Shameful Legacy of a Wicked Man 2
Today is Friday, 20 August 2010.
In Nation’s Business in 1978, the white supremacist propagandist James J. Kilpatrick (JJKkk) wrote: “Conservatives believe that a civilized society demands orders and classes, that men are not inherently equal, that change and reform are not identical, that in a free society men are children of God and not wards of the state. Self-reliance is a conservative principle. The work ethic is a conservative ethic. The free marketplace is vital to the conservative’s economic philosophy.”
“Orders and classes”. “Not inherently equal”. I might begin to suspect that those who speak of classes and inherent inequality might be sincere, if, just once, one of them also said, “And deity has ordained that I am the lowliest turd in the toilet bowl of life, and should be trampled underfoot as such, and I joyfully and gratefully embrace my fate”. Instead, they always discover that they are born to the higher orders and classes, born more equal than others, and thus richly deserve to feast upon those lower in the food chain.
JJKkk didn’t inherit wealth: he sold his soul to acquire it. As a newspaper editor, he eagerly pandered to the bigotries of the Southern white readership in general and Richmond’s white supremacist elite in particular. Perhaps he wasn’t personally a bigot (though I doubt it), but merely a craven opportunist, operating on the rule that, while a whore may prefer stilettos, if the johns want platforms, then platforms it is.
Hardly matters: JJKkk was an avid cog in a great white criminal conspiracy spanning centuries, which degraded the lives of many millions and murdered many hundreds of thousands, some directly, but most through forced poor nutrition, inadequate access to medical care, inadequate education, etc. JJKkk didn’t treat Blacks as “children of God”, but abused Blacks as “wards of the state”. JJKkk fought change and reform. JJKkk’s “self-reliance” was relying on his work as a criminal. Such was his “work ethic”.
Had JJKkk had the slightest shred of decency, he would have recognized himself for what he was: a propagandist for white supremacy, an enabler of a domestic equivalent of al-Qaeda: White Citizens Councils, Ku Klux Klan, etc. JJKkk would have forfeited his ill-gotten gains to his victims, and lived a life of penance in sackcloth and ashes, doing everything he could to atone for his evil living. JJKkk didn’t: he wallowed in the fruits of his wickedness to his dying day.
Let his name be forever mentioned in the same breath as Goebbels.
_______________________________________
Having once worked on Wall Street, I occasionally pick up a copy of The Wall Street Journal for “auld lang syne”. For all of Rupert Murdoch’s pretensions of creating a “national newspaper” to overshadow The New York Times, WSJ is still a trade paper augmented by re-written wire service stories and ornamented with “helpful” lifestyle hints. A tarted-up provincial USA Today with Murdoch’s bloated ego.
In yesterday’s edition, in an article on The Proctor & Gamble Company: “…A.G. Lafely, served in the Vietnam War…”. Lafely is the former Chairman, President, and CEO of P&G, who served in the Vietnam War as a supply officer overseeing a Navy Exchange in Japan.
I must regard such a usage of “served in the Vietnam War” as puffery insulting to those who actually saw combat. Certainly, “back office” functions are essential to support of a modern military infrastructure, but to equate risking a bullet in the head with a cushy billet where the great risk was a nasty STD from indiscrete "partying", is odious.
________________________________________
On this date in 1968, the army of the USSR and allies began the invasion and re-occupation of Czechoslovakia, putting an end to the “Prague Spring”.
In Nation’s Business in 1978, the white supremacist propagandist James J. Kilpatrick (JJKkk) wrote: “Conservatives believe that a civilized society demands orders and classes, that men are not inherently equal, that change and reform are not identical, that in a free society men are children of God and not wards of the state. Self-reliance is a conservative principle. The work ethic is a conservative ethic. The free marketplace is vital to the conservative’s economic philosophy.”
“Orders and classes”. “Not inherently equal”. I might begin to suspect that those who speak of classes and inherent inequality might be sincere, if, just once, one of them also said, “And deity has ordained that I am the lowliest turd in the toilet bowl of life, and should be trampled underfoot as such, and I joyfully and gratefully embrace my fate”. Instead, they always discover that they are born to the higher orders and classes, born more equal than others, and thus richly deserve to feast upon those lower in the food chain.
JJKkk didn’t inherit wealth: he sold his soul to acquire it. As a newspaper editor, he eagerly pandered to the bigotries of the Southern white readership in general and Richmond’s white supremacist elite in particular. Perhaps he wasn’t personally a bigot (though I doubt it), but merely a craven opportunist, operating on the rule that, while a whore may prefer stilettos, if the johns want platforms, then platforms it is.
Hardly matters: JJKkk was an avid cog in a great white criminal conspiracy spanning centuries, which degraded the lives of many millions and murdered many hundreds of thousands, some directly, but most through forced poor nutrition, inadequate access to medical care, inadequate education, etc. JJKkk didn’t treat Blacks as “children of God”, but abused Blacks as “wards of the state”. JJKkk fought change and reform. JJKkk’s “self-reliance” was relying on his work as a criminal. Such was his “work ethic”.
Had JJKkk had the slightest shred of decency, he would have recognized himself for what he was: a propagandist for white supremacy, an enabler of a domestic equivalent of al-Qaeda: White Citizens Councils, Ku Klux Klan, etc. JJKkk would have forfeited his ill-gotten gains to his victims, and lived a life of penance in sackcloth and ashes, doing everything he could to atone for his evil living. JJKkk didn’t: he wallowed in the fruits of his wickedness to his dying day.
Let his name be forever mentioned in the same breath as Goebbels.
_______________________________________
Having once worked on Wall Street, I occasionally pick up a copy of The Wall Street Journal for “auld lang syne”. For all of Rupert Murdoch’s pretensions of creating a “national newspaper” to overshadow The New York Times, WSJ is still a trade paper augmented by re-written wire service stories and ornamented with “helpful” lifestyle hints. A tarted-up provincial USA Today with Murdoch’s bloated ego.
In yesterday’s edition, in an article on The Proctor & Gamble Company: “…A.G. Lafely, served in the Vietnam War…”. Lafely is the former Chairman, President, and CEO of P&G, who served in the Vietnam War as a supply officer overseeing a Navy Exchange in Japan.
I must regard such a usage of “served in the Vietnam War” as puffery insulting to those who actually saw combat. Certainly, “back office” functions are essential to support of a modern military infrastructure, but to equate risking a bullet in the head with a cushy billet where the great risk was a nasty STD from indiscrete "partying", is odious.
________________________________________
On this date in 1968, the army of the USSR and allies began the invasion and re-occupation of Czechoslovakia, putting an end to the “Prague Spring”.
posted by HH at 1:22 PM
2 Comments:
HH,
Although I agree with some of your recent blog correspondents that your prose of late has developed a decidedly purplish cast, I have to say that I really enjoyed the imagery of the following from this post:
“And deity has ordained that I am the lowliest turd in the toilet bowl of life, and should be trampled underfoot as such, and I joyfully and gratefully embrace my fate”.
A bit of an unfortunate mixed metaphor. I may say that I could somewhat happily accept that station of being the lowliest turd and being trampled underfoot if I were to be encased in a flaming brown paper bag and left on an appropriately determined individual's front porch. However, one would have to go well out of his or her way to get trampled underfoot while residing in a toilet bowl of life. Ending up on someone's shoe would give me perhaps as much meaning as being composted for that miraculous transmogrification into tomorrow's breakfast.
Cheer and bon apetit :-)
To rtr:
Hilarious! And I agree - loved HH's "lowliest turd in the toilet bowl of life" turn of phrase. Spot on, isn't it?
Post a Comment
<< Home