Bush and the Triumph of the Will

I've been listening to a remarkable series of lectures offered by the Teaching Company, taught by Allen C. Guelzo entitled The American Mind.

Professor Guelzo convincingly argues that the American mind has always been divided between those who argue for the primacy of the Will in human affairs and those who argue for the primacy of the Intellect.

Among those who line up on the side of Will are religious thinkers such as Jonathan Edwards and Cotton Mather. Those lining up on the side of Intellect include men such as Thomas Jefferson, and later, the Pragmatists. It's a rich set of lectures and I highly recommend them.

Anyway, what we have in the Bush administration is the triumph of the Will side of the American mind. We are constantly told by the Bush gang and their supporters that to think bad thoughts about what's happening in Iraq is to cause more bad things to happen. Anyone who thinks bad thoughts is a bad person and a bad American. With this construct they wield a displinary tool par excellence

This Friday, William F. Buckley switched his allegiance from Will to Intellect and was roundly attacked for it this Monday by the editors of the National Review. The editors summed up their opinion this way: "Defeatism will be self-fulfilling."

In BushWorld and in the world of conservatives, to believe in victory is to have victory. To believe in defeat is to have defeat. Heart is all. Facts need not apply.

So Buckley is now, I would suppose, a neo-paleo-con as he has not entirely relinquished his memberhip in the reality-based community.