This will be the first in a series of projected posts in a brand new category. In a few short weeks I will be eligible to begin receiving social security benefits. I have therefore reached the age at which all white males become privileged to become cranky old men. Many readers might claim that I have been cranky for years, but, let me assure you, you ain’t read nothing yet.
What led me to this pass was a seemingly inoffensive Boston Globe art review of an N.C. Wyeth Thoreau centered exhibition in Concord. Art critic Sebastian Smee begins his review as follows:
People tend to turn to the writings of Henry David Thoreau when they want to be rescued from criteria they’ve successfully met.
Mr. Smee then goes on to prove (at least to his own satisfaction) that N.C. Wyeth did exactly that. Case closed, I guess.
This is a fairly common rhetorical trick, practiced quite often by our punditry. The name David Brooks comes to mind (and now, like an earworm, I can’t get rid of it). Begin with an unexamined premise, and shoehorn the rest into it. I’m sure there’s a name for this rhetorical device, though I don’t know what it is. The writer counts on the reader to accept the premise, since the reader is quite busy, unless he is a cranky old man who begins yelling at the newspaper. This particular instance is quite harmless. I highlight it only because it is so blatant. Does Mr. Smee have even a smidgen of data that supports his premise? I have read almost everything Thoreau wrote, and I haven’t successfully met any criteria of which I’m aware. Any reader of this blog can attest to that. Had Gandhi a need for rescue from successfully met criteria when he turned to Thoreau? On a deeper level, what does the sentence even mean?
As I said, there’s little harm in this particular use of the device, but it causes a lot of harm in other contexts. It’s what allows the Brookses, Friedmans, Kristols, etc., of the world to spew their nonsense behind a smokescreen of faux profundity.
AFTERWORD: Well, this is somewhat distressing. Re-reading this post, I see it doesn’t approach the level of crankiness I was aiming at. I’ll have to start watching Fox News. They seem particularly good at churning out cranky old white men.
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