!, Order !! This meeting should come to Order!!! )
"Big Business can help put out the evils of Big Government" ---- the GOP candidate ( torys cheer )
"Big Government can help put out the evils of Big Business." -----the Democrat candidate ( liberal tears )
"Our two party system has become two wings of the same bird of prey." ---- the bankrupt candidate, their character, reputation, religion, family and friends have been assassinated, calumniated and irradicated from public discourse by the duopoly mentioned above.
Mr. Jacobi, I believe that The Story of Reconstruction by Robert Selph Henry was previously recommended in an issue of Chronicles. (You should try Abe Books to get a used copy.) In addition, Deconstruction & Reconstruction by Richard Taylor has a quote by Dr. Wilson on the cover: "Of all Confederate memoirs, Richard Taylor's is th best." (J.S. Saunders Southern Classic Series.) However, these may not address post reconstruction/beginning of segregation in sufficient depth for your purpose.
Also the book on Reconstruction by E. Merton Coulter and my lectures on the subject which I think you can get through Abbeville Institute. There are also many good State histories of Reconstruction written in the early 20th century. The rise of sgregation post-Reconstruction is more difficult. C. Vann Woodward, Origins of the New South, if you can allow for the liberal bias in some respects, is a place to start and can alert to other sources.
Many thanks to you, Mr. Van Sant, and to you, Professor Wilson.
Yes, I know, recommendations have been made on this before, tirelessly, led by Prof. Wilson, and assisted by many other readers. This time is different for me, however; I've created a new folder just for this reading list. These books are not escaping this time.
And if you can get it, THE AMERICAN NEGRO..... by William H. Thomas, 1901
Dr. Wilson,
Your input is desperately needed on this thread.
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/why-conservatives-still-share-a-tent-with-calhoun/
Thanks.
Professor Wilson,
Sounds lke a good companion to The Truth About Lynching In The South (1913).
Which I read last year.
Mr. Phillips,
I visited the American Conservative site and came upon the article on Mr. Calhoun and the subsequent discussion. I contemplated jumping into the fray with the knowledge and understanding imparted to me by Dr. Wilson and others; however, I determined, rightly or wrongly, that the positions were so incommensurable as to warrant my absence; or to put it in the vernacular of my father, "Son, never get into the proverbial contest with men who are all bladder!"
Well put, Dr. Peters.. Quite right to ignore them. In American discourse the same pseudo-learned historical notions get repeated over and over as final wisdom. They are passed down by people who literally don't know what they are talking about, who have never made any study of the matter, but are merely repeating plausible sounding propaganda. They are, knowingly or not, simply following the Leninist dictum: never debate your enemies, just hold them up to scorn. The tactic works well most of the time, especially in a society like the U.S. that is already cursed with millions of pseudo-intellectuals.
I decided long ago, and have since followed in both practice and counsel, as you have, that it is a waste of precious time, energy, and knowledge to argue with such people. It puts you always in a negative position on the enemy's chosen ground. Rather, whenever and wherever you can, present a positive case to thoise who are willing to learn.
Son, never get into the proverbial contest with men who are all bladder!
A German lady had another variant: "We don't engage in battles of wits with the unarmed."
They are, knowingly or not, simply following the Leninist dictum: never debate your enemies, just hold them up to scorn.
I would just like to quip that the degree to which this principle holds up on the writebacks to American Conservative articles is astounding, and almost puts the likes of Fox News to shame. These are the writebacks, mind you, to the magazine Pat Buchanan founded.