Rich Lowry’s Op Ed piece in today’s Albuquerque Journal is predictably on the edge of civilized discourse, teetering toward Ann Coulterist psychosis. (He says the question in the Gonzales nomination as Attorney General is "Do we have a right to pressure [terrorists) for information upon capture.")
What fascinates me is not the surface arguments, but rather what lies beneath. For Lowry doesn’t just excuse the White House and Justice Department for Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, he blames the people at the bottom of the ladder, specifically the soldiers involved in abuse.
This use of hierarchy is fundamental to human history, of course. Its corollary is that the people at the top are blameless and the poor souls at the bottom, responsible.
Also today, David Brooks writes in the New York Times about Social Security "reform" and tax "reform." (The quotation marks are mine.) He concludes with an endorsement of what the political right has taken to calling "the ownership society."
Now, you know that the newspaper biz has umpteen standard vehicles for organizing and conveying information and meaning. Among them: regular old news stories, news analysis, editorials and Op Ed pieces, columns that follow up on old stories and many others.
With Lowry and Brooks in mind, I have a modest proposal. Let us add one more vehicle, a piece that isolates and highlights reporters and columnists’ assumptions. We might call it "Bedrock."
Sometimes it will be easy to identify what lies beneath. Brooks, for example, has examined his assumptions about the good society and sees no reason to disguise them. But I suspect Lowry, and most writers, do not fully understand themselves. That’s where Bedrock will really help readers. First, they will see clearly what lies beneath the writers’ conclusions. Secondly, perhaps, they will be inspired to examine their own bedrock.
What do you think?
PS I do not mean to suggest that Bedrock is really the bottom. Lowry's column
reminds me that feelings lie deeper than one's so-called rational views. Thus, the US response to 9/11 represents, I would argue, fear more than anything else.
PPS I wonder if Rich Lowry remains editor of the National Review, the magazine William F. Buckley founded. The Albuquerque Journal used to identify him that way; but the newspaper describes him today only as a syndicated columnist.