William F. Buckley is dead, and Patrick Nielsen Hayden is glad to see him go. I can’t say I’m all that broken up, either.
I saw Buckley speak once, when I was in college. I remember very little about the context– not even what year it was– but he came to campus at the invitation of the college Republicans (one of whom was a good friend of mine), and gave a short talk to a packed house, then spent a long time doing Q&A. The talk was mostly just him throwin ideas out, and the only specific thing I recall was his suggestion that we ought to legalize the sale of all druge– alcohol, pot, heroin, whatever– to people over 18, and institute the death penalty for anyone providing drugs to anyone under eighteen.
I’m not entirely sure whether that was a sincere belief, or just something he said because it would reduce all the students in the audience– liberals and conservatives alike– to spluttering incoherence (which, admittedly, is a little like shooting fish in the proverbial barrel). It’s hard not to feel some grudging admiration for the sheer gall required to stand up in front of a crowd and say something that far out there (though he had been doing that sort of thing for forty years by that time, so it’s not like anyone was going to seriously fluster him). It’s just a pity that he put that talent in service of such loathsome ends– as Patrick said, “Racism and power-worship–and, from first to last, uncompromising defense of the idea that society should be structured into orders and classes.”
What’s really sad, though, is that Buckley looks fantastic compared to the rabid weasels who have taken over the American conservative movement. Hs goals were appalling, but he at least pursued them with a modicum of dignity and a peculiar sort of honor.
I think Buckley fairly often talked about drug legalization.
I think Buckley fairly often talked about drug legalization.
I was thinking more of the death penalty part, which knocked even the libertarian-leaning conservative students back on their heels. They were good with legalizing drugs, but not so much with killing people who sold to the underage.
I read the ML thread with interest, particularly for those disputing the Donne quotation about every man’s death diminishing me. It’s led me to think rather a lot.
I’m 55 years old and William Buckley has been around ever since I can remember. Now, he’s gone; one of the fixed features of my landscape has vanished. I’m at the age where that’s happening rather a lot and every time it does, I feel one step closer to the dark myself. Which is how that quotation applies here for me.
MKK
I’m the same age as MKK, and like her, I feel as if Buckley has been around forever. Read his stuff on occasion and it gave me a very different perspective on what is thought of as the right wing in America. I followed the link to the hayden blog and was sad to see that Buckley had written some hateful things way back in the day. I doubt that he felt that way in his latter years, though I can’t cite any particular writing that explicitly repudiates the quotes from the 50s.
I will say that this is so typical of hayden to focus on the negative. I read hayden occasionally and he’s for the most part an incapable of escaping from his bankrupt left wing perspective on the things.