A Slight Disagreement with My Hero
I’ve had two insights in the last two day. I was listening to The Andrew Klavan Show last night, a favorite of mine, and he was going on about how our elites, our guardians, have been misformed. I agreed with him at once but felt that he had left something out: It was not misformation, but malformation; not a mistake, but malice.
I am perhaps more given to point to the supernatural than Klavan, and I suspect that, though he also believes in the Devil, that my disagreement of prefixes lies in the fact that Klavan does not want to point to anyone; he’s wisely not assuming motives (as I am here). When I say malice, at bottom, I’m thinking of Satan, not some cabal of his earthly worshipers (who undoubtedly do exist). I might guess that Klavan wants to avoid using terms like malice because of its implications: Whose malice? That, or it just wasn’t even a question that came up. Misformation was a perfectly fine word.
I couldn’t finish the show last night, and so I watched the rest this morning. I kept thinking about my earlier insight, and suddenly a rhetorical question arose in my mind: Is there a difference between stopping oneself from falling and getting back up from a fall?
Now, the answer to that last question is obviously yes, but the next question comes, Is America falling, or has it fallen?
Now, here’s why I think it an important question: If America is falling, we should be doing everything we can to strengthen the constitution, but if it has fallen, then there really isn’t a constitution. There’s all the difference in the world between ministering to a sick man and shooting a zombie.
If I have to lay my bet, I don’t think America exists anymore. America has fallen; the question remains if we can lift her up again.
Tale Told 
I cannot agree with you more on both counts. I (like you, I suspect) believe that Klavan would be better served by pointing more often to that which motivates all of us in some way or another, namely the supernatural. Secondly, I think your question of whether our situation can be discussed in terms of the dichotomy you draw between stopping a fall and getting back up is the question Klavan himself ponders over the course of every show (“laughing our way through the fall of the Republic…”). He believes the culture war can be won. I, like you, am a trifle more pessimistic (or realistic, if you will). You and I differ in our opinions, however, in that I believe America still exists, but that the culture war is lost. Klavan believes we can stop the fall, you believe we have fallen already, and I believe, like Klavan that we are falling, but agree with you on the fact that we cannot stop the fall and that our ultimate destination is the sudden stop that awaits at the end of that chasm down which we are hurtling. The only hope for this country’s renewal lies precisely in the supernatural to which Klavan is unfortunately so reticent to point in the context of politics. His book The Truth and Beauty shows promise but must be integrated into his political philosophy to yield a synthesis that will permit the country to rise from the ashes of the fire in which it currently burns.
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Yes, after publishing this, I realized that I should have talked about the third perspective: Falling, but past the point of no return. I left it out for simplicity’s sake, but I should have covered it as there’s a good argument to be made for it as well.
I just caught Klavan’s show this morning. It seems he may be moving more toward your side. He said something along the lines of “The left has won the culture war.” (Not an exact quote.)
Thank you for reading and taking an interest.
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