|
Conservatives for liberalism
Here’s a typical National Review conservative you wouldn’t want to share a foxhole with. Jay Nordlinger says he can’t outright dismiss a vicious left-liberal institution like the Nobel Committee, because once in a while it gives the Nobel Prize to someone who deserves it rather than, as is its wont, to some terrorist (Arafat) or terrorist sympathizer (Carter). A “conservative” who thinks this way will always be under the thumb of the dominant liberal culture, and will encourage others to remain so as well. But hey, that’s what National Review is all about, isn’t it?
Of course, we should think about the Nobel peace prize. It would be nice to dismiss it, as with all Nobel prizes—but every once in a while, someone good wins, so you can’t dismiss the prizes completely. In the 1980s, the Nobel committee gave the peace prize to a member of the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party (the guy was a member of some physicians-against-war scam). But then, a Walesa gets it. The literature prize is given to Dario Fo, Guenter Grass—but then, Saul Bellow and V. S. Naipaul get it. (Solzhenitsyn received it too, forever ennobling the Nobel prize, which, as I’ve said, complicates matters.) Posted by Lawrence Auster at October 15, 2002 12:32 PM | Send Comments
So we can’t dismiss thieves because once in a great while one will donate to a decent charity? We can’t dismiss pathological liars because once in a great while they tell the truth? I suppose it is true that just because someone has won a Nobel Prize that doesn’t necessarily mean he is a lefty down-with-oppressive-tradition freedom-and-equal-rights-at-all-costs sort of guy. But it is probably a strong indicator, even more so than the SAT is a strong indicator of how well someone will do in College. Sad, sad, sad. Posted by: Matt on October 15, 2002 1:07 PMIt should be pointed out to Nordlinger that Solzhenitsyn would have never received the Nobel Prize had his political and religious views been widely known in the 1970. Posted by: Jason Eubanks on October 15, 2002 1:47 PM |