[Peace-discuss] H.L. Mencken

[Morton K. Brussel]

The bio on Mencken on Wikipedia is pretty good.  He was a complicated  
man who liked to state things dogmatically and epigrammatically.  --mkb


On Mar 31, 2008, at 1:09 PM, C. G. Estabrook wrote:

> It's more comforting to think that Bush is a moron -- he isn't --  
> than to admit that we are responsible for the crimes of the  
> American government.  Elite interests, contrary to those of most of  
> us, are "most peculiarly attended to" (Adam Smith's phrase), and we  
> remain quiet, behind a false front of democratic forms without  
> substance.
>
> Mencken's contempt for the idea of democracy (and perhaps his  
> admiration for the "first-rate man" with the "force of his  
> personality" -- what was elsewhere called "the leadership  
> principle") was bound up with his admiration for German society, in  
> both its imperial and national socialist forms.
>
> Mencken seems to occupy the position of the famous Pharisee of Luke  
> 18.  --CGE
>
>
> John W. wrote:
>> In searching for the source of this quote - "No one ever went  
>> broke by underestimating the intelligence of the American  
>> people" (a nice double negative in its own right) - I came across  
>> this gem by Mencken:
>>     "The larger the mob, the harder the test. In small areas, before
>>     small electorates, a first-rate man occasionally fights his way
>>     through, carrying even the mob with him by force of his  
>> personality.
>>     But when the field is nationwide, and the fight must be waged
>>     chiefly at second and third hand, and the force of personality
>>     cannot so readily make itself felt, then all the odds are on  
>> the man
>>     who is, intrinsically, the most devious and mediocre  the man who
>>     can most easily adeptly disperse the notion that his mind is a
>>     virtual vacuum.           "The Presidency tends, year by year,  
>> to go to such men. As democracy
>>     is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the
>>     inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some
>>     great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach  
>> their
>>     heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a
>>     downright moron." (/Baltimore Evening Sun/, July 26, 1920)
>> Thank goodness we haven't reached that point YET in America,  
>> huh?  :-P
>> --------------------------------------------------------------------- 
>> ---
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