Sartor Resartus

by Henry Farrell on November 7, 2003

“John Holbo”:http://examinedlife.typepad.com/johnbelle/2003/11/dead_right.html cuts David Frum down to size. Go read.

{ 6 comments }

1

a canadian 11.07.03 at 8:59 pm

What would Barbara Frum think? Does David Frum even remember what life can be like in Canada?

I’ve decided our problems all started in the Garden of Eden. I’m becoming a nudist.

2

Brad DeLong 11.07.03 at 9:46 pm

Wow! And I thought Paul Krugman waged intellectual thermonuclear war…

3

praktike 11.07.03 at 10:54 pm

Let’s assume that Frum is right to say that hardship builds rugged individual character, which leads to wealth.

If we’re getting soft now, and this means economic ruin, wouldn’t the hardship induced by economic ruin eventually lead to renewed wealth?

So there shouldn’t be a problem, since there’s a self-corrective mechanism here.

Needless to say, if Holbo’s interpretation of Frum’s argument is correct, it leads to some interesting conundrums.

That’s a nice way of saying that Frum is full of shit.

4

Ophelia Benson 11.08.03 at 1:27 am

The Donner party! That’s hilarious! That’s the funniest damn thing I’ve ever read!! Bill Bennett is nostalgic for the fucking Donner party!

Maybe he’s confused? Maybe he thinks it was a real party, with like, you know, funny hats, and champagne, and small but good things to eat, and gambling?

John missed a trick though – the Donner party didn’t just eat the dead. When they ran out of the dead, they started on the living – in particular, two Indian guides who had come up from the lowlands of their own free will to help the stranded starving DP – and their reward was to be murdered and eaten. Thank you very much.

And Bill Bennett wonders all dewey-eyed where people like that have gone!?! Aaaaarrrrgggghhh!

Honestly, America is too good to be true sometimes. You couldn’t make this stuff up.

5

Nabakov 11.10.03 at 2:50 am

Perhaps when someone’s arguments for rugged randian conservatism start heading in this direction, you could say they’re “turning donner”.

“Eat the poor. They’re high in fibre and low in fat.”

6

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