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(652 posts)BSdetect
(8,989 posts)defacto7
(13,485 posts)pangaia
(24,324 posts)The Presidency tends, year by year, to go to such men. As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their hearts desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."
keithbvadu2
(36,360 posts)pangaia
(24,324 posts)calimary
(80,693 posts)Ezior
(505 posts)Quite interesting guy, see his Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._L._Mencken
I'd hate anyone who holds these beliefs today. Maybe it wasn't that terrible at the time, and obviously he's a good guy in some aspects (e.g. he wanted the US to take in all the Jews who managed to flee Nazi Germany, he hates lynching, hates religious fundamentalism, hates creationism, and has a few other rather progressive opinions).
I remember I've read a few articles on Mencken.
Indeed, he was racist. I don't like much. Even if times and context were different, racism is disgusting. I'm not sure he would think otherwise if he was living nowadays.
It is only his quotation which coincides with current events. Although, in fact, he wrote it in a completely different context with no reference to narcissism or foolishness.
localroger
(3,602 posts)I suspect he would be surprised to find it his racism that gets him vilified nowadays, simply because in his era nobody would have considered that a bad thing, but he was a person who might have been receptive to the message if it had been in the air for him to receive.
What Mencken was is the best journalist who ever plied that trade in the history of modern media. He saw clearly the flaws in American democracy that made it vulnerable to an excess of stupidity and gullibility, traits that were already too common for comfort in Mencken's day. Mencken was able to see the craft of P.T. Barnum firsthand and in his day he alone extrapolated what that could mean for democracy.
First Speaker
(4,858 posts)...and did more, in practical terms, to aid African-American authors than any other American of his time. (A book was written on the subject, *The Sage of Harlem*, which presents Mencken in three dimensions on the subject of race.) His last column, in 1948 before he suffered the stroke that incapacitated him, was an attack on segregated swimming pools in Baltimore. His whole life, as seen on this issue, is not particularly negative for a man born in 1880.
Marty Marzipan
(67 posts)No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public - H.L. Mencken
aggiesal
(8,863 posts)G.W. McIdiot got elected as a fool and a moron
96 years later we got the full boat, fool, moron
and narcissist.
Yeah! USA
calimary
(80,693 posts)We thought nothing was worse than bush/cheney. And now weve got THIS.
oberliner
(58,724 posts)PatrickforO
(14,514 posts)the 'plain folks.'
Which is why we need to put way more money into education and critical thinking, and way less in to war and weapons that maim and kill.
JHB
(37,128 posts)...that have been the bane of democratic governments since Alcibiades.
And speaking of foibles, Mencken certainly had his share.
And so like many historical figures, we appreciate him for where he saw and spoke clearly, but don't forget where he blinded himself.
I agree. The line was a bit sarcastic.
I'm still not enough fluent in English to accurately express myself.
What I've read on him doesn't make me appreciate him much, though some of his quotes are interesting.
Wash. state Desk Jet
(3,426 posts)syringis
(5,101 posts)It is the original quote. It has no reference to narcissism or foolishness.
Wash. state Desk Jet
(3,426 posts)The original quote does nail it though, doesn't it !