They said it, we read it — this new section will include quoted text from readings that the Candor editors have encountered in the previous month and considered wisely stated/thought-provoking.
The fight is being waged on all fronts, and the most insidious idea employed to break down society is an undefined equalitarianism. That this concept does not make sense even in the most elementary applications has proved no deterrent to its spread, and we will have something to say later about modern man’s growing incapacity for logic. An American political writer of the last century, confronted with the statement that all men are created free and equal, asked whether it would not be more accurate to say that no man was ever created free and no two men ever created equal. Such hardheadedness would today be mistaken for frivolity. Thomas Jefferson, after his long apostleship to radicalism, made it the labor of his old age to create an educational system which would be a means of sorting out according to gifts and attainments.
Such equalitarianism is harmful because it always presents itself as a redress of injustice, whereas in truth it is the very opposite. I would mention here the fact, obvious to any candid observer, that “equality” is found most often in the mouths of those engaged in artful self-promotion. These secretly cherish the ladder to high designs but find that they can mount the lower rungs more easily by making use of the catchword. We do not necessarily grudge them their rise, but the concept they foster is fatal to the harmony of the world. – Richard M. Weaver in Ideas Have Consequences, 1948.
At state conventions in the North and West, brutal altercations broke out, swiftly dispelling Taft’s hope for a high-minded campaign based on the issues. In Michigan, Taft’s forces secured a victory after what one newspaper described as “the worst riots that ever occurred in a political gathering in the state.” More than 1,800 men arrived at the Bay City Armory to claim 1,400 seats. The Taft men, the New York Times reported, were admitted first and filled the hall “despite the frantic efforts of the Roosevelt men to gain entrance through side doors, windows, and the basement.” With the aid of the state militia, delegates without proper credentials were “seized bodily” and thrown to the back of the crowd. Eventually, four hundred Roosevelt supporters were admitted, and “then the fireworks began.” When the chairman of the Taft delegation attempted to open the meeting, the Colonel’s men “set up a roar,” making it impossible for him to continue. One Roosevelt advocate rushed the platform only to be flung backward, landing atop the newspapermen’s table. More than a hundred men joined the fight before police “charged on the combatants and restored order with their clubs.” — Doris Kearns Goodwin in the Bully Pulpit (2013), describing the Republican Party primary race of the 1912 presidential election.
In resolving the paradox of how a species smart enough to have discovered the Big Bang, DNA, and vaccines could believe so much superstition and nonsense, I came to realize that institutions were vital—communities that run by truth-enhancing rules, like liberal democracies with their checks and balances, the judicial system with its adversarial process and presumption of innocence, science with its empirical testing and peer review, responsible journalism with its editing, fact-checking, and source-verification, and academia, with its commitment to free inquiry and open debate. Ideally, they allow the flaws in one person’s reasoning to be corrected by others. When universities are suffocated by cancel culture and other kinds of repression of intellectual freedom, we are disabling our only known means for approaching the truth, and sapping the credibility of the institutions that people must trust if they are to replace their superstitions and folk beliefs with our best understanding of reality. — Steven Pinker, Heterodoxy Academy interview on Feb 8, 2022
Over the past half-century, blue collar workers across the country have seen their plants shutter, their salaries stagnate, and a whole way of life upended. That’s because of automation, globalization, China, and the rising cost of American labor tied up with all of the above.
Alongside this, the Democratic Party has gradually abandoned its historical commitments to the working- and middle-classes: good schools, safe neighborhoods, and, most important, social mobility. Instead it has embraced a progressive politics that jibes with the sensibilities of wealthy coastal elites—and has alienated pretty much everyone else. Unsurprisingly, a lot of everyone elses are rushing toward the GOP. A Bloomberg News analysis from 2020 found that truckers, construction workers, carpenters, builders, electricians, cops, mechanics, and maintenance employees were among the occupations most likely to give to Trump. (By contrast, Biden got the lion’s share of teachers, professors, therapists, lawyers, HR department staff, finance professionals, and bankers.) — Baty Ungar-Sargon, deputy opinion editor of Newsweek; appeared February 8 in Common Sense.
“Emerging Voices,” designed to encourage youthful participation, lives on, but Candor will now publish these contributions in sections of the journal where they best apply. Scroll down to see previous submissions.
