Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Mencken Rising

Had trouble sleeping last night, read some THE MENCKEN CHRESTOMATHY I keep at bedside to soothe me.

Found this: "Sometimes, a politician must rise above his principles." Fell asleep immediately.

This morning, though, I was curious: did Mencken say it FIRST?

I have seen the thought attributed, in very similar form, to Lincoln, though I find no authority for this.

Still, WHOEVER said it, as good a statement of the Downsian model as I have seen, in succinct form.

Mencken's Creed

  • I believe that religion, generally speaking, has been a curse to mankind - that its modest and greatly overestimated services on the ethical side have been more than overcome by the damage it has done to clear and honest thinking.
  • I believe that no discovery of fact, however trivial, can be wholly useless to the race, and that no trumpeting of falsehood, however virtuous in intent, can be anything but vicious.
    I believe that all government is evil, in that all government must necessarily make war upon liberty...
  • I believe that the evidence for immortality is no better than the evidence of witches, and deserves no more respect.
  • I believe in the complete freedom of thought and speech...
    I believe in the capacity of man to conquer his world, and to find out what it is made of, and how it is run.
  • I believe in the reality of progress.
  • I - But the whole thing, after all, may be put very simply. I believe that it is better to tell the truth than to lie. I believe that it is better to be free than to be a slave. And I believe that it is better to know than be ignorant.

1 comment:

Dirty Davey said...

A favorite Mencken quote of mine:

"It is not without reason that, in North Carolina, the sweating pastors direct their chief barbs at Chapel Hill, for at Chapel Hill is the State university, and it has done more to civilize the State than any other agency, or than all other agencies taken together. Quite naturally, the clergy hate it. The Baptists never hold a convention or the Methodists a conference without hearing and applauding extravagant denunciations of it. But the more it is denounced, the more it seems to prosper."