Two views of Buckley

Jack S. writes:

Buckley’s articles had been incoherently unreadable for at least ten years, perhaps fifteen. The few times I tried to read them recently they usually made no sense except for a read-between-the-lines left-leaning fatalism. [Emphasis added.]

Though I had never tried to put it in words, this captures perfectly the anomic intellectual and spiritual quality I have sensed in Buckley’s columns for the last 15 or 20 years, on the increasingly rare occasions when I would attempt to read them.

But now compare Jack’s description of Buckley’s intellectual contribution in recent decades with the New York Post’s description, which I quoted last week:

Buckley died yesterday at 82, steadfast in what he once described as his life’s work: To “stand athwart history yelling ‘Stop’ at a time when no one is inclined to do so, or to have much patience with those who urge it.”

So, was Buckley, until the end (or ever?), urging people to stand against the advance of liberalism no matter what the cost? Or was he injecting his readers with read-between-the-lines left-leaning fatalism? Was he a hero of conservatism, or a traitor to it?

Posted by Lawrence Auster at March 04, 2008 08:16 AM | Send