Reality-based conservatives

[randy_byers]

I've recently discovered Daniel Larison's blog, Eunomia, at The American Conservative. I'm undoubtedly cherry-picking to fit my own biases, but I find his critique of the current Republican party fascinating. He's not a big fan of McCain's campaign either. Here's a snippet from his take on last night's presidential debate:

The correct view is exactly the opposite–if McCain knows the truth, doesn’t really believe what he’s saying and tells lies unconvincingly, that is evidence of the far deeper corruption of the man. Instead of being badly misguided or misinformed, he willfully says things that he knows have no merit or that he knows are unworthy of anyone in his position. In short, being a bad smear artist does not make someone ethical or honorable; it makes him unethical and incompetent.

Comments

[ron-drummond.livejournal.com]

Great quote, thank you.

I have David Hinton's translations of Lao Tzu, Chuang Tzu, and Confucius. Opening Confucius at random just now, I came upon this splendid description of John McCain:

The Master said, "Wild and dishonest, base and yet insincere, simple-hearted and yet untrustworthy -- I'll never understand such people." [8.16]

So I could cite that quote properly, I flipped to the beginning of the section, and found this laugh-out-loud counter-example:

The Master said, "Surely T'ai Po can be called a master of integrity. Three times he declined to rule all beneath Heaven, and he did it so discreetly the people never praised him." [8.1]

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Great quotes from Confucius! I don't have any translations of that text yet. Do you recommend the Hinton? I think I have his Lao Tzu, but haven't read it.

[ron-drummond.livejournal.com]

So far I find Hinton provocative, though I've not yet read Confucius in any depth (in the past I found Confucius got tiresome rather quickly); Hinton's is the first translation I've owned, and I got it precisely because I find his translations of Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu so lively. He's published a dozen or more translations of the great Chinese poets of the last thousand years, plus most of the great ancient Chinese sacred and philosophical texts. He gets it.