Apology to P.J.

Ed. thinks I was too hard, in my review last week, on P.J. O'Rourke's new(ish) book, Don't Vote, It Just Encourages the Bastards. How could I pan someone who's Republican, Catholic and (mostly) libertarian in his political views? After all, that pretty much describes Walt.

What I said, in sum, was that you should give it a pass if you'd read O'Rourke's previous books such as Parliament of Whores and Give War a Chance. I stand by my assertion Don't Vote is largely money for old rope, and not even O'Rourke's old rope but a pastiche of quotes from just about everyone who's said anything about politicis and politicians over the last two millennia.

That said, the stew of quotes, aphorisms and witticisms is rich enough. There are some good chunks of beef floating amidst the lentils. Here's one about foreign aid:

I hope we're not expecting our distant relations [in the family of nations] to be grateful. A hundred years ago when foreign aid was unthought of (except as tribute or bribe) we were a respected and admired country. After a century of philanthrophy everyone hates our guts.

In the same chapter on American foreign policy -- or lack thereof -- O'Rourke makes a pretty good case that Al O'Bama should read Kipling, particularly the short story, The Man Who Would Be King. (The movie version, starring Sirs Sean Connery and Michael Caine, is one of Walt's Top Ten Movies of All Time.)

Why? Because Kipling was a believer in the White Man's Burden -- to bring the Western concepts of political liberty and human dignity to the benighted nations of the east and south. This civilizing mission -- hopeless un-PC these days -- has been in the minds of European political leaders going all the way back to Alexander the Great.

What Kipling added to the debate, in the eponymous poem and in The Man Who Would Be King, is the prophecy that all the Western goodwill and striving to make the world a better place is doomed to failure. O'Rourke quotes bits of the poem:

To veil the threat of terror
And check the show of pride...
Send forth the best ye breed --
Go bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives' need...
Fill full the mouth of Famine
And bid the sickness cease...
[And] Watch Sloth and heathen Folly
Bring all your hope to naught.

As we look at the mess that is today's Middle East, we must admit that Kipling was right. But for a 21-st century writer to quote Kipling's dicta, to remind us of the folly of our liberal "we're all one big family" policies... that takes not a little courage. And you have to have read Kipling! So I haven't "unfriended" P.J. O'Rourke. Neither should you.

Footnote: The "Kafiristan" of which Kipling wrote in The Man Who Would Be King is a real place, by the way, in the northeast corner of what is today Afghanistan! You could look it up!