If there was room in the title I would add, ‘selective outrage’ and ‘selective hearing’ to this list. I also changed the words ‘ownership of’ to ‘claim on’, because I don’t think it fully expresses the truth.

I was, perhaps, being a little too pessimistic when I posted that to my FB wall.

Certain elements claim it, but ownership is, thankfully, not yet a complete reality.

It’s no big secret that I’m a huge fan of the late J.B.E – here is yet another reason why:

‘…For those of us who entered young adulthood in the 1960s, to be an intellectual was to be in opposition. To be an academic was to be on the left, minimally a liberal.

It was unfashionable to suggest that, although the Vietnam War was unjust and needed to be brought to a halt as quickly as possible, communism posed a real threat.

Yet the historic record was clear: In the process of destroying freedom, Communist regimes slaughtered millions of their own people. Although that was an empirical reality, many denied it.

Facts themselves came in for a beating, partly because the country had been lied to on so many occasions that the cynical view arose that no one ever tells the truth in public life, and partly because this period saw the beginning of a rush into the arms of subjectivism.

From the subjectivist perspective, how I feel about something triumphs over serious thinking.’

Source:

Elshtain, J. 2008 Just War Against Terror: The Burden Of American Power In A Violent World (p. 72 & 73)