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Entry: All Soul's Day Link: http://www.takimag.com/site/article/all_souls_day#8419 Post contents: kevin, in a place like this we need contrarians, boat-rockers, challengers, and Devil's Advocates. We don't know our own beliefs until we have to defend them. Out of this defense often comes the beliefs clarified and more powerful. Trent was such a defense. So is Mr. Z's blog today. One of the great things about England and the Continent is that people there will gladly tell you their beliefs, why they belief them, that your beliefs are stupid, and why -- and then buy you another pint. Gringos are famous for their hiding their views, for not being frank, a fact observed by Tocqueville, Cooper, and Emerson. The real danger of democratic regimes is the force of public opinion. A man might stand up to a thuggish dictator. But who will stand up to the entire people and tell them they are wrong? Cleveland was the last such man in pubic office, and he was bitterly hated. Cooper said that we are ruled by an Absolute Monarch: His name: "They Say", as in "you know what They Say about ..." So Gringos think controversy just isn't "nice" -- the favorite word of the middle class. Some, in the New England Puritan Calvinist tradition, take an alternative view as the sign of a wicked and evil man. Found frequently here, they are outraged when anyone disturbs their "dogmatic slumber", preferring to rest in sweet sugary contentment with yes-men and like-thinkers -- and thus grow intellectually lazy, if not quite ignorant. Welcome Ramus and Cathey, however correct your own views may be. Sent at: 2008 11 20