{"id":418,"date":"2012-04-13T21:21:19","date_gmt":"2012-04-14T01:21:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/?p=418"},"modified":"2012-04-13T21:21:19","modified_gmt":"2012-04-14T01:21:19","slug":"examining-rich-lowry-and-national-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2012\/04\/examining-rich-lowry-and-national-review.html","title":{"rendered":"Examining Rich Lowry and National Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

John Derbyshire has spent many years writing for National Review.\u00a0 <\/em>Within the last few days, his tenure for the \u201cconservative\u201d magazine came to an abrupt halt.<\/p>\n

Derbyshire, you see, was fired for having published (at another publication) an article\u2014\u201cThe Talk: Nonblack Version\u201d\u2014that his editor, Rich Lowry, found both \u201cnasty and indefensible.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Derbyshire\u2019s essay is a distillation of the cautionary notes regarding groups of young black males that he has conveyed to his teenage children over the span of their young lives.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Many commentators and readers have jumped to Derbyshire\u2019s defense.\u00a0 For the time being, though, rather than argue for or against the truth of the remarks of either the offending author or Lowry, we should instead ask: if <\/em>Derbyshire\u2019s comments are \u201cnasty and indefensible,\u201d then what makes them so?\u00a0 Since Lowry never offers an explanation for his verdict, we are left to fall back upon our own resources to find the answer to this question.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It is possible that Lowry thinks his judgment is self<\/em>-justifying in the way that the statement, \u201cAll bodies are extended beings,\u201d is self-justifying.\u00a0 Yet when we give this just a moment\u2019s consideration, we are forced to rule this out.\u00a0 The latter statement, you see, is what is called an analytic <\/em>proposition.\u00a0 Analytic propositions are true by definition.\u00a0 <\/em>In an analytic statement, the meanings of the subject and predicate terms are identical.\u00a0 An analytic statement can be denied only upon pain of contradiction.<\/p>\n

Clearly, \u201cParental warnings to avoid large groups of young black males are \u2018nasty and indefensible\u2019 things\u201d is a fundamentally different type of statement than \u201cAll bodies are extended beings,\u201d \u201cGreen unicorns are colored entities,\u201d and so forth.<\/p>\n

Lowry\u2019s judgment is emphatically not <\/em>analytic.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

However, some statements may be \u201cself-evident,\u201d even though they aren\u2019t true by definition.\u00a0 \u201cEvery effect has a cause,\u201d \u201cI am really typing out this analysis of Rich Lowry\u2019s judgment of John Derbyshire and not just dreaming that I am typing it out,\u201d would be propositions of this latter sort.\u00a0 Perhaps Lowry thinks that the nastiness and indefensibility of Derbyshire\u2019s advice to his children is self-evident in this way. Perhaps he thinks that it is self-evident in the way in which the wrongness of torturing little children for the fun of it is self-evident.<\/p>\n

Neither does this account do, for we treat these phenomena as self-evident because no one <\/em>thinks to seriously question them.\u00a0 In stark contrast, a good number of people take issue with Lowry\u2019s characterization of Derbyshire\u2019s remarks as \u201cnasty and indefensible.\u201d<\/p>\n

To act \u201cnasty\u201d is to act in an uncivil, and possibly even cruel, way.\u00a0 The person who acts nasty seeks to hurt people with his words, and maybe his actions.\u00a0 Thus, though a person\u2019s words, because they are judged inaccurate or unpleasant or whatever, may be hard to hear, whether they are \u201cnasty\u2019 or not depends solely upon the intentions or motives of the person who utters them.\u00a0 Does Lowry think that Derbyshire sought<\/em> to injure<\/em> others with his words?\u00a0 If so, for whom was he gunning?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Considering that, originally, it was to and for his children<\/em> that Derbyshire imparted his now notorious advice, he certainly couldn\u2019t have intended <\/em>to harm them. <\/em>And how, we are left wondering, could words\u2014wrong though they may be\u2014that spring from the lips of a loving and concerned parent and are relayed by that same parent to others be intended <\/em>to injure anyone<\/em>? \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Does Lowry mean to suggest that Derbyshire doesn\u2019t really believe in what he told his own children?\u00a0 Does he think that Derbyshire didn\u2019t really tell his children this stuff at all, that he was just making this up in order to offend and hurt his own readers?\u00a0 Neither option sounds very believable.\u00a0 At any rate, to ascribe to Derbyshire\u2019s words a \u201cnasty\u201d character means that it is incumbent upon Lowry to answer these questions.<\/p>\n

Next, we may ask of Lowry in which respect(s) Derbyshire\u2019s remarks are \u201cindefensible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lowry condemns Derbyshire\u2019s remarks.\u00a0 <\/em>But Derbyshire doesn\u2019t just make assertions, it is crucial to bear in mind.\u00a0 What assertions he makes Derbyshire then proceeds to substantiate with evidence.\u00a0 Again, whether he succeeds in so doing is neither here nor there; the fact remains that he does indeed argue <\/em>for his claims.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Evidently, Lowry thinks that such arguments are so worthless as to be beyond mentioning. Yet, ordinarily, when a disagreement arises between two interlocutors\u2014especially when they are colleagues, like Lowry and Derbyshire, who have worked alongside one another for years\u2014each seeks to identify <\/em>the deficiencies of the other\u2019s position.\u00a0 In this case, though, Lowry didn\u2019t so much as attempt to expose the illegitimacy in Derbyshire\u2019s reasoning.<\/p>\n

So, we are left wondering: why <\/em>does Lowry insist on condemning Derbyshire\u2019s advice to the latter\u2019s children as \u201cnasty and indefensible?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jack Kerwick, Ph.D.\u00a0<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John Derbyshire has spent many years writing for National Review.\u00a0 Within the last few days, his tenure for the \u201cconservative\u201d magazine came to an abrupt halt. Derbyshire, you see, was fired for having published (at another publication) an article\u2014\u201cThe Talk: Nonblack Version\u201d\u2014that his editor, Rich Lowry, found both \u201cnasty and indefensible.\u201d\u00a0 Derbyshire\u2019s essay is a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":399,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nExamining Rich Lowry and National Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2012\/04\/examining-rich-lowry-and-national-review.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Examining Rich Lowry and National Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"John Derbyshire has spent many years writing for National Review.\u00a0 Within the last few days, his tenure for the \u201cconservative\u201d magazine came to an abrupt halt. 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