Posted by
Mike on Thursday, December 30, 2010 12:27:03 PM
http://westernperspective.blogspot.com/
Despite his anti-semitism, Joe Sobran was one hell of a good writer.
Oddly, I had read about his joining some sort of Utopian anarchist
cult several months ago, but did not get the news of his death until
just yesterday.
My recollection comes mostly from his syndicated columns which always
took a principled moral stand against the breakdown of societal mores
masquerading as libertarianism, particularly his stand against abortion
and how that is always tied in with big government abuse.
Sobran was never much of a realist. He believed, for example, that the
Southern states had the right to secede from the Union and perpetuate
the evil institution known as slavery. He believed, against common
sense, that Bacon or de Vere, I'm not sure which, authored the works of
William Shakespeare.
This inability to accept life on life's terms led eventually to his getting fired from National Review and his Tolstoyesque final farewell.
Sobran's falling out with Bill Buckley was once again traceable to his
inability or stubborn unwillingness to confront and deal with reality.
Buckley, the inveterate realist, understood the capitalism system as a
means of protecting the "Haves" from the "Have Nots". In tangible
terms, this meant protecting the Buckley family oil concessions in Latin
America at all costs. Buckley viewed National Review as a means
to achieving this end. Writers could be exploited and then discarded
as one might jettison a worn out tool. This is the capitalist ethos,
and as long as other writers were willing to play the game according to
the Buckley rules, they had no right to complain once they were fired.
Joe may have been a much better writer than Buckley, but he, through no
fault of his own, was one of the "Have Nots" while Buckley was one of
the "Haves". Joe never got that under the rigged regime of capitalist
libertarianism, the "Have Nots" have no inherent right to have anything
based upon merit or any other rational standard. Anything they do have
is at the whim of the "Haves", which is the same result as what would
exist under socialism (or state capitalism) which Joe so fiercely
struggled against. As alluded to in a prior blog entry herein, if you
want "fair", you know where to go.
Joe was a Catholic traditionalist and supporter of the Latin Mass. Final words: Requiem in Pacem.