Lew, Nothing new in GersonLand. Bluntly put, he’s a run-of-the-mill Manichee. His moral compass is measured by only his own ego (which stands at the apex, naturally), right out of Max Stirner. How surprising that everyone he disdains just happens to be on the wrong end of his unidimensional moral yardstick! Of course all of Gerson’s bogeymen are less than human, operating on “resentment” rather than rational principle.Why don’t these folks personify a truly Jeffersonian outrage of the virtuous people against the bipartisan Leviathan? Why must Gerson dismiss them as demons? Because only upon Gerson has the highest divinity bestowed the divine spark. (It’s no mistake that Lenin chose as the title of his magazine Iskra, “The Spark”). This is a textbook case of gnostic contempt for reality while pretending to embrace it.
But where does Gerson come from? From faithfully aiding and abetting the most Manichaean administration in American History, that’s where. As Bush’s chief speechwriter, perhaps he even wrote “if you’re not with us, you’re against us”! But now he mocks “us against them” — deliciously dialectic! His hero openly admitted that he made historic, profoundly disastrous decisions not rationally, but on his “gut.” Gerson’s crowd brought us the Age of Obama. That’s reality.
Let’s face it, Gerson is just another Hegelian bamboozler, foisting himself upon the scene as the brilliant and progressive logical product of the negation (by the left) of the negation (the forbidden right) and the carnage they have caused but cannot cure. He represents the Hegelian Aufhebung, that magic dialectical pearl that will resolve all of this conflict with his secret, perfect grasp of the meaning of History.
Note that Gerson’s rant is also histrionic. Masquerading as Fortinbras, he strides triumphant onto the stage, offering himself (who else??!!) as the voice of pure reason. He should thus be acclaimed as the natural candidate (Rousseau’s legislateur comes to mind) to lead all the reasonable people (uh, you know, the ones who don’t buy into all those resentments!), since he offers the unprecedented intellectual vision that explains it all, the Founders be damned.
Don’t like the vision? Ah, you cretin. You must be forced to be free.
2:37 pm on February 19, 2010
