When you take a long trip as Shelley and I are doing this week, crossing half of our great continent, you have time to think about things. In a moment of silence when I had muted the radio, I asked Shelley what was on her mind. She is a deep thinker. I wasn’t surprised by her response. “I’m thinking how big our country is.” Simple. True. Complex.
It’s hard to avoid the bigness of our nation, especially as you cross the flatlands of southern Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, and into Kansas where the “big sky” overwhelms the perceiver. We are a big nation, once founded on equally expansive ideas of freedom, natural law, and the idea that you can be whatever you resolve to be. Opportunity is essential here. All of us have the opportunity in America to pursue our goals. But the outcome is entirely another matter.
Our Founders had a big vision to create a place where people had that opportunity, inspired by the ideals that all of us were created equal, that rule of law not the whims of men would stand behind the government, and that individual effort, not government leverage, would be the decisive factor in attaining life goals. That was indeed a big idea. It remains a big idea.
Unfortunately, we are a nation, while blessed with the opportunity to learn these ideas, seem entrapped in idle discourse and shallow opinion, more enlivened by outrage than wisdom. I am struck by the complete absence of true discourse in cable news and in the written journals of our time. The thoughtful exchange of ideas—even the ones you do not agree with or find objectionable—are the grist we must have to not only shape debate but distill truth through free expression. And that debate is more important than ever in connecting with our nation’s founding. That founding has a robust factual history that defies the flimsy notions offered by race-obsessed ideologues that somehow our nation was founded on evil. In fact, it was founded by imperfect people who nevertheless left us a disciplined system to pursue and shape a more perfect union. We historically have had the means and motivation to seek perfection through major amendments and that should loom large before us like the sky over Kansas.
Recently a titan of technology—who cares deeply about free speech—has considered buying one of the largest social media platforms in the world where people offer opinions in 280 characters. I would not spend a penny on that acquisition even if all the pennies were mine to spend. In many ways social media is little more than rhetorical pornography. Much of it is outrageous nonsense that fuels more outrage and, in the process, offers little insight into anything aside from the gormless prattle of those who contribute to the vulgar brawl that plays out on Twitter.
Yet we need opportunities to share ideas, particularly good ones that underpin our freedom, constitutional governance, and equal opportunity, all part of the Founding vision. I recall Firing Line, an American public affairs show hosted by conservative author and columnist William F. Buckley Jr. from 1966 to 1999. There were 1,504 episodes over 33 years making it the longest-running public affairs show in television history with a single host. Buckley engaged in a polite exchange of views and always gave his guests equal time to answer questions at length. Liberal economist John Kenneth Galbraith once said of the conservative Buckley venue, “Firing Line is one of the rare occasions when you have a chance to correct the errors of the man who’s interrogating you.”
Buckley cared about debate. In fact, several of his shows followed formal debate rules, where contending sides asserted, and rebutted in a timed and disciplined manner. This is an unrecognizable thing in what passes for debates these days. Debates today amount to a series of barbs and insults where the ad hominem overtakes the logical exchange of ideas.
America is desperate for thinkers, knowledgeable ones where the facts of history are not debatable, but rather the lessons drawn from them. Those lessons are big also. We should not forget them. But first we should learn and debate them.
That is not occurring now. What occurs now is a tantrum of political correctness, one-upmanship and, and the self-promotion by cable news hosts and guests alike seeking to book more appearances to engage in controversies, outrage, and nihilism. That’s not debate but rather rhetorical debauchery that mocks discourse. I have grown weary of it all. It simply doesn’t elevate the mind.
It is time to return to the Buckley formula that enriches our minds and, in the process, maybe opens our eyes to behold the truly big sky around us that reveals the greatness of the American nation.
Categories: CBW
1 Comment
Judith L Glick-Smith · April 21, 2022 at 8:19 pm
YES!!! I have thought a lot about Buckley over the last couple of years. His show was smart and thoughtful and he and his guests were respectful of each others’ points of view. It breaks my heart that we don’t have a forum like Buckley’s show where we can hear smart, intelligent debate and dialogue.