[MD] Steele meets Pirsig on common ground

[Platt Holden]

Hi All, 

In a WSJ editorial recently, Shelby Steele, author of "White Guilt," 
wrote the following:

"Anti-Americanism, whether in Europe or on the American left, works by 
the mechanism of white guilt. It stigmatizes America with all the 
imperialistic and racist ugliness of the white Western past so that 
America becomes a kind of straw man, a construct of Western sin. (The 
Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo prisons were the focus of such stigmatization 
campaigns.) Once the stigma is in place, one need only be anti-American 
in order to be "good," in order to have an automatic moral legitimacy 
and power in relation to America. (People as seemingly disparate as 
President Jacques Chirac and the Rev. Al Sharpton are devoted pursuers 
of the moral high ground to be had in anti-Americanism.) This formula 
is the most dependable source of power for today's international left. 
Virtue and power by mere anti-Americanism. And it is all the more 
appealing since, unlike real virtues, it requires no sacrifice or 
effort--only outrage at every slight echo of the imperialist past."

The description, "requires no sacrifice or effort" parallels Pirsig's 
condemnation of Rigel like morality:

"There are so many kinds of problem people like Rigel around, he 
thought, but the ones who go posing as moralists are the worst. Cost-
free morals. Full of great ways for others to improve without any 
expense to themselves." 

Regards, 
Platt