In my Impromptus column today, I lead with my experience of voting this week. I can’t say I vote every November, without fail. But most? I think so. I continue in my column with further political notes, then get to music, language, and other interesting things. Give it a whirl, here.
At this point, I would normally publish reader mail. But today, I would like to make a couple of “asks.”
(1) I’m involved with a foundation whose aim is to further American values, or Western ones, or universal ones, if you like. We do this on campus and off. What do I mean by “values”? We’re interested in freedom, democracy, capitalism, entrepreneurship, the Great Books, high culture, a sound education, family life, etc. We give grants to various groups, projects, and programs. We have made something of a specialty of helping people who are operating in unfriendly environments. But we have helped many sorts.
Do you know of groups, projects, etc., that we should be looking at? People who are doing good work — possibly in the face of staunch opposition — who could use a boost? If so, please drop me a line at jnordlinger@nationalreview.com.
(2) The other day, some of us were discussing Twitter, and other social media. “Comments sections” would apply too. Do they reveal life or distort life? Do they show people for what they are, or do they offer a skewed view of people?
I was not going to publish mail in this post, but maybe I could share one note. It responds to something I have in my column today. During Wednesday’s presidential debate, the senior senator from Utah tweeted this:
Vivek Ramaswamy = badass
— Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) November 9, 2023
My comment, in my column, is,
“Based” Mike Lee thinks Ramaswamy is a “badass.” If that does not encapsulate today’s GOP, and today’s conservative movement, I don’t know what does. A tragedy.
A reader writes, “Was he always like this?” (The reader is referring to Senator Lee.) “Was I just fooled? Or has he changed?”
There is an old line: “Trying times don’t shape character, they reveal character.” I don’t know whether our current times qualify as “trying”; they are certainly screwy.
Think of another old line: In vino veritas. What does a person say when he has alcohol in him? How does he act? Those are his true beliefs, his true feelings — his true self. His inhibitions have been lessened. The veneer of civilization has washed away.
Other people say, “Nonsense. Alcohol is a distorter. A person is not in his right mind. Alcohol may bring out his worse angels; but that is not the whole person, or even most of the person. It is an imposter.”
Look, all of this is “above my pay grade.” But let’s get back to Twitter and the rest: What do you think? In Twitter veritas? Are these things revealers of people (and our society too)? Or are they more like distorters?
(I suppose we should bear in mind that most, or many, in social media and comments sections are anonymous.)
If you have opinions to share, or experiences to relate, I’m all ears: again, jnordlinger@nationalreview.com. I expect to write an article on this, quoting readers.
I thank you so much.