You've done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?
--Joseph Welch, Esq., to Senator Joseph McCarthy, 9 June 1954
Last night we had the pleasure of watching Julie and Julia on Netflix, a great little film that tracks two parallel stories, one the development of Julia Child from diplomat's wife and former OSS agent into perhaps the most famous cookbook author and instructor on French cuisine of all time; and the other following Julie Powell as she takes the leap from processing 9.11 death claims in the dark days right after the event to blogging her way through Julia Child's entire oeuvre, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and ultimately becoming a successful author. It was a wonderful way to spend a Monday night.
At one point in the Child narrative we're reminded of one of the dark sides of American life in the early 1950s, when her husband is summoned across the pond from his duty station in Paris to appear before attorneys from the House Un-American Activities Committee, and bear several days of grilling about communists running amok in the State Department. He makes it through the encounter, and soldiers on to retire later as a diplomat, but is shaken and demoralized by the encounter.
Reflecting my age and generation, the scene reminded me of my favorite REM song you've all long forgotten, or maybe never heard, Exhuming McCarthy.
Enemy sighted enemy met
I'm addressing the real politic
You've seen start and you've seen quit (I'm addressing the table of contents)
I always thought of you as quick
Exhuming McCarthy, exhuming McCarthy (meet me at the book burning)
Exhuming McCarthy, exhuming McCarthy (meet me at the book burning)
The more things change, eh? We don't burn books in Florida; we just arrest the librarians. The sight of piles of burning books dredges up memories of armbands and the singing of the Horst Wessel Lied; a nerdy book steward in handcuffs just feels like owning the libtards.
And the same state now would like a word with its employees in academia, to learn a little more about their political leanings and history. Just fill out this questionnaire, and don't worry about the answers affecting your ability to keep tenure or your career you've built over decades. Just ask the former president of New College.
And folks keep announcing they plan to run for president and, as priority number one, root out the "deep state" by firing all the career federal employees and replacing them with, well, who the hell do you hire to replace a twenty-year diplomat or nuclear plant inspector? But federal employees seem more inclined to vote Democrat than the average white guy pushing a cart at Publix. Maybe we could hire him. How hard could it be?
On the other hand, to cheer me up I've started reading A Brief History of Equality by Thomas Piketty, which repeatedly makes the assertion, backed by dense data and complicated charts, that although we've had some bumps in the road, the path of human history has led to more income, political, and social equality. That's not a message one hears much these days, and I started the read a little skeptical, but Picketty has assembled a pretty compelling body of facts to support his argument.
Which, I reckon, is why the other side of these discussions seems bound to create their own facts as a basis for revanchist policies. It's discouraging, but Piketty's exposition shows that the tide's rising around them whether they acknowledge it or not, literally and figuratively, and the long view demonstrates this period of political looniness is a blip.
Back to work.
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