Stanley: Reading that John Leo piece you linked to, I had an evil thought. My thought was about the pre-1960s culturo-political consensus. In England we called it “Butskellism,” after two of its characteristic
figures, Hugh Gaitskell (Labour Party) and R.A. Butler (Conservative).
Nowadays, nodody has a kind word to say for that consensus. To the Right,
it was suffocating liberal conformity sliding into welfare socialism; to the
Left, it was a bogus facade hiding racist, sexist, homophobic, etc.
atrocities. My wicked thought was: hey, maybe it wasn’t so bad. Maybe
Western civ was healthier then. Maybe our countries were happier then, with
more vitality. Just a thoughts, and of course a very deplorable one…