This Great And Intelligent People

      It's a curious thing: this article, a discussion of the idea (for lack of a better word) of Americanism, begins historically and develops an interest series of thoughts and observations about the development of that particular ism. But reading through it, one eventually reaches a volta, or a "turn," and the author's bent makes itself apparent, a presence more discomforting than affirmative. (See if you can spot the turn: it happens in one very specific spot, and from there, one's in the land of no return, tempered critical thought jettisoned in favour of a larger declarative purpose.) As for the American tendency to try to press "democracy" about the world-- a broad stroke, but it will have to do for the sake of brevity-- may have had some of its genesis as a kind of international noblesse oblige, but it's becoming more and more apparent, at least in these quarters, that the result has become a kind of noblesse oblique, with President Bush the demonic parody of Woodrow Wilson (and Reagan the demonic parody of Lincoln). When the columnist concludes that Americanism is a religion that "chooses life," this blog can't help but think there's a peculiar slant to that suggestion which isn't quite disingenuous but isn't quite honest, either-- and which is all the more unsettling for the incongruity. Noblesse oblique, indeed.