Over the last couple of weeks several readers have accused me of being an elitist. First, I complained about the rising levels of noise pollution in Middle America. Then I wrote an article about King Charles II in The New York Post.
Only elitists like to read about history, you see. Only elitists like peace and quiet.
I used to think that way, back when I actually was an elitist. That was in high school, when everyone’s an elitist. The trouble is some people never grow out of it. Shelley called poets “the unacknowledged legislators of the world”; every teenaged girl with a Tumbler knows exactly what he meant. John Lennon said he was bigger than Jesus. Well, go to a prom afterparty and find the kid with the guitar. He’ll tell you the same thing.
Me? When I had a little free time I liked to go into the woods and read. I thought this made me better than everyone else. Then I found out my grandfather did the same thing. Pal (that’s what I called him) wasn’t an elite. He grew up poor and joined the Navy. He fought in World War II, then Korea. After he died, we found a worn-out copy of The Tempest on his bedside table.
What’s really elitist is the idea that only certain people can (or should) read quietly. If you say, “Only elitists talk about Charles II,” we hear, “Most people are too dumb to care about history.”
Of course, people who throw around the word elitist also like to read quietly. They’re only pretending to be dumb so they can fit in with the unwashed masses. We call those people populists. And, for the record, the masses are surprisingly clean. Most of them bathe at least every other day. Some even brush their teeth.
There are no populists in Middle America, for the same reason there are no English Anglophiles. It’s so redundant it’s a contradiction. A populist is just an elitist in drag.
Besides, equality has always been a hallmark of American life, if at times an imperfect one. We’ve always believed that every man, no matter his color or creed or station in life, has the right to pursue his own excellence. And we’ve always been big readers.
“There is hardly a pioneer’s hut that does not contain a few odd volumes of Shakespeare,” Tocqueville wrote in 1831. “I read the feudal drama of Henry V for the first time in a log cabin.”
A populists would say it’s cruel to make normal people read Shakespeare. What could they possibly get from it? Well, the same thing a populist gets from it: truth, goodness, and beauty. But they don’t like those things, says the populist. They like cheap beer and NASCAR. And, uh—so do I!
Our whole education system is built on this premise. Our entire political culture takes it for gospel truth. Instead of urging men to strive for greatness, we force them to settle for less. Our kids will read Homer and Hawthorne in prep school. The proles in public school can struggle through The Giver.
No wonder most people think they hate reading. We never gave them a chance. That’s the tyranny of low expectations.
When Pal was growing up, he was held to a very high standard—as was the rest of America. That’s because he was born in the shadow of Theodore Roosevelt. Teddy was the last man to revive our pioneer spirit, which he called the Strenuous Life:
The timid man, the lazy man, the man who distrusts his country, the over-civilized man, who has lost the great fighting, masterful virtues, the ignorant man, and the man of dull mind, whose soul is incapable of feeling the mighty lift that thrills “stern men with empires in their brains” . . . These are the men who fear the strenuous life, who fear the only national life which is really worth leading.
Such a man is “simply a cucumber of the earth’s surface.” At least that’s what Teddy said.
America is at a low ebb. We’ve become a nation of cucumbers. But all that means is we need to hold ourselves to a higher standard. So, I can’t think of anything less elitist—or more patriotic—than talking about Charles II in The New York Post.
Friends, if it’s of interest, here’s what I’ve been up to:
1. “The right’s illiberal moment is over” for The Spectator
2. “Why won’t Pope Francis condemn Russia?” for The Spectator
3. “Why Populism Failed” for The American Conservative
4. “Zelensky should set up a government-in-exile” for The New York Post
Also, a few weeks ago, our comrades at Hearth & Field sent out an email to all their subscribers saying they wanted to send us each a box of chocolates as a thank-you for our support. (Subscriptions are free.) All we had to do was send in our mailing address.
Well, we replied. And look what came in the mail the other day:
If you haven’t done so, subscribe to Hearth & Field. If only so you can get in on the next round of freebies.
Peace and the Good!