More from This Week’s WEedies
Jun 3rd, 2008 by Micah Tillman | Start the Discussion |
WEeding Winner 31
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“All About Me,” by Victor Davis Hanson, Real Clear Politics
Reasons for Winning:
A:
“Here is how our baby-boom generation solves problems:” -Victor Davis Hanson
Comment:
An entire generation solves problems? Isn’t it mildly shocking to hear a conservative talking like a collectivist? Almost Borg-like.
This isn’t a WEedy sentence, because the instance of the first-person plural in it is legitimate. But the group-reification (a consequence of WEedy thinking) would automatically make this article eligible for a “Groupy” (if such an award existed).
(If you were wondering, Dr. Hanson should have said, “Here is the way many members of our baby-boom generation tend to solve problems:”)
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B:
“When the bubble inevitably burst, cries of outrage followed about how “they” (never “we”) caused a “depression” in housing. Our leaders shrieked about greedy lenders and incompetent regulators who foreclosed on us — never that the American people themselves caused much of the speculation problem, or that housing prices are finally becoming affordable again for new couples.” -Victor Davis Hanson
Comment:
There are some fascinating things going on here. Notice how Dr. Hanson focuses on the first- and third-person plurals, arguing that the former would have been more proper.
But then he goes on to claim “the American people themselves caused much of the speculation problem.” We’re all real estate speculators to Mr. Hanson? Surely he doesn’t believe this. I, for one, am not a real estate speculator, and don’t think I’ve ever met one.
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C:
“Over 70 percent of the American people, and a majority of Democratic senators, wanted to remove Saddam Hussein — overwhelming support for the administration’s war that rose even higher as a brilliant campaign finished off the Baathists in three weeks.
“But when a messy insurgency erupted, suddenly we heard that our victory was ruined by “their stupid occupation.”" -Victor Davis Hanson
Comment:
Once again, Dr. Hanson is focusing on the shifting of “person” in pluralized pronouns. He says the the Baby Boomers (at least) wanted the Iraq War at first, only to divest themselves of it, calling it “their . . . occupation.”
And yet Dr. Hanson speaks of “the administration’s war” as leading to “our victory”! He wasn’t there fighting, and yet he claims it as his own.
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D:
“What are the baby boomers’ collective traits? Like all perpetual adolescents who suffer arrested development, we always want things both ways: Don’t drill or explore for more energy, but nevertheless demand ever more fuel from other suppliers.” -Victor Davis Hanson
Comment:
Did I mention this was a conservative talking? “Collective traits”!?! And even though he does not share these traits (he is criticizing them), he speaks in the first person about them.
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E:
“When things don’t go well, we always blame someone else. Why drill off Santa Barbara or Alaska when we can sue those terrible Saudis for not putting more oil platforms in their Persian Gulf?” -Victor Davis Hanson
Comment:
You do, Dr. Hanson? You always blame someone else? And you can sue the Saudis? Really? In what court will you be filing?
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F:
“And in our self-absorption, no one accepted that our notorious appetites created more problems than our supposed “caring” solved.” -Victor Davis Hanson
Comment:
In this part of the article, Dr. Hanson is doing some excellent critiquing of how some people think about themselves (using the first person). And yet he falls into the same trap of being focussed on “we.” Clearly Dr. Hanson does not believe himself to be self-absorbed, nor does he believe himself to have a “notorious appetite,” nor does he think himself to have merely cared in a “supposed” way. But he talks in the first person about each.
And he has “accepted that . . . notorious appetites create[] more problems than . . . supposed ‘caring’ solved.” Yet he speaks as if he hadn’t.
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G:
“The fault of this age, dear baby boomers, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.” -Victor Davis Hanson
Comment:
After saying, in the paragraph previous to this sentence, that “the anonymous ‘they’” were not to blame for various problems, Dr. Hanson goes on to blame himself for things he clearly does not believe himself to have caused.
So much wasted potential for clarity!
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Judgment:
If this article were WEeded, it would be an excellent piece. It says much of importance. (”What’s wrong with weeds?“)
WEediness Quotient: [FAQ]
7/10 = 0.7
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