Mencken, thou shouldst be living at this hour

[Christopher Rhoades Dÿkema]

Mencken had many virtues, but also was, as Carrol points out, quite
benightedly anti-Jewish, and also, though ambivalently, racist. Check out
his diary. All these qualities come through in it. Moreover, his reputation
for anti-religious enlightenment, though deserved in many ways, needs
careful examination. He tended to go somewhat light on Catholicism, mostly
because he saw the temperance movement and prohibition as anti-Catholic (It
was.) and the Church as an ally against them.

Basically, he wasn’t much of a thinker. He was, among other things, an
absurdly committed laissez-fairist and privatizer. At one point he opposed
sidewalks, as a matter of policy, because they were a public service.

Christopher Rhoades Dÿkema

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <../attachments/20020901/0b24bdee/attachment.htm>