precepts at claremont.org wrote:
> The Claremont Institute--PRECEPTS | | May 30, 2001
> Visit <http://www.claremont.org> | | No. 279
>
> Claremont Institute Precepts: Our Heroes, Ourselves
> By Ben Boychuk
>
> "The Cowboy Versus The Bobo" sounds like the title of a bad
> spaghetti western. But it's an apt description of the
> Spring 2001 issue of the Claremont Review of Books. The new
> issue, available now, tackles the question of what happened
> to the idea of heroism in American politics and popular
> culture.
>
> The cowboy is easy to explain -- he is an American icon,
> immortalized in tens of thousands of books and films. But
> what about the Bobo? "Bobo" is short for bourgeois
> bohemian, and the subject of a best-selling book by David
> Brooks. In "Bobo Virtue and the Future of American
> Liberty," Peter A. Lawler examines what is right and wrong
> with America's new ruling class. The Bobo, Lawler
> writes, "is now the model American" -- and that is not
> necessarily a good thing.
>
> The Bobos set the political and cultural tone for America
> today. They work hard, value their families, and place
> spiritual and personal fulfillment above mere acquisition
> of wealth. But they lack courage, a sense of civic duty,
> and noblesse oblige. They have no real heroes. Whatever
> virtues the Bobos may possess, Lawler argues, they cannot
> be allowed to remain America's ruling class for long.
>
> In contrast to the modern bourgeois bohemian is the old
> cowboy, as portrayed in American cinema. In "There Once
> Were Giants," John Marini argues that western movies, at
> their very best, tackled the big questions of law,
> civilization, and justice. Westerns offered an artistic and
> popular response to the intellectual triumph of
> progressivism, which scoffed at the idea that the past
> could teach anything worth learning. For the
> progressives, "there were no giants in those days." The
> western gave audiences reason to believe that there really
> were.
>
> "In the hands of directors like John Ford," Marini
> writes, "the western allowed us to go back to school again,
> to learn some lessons that could not be taught by value
> free social science or progressive history."
>
> John Meroney rounds out the theme of heroism with a
> reassessment of the films of Ronald Reagan in "Here's the
> Rest of Him." Reagan's political enemies criticized him as
> a second-rate B-movie actor who couldn't distinguish the
> fantasy of the big screen from the reality of world
> affairs. Even Reagan's friends tend to downplay his early
> career as an actor. Once again, the critics have gotten it
> wrong.
>
> "Not only have historians and biographers missed the full
> significance of Ronald Reagan's Hollywood life," Meroney
> writes, "they have largely ignored the importance of the
> roles he played and the themes and storylines of his
> films."
>
> Also in the Spring issue of the CRB:
>
> * Martha Derthick considers the abuses of liberty and the
> rule of law committed in the name of regulating the tobacco
> industry.
>
> * Angelo Codevilla gives a frank assessment of Ariel
> Sharon's statecraft and the dilemmas he faces, while Harry
> V. Jaffa offers some modest recommendations about what the
> United States should do about Yasser Arafat and the
> Palestinian Authority.
>
> * Michael M. Uhlmann takes on the darwinian legacy of
> Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
>
> * William Voegeli finds much to lament in George Packer's
> memoir "Blood of the Liberals," but James Higgins finds
> plenty to admire in Thomas Sowell's "A Personal Odyssey."
>
> * Brian T. Kennedy reviews two important new books about
> the growing threat China poses to the United States.
>
> * Mackubin T. Owens explores the differences between great
> conquerors and great liberators, while Jean M. Yarbrough
> wonders what to do about America's gender-neutral military.
>
> * Mark Gauvreau Judge wishes the rock 'n' roll snobs at the
> New York Times would get over their obsession with protest
> music.
>
> * The editors takes a stroll down "Gin Lane" and discover
> that it's gone upscale.
>
> A one-year subscription to the Claremont Review of Books is
> only $19.95 for four issues. As an added bonus, new one
> year subscribers will receive a free copy of "The Electoral
> College: Proven Constitutional Pillar of Freedom," the
> definitive guide to one of the least understood and most
> reviled institutions in American government. The book sells
> regularly for $9.95.
>
> To subscribe to the CRB, visit the Claremont Institute's
> website at www.claremont.org, or call (909) 621-6825.
>
> Ben Boychuk is Managing Editor of the Claremont Review of
> Books.
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Copyright (c) 2001 The Claremont Institute
>
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