Gone West

I have returned.  Well, to be precise, I left and returned and left and returned again.

Trip #1:  Dallas, Texas, for the Philadelphia Society meetings

            This year, like every year, this was a rather good conference.  The theme was Progressivism—a hot topic these days as the Left rebrands itself as Progressive.  Apparently calling oneself a “Liberal” has become unpopular as people figured out that Liberals wanted to do all sorts of things that said People didn’t like.  So, what do you do when your political philosophy is unpopular?  Change the name.  Ah, but this isn’t your Father’s Progressivism.  It turns out, being a Progressive means never having to say you are sorry.

            The conference had a bit of  a schizophrenic feel.  On the one hand, the old early 20^th century progressives were a rather totalitarian bunch.  Jonah Goldberg’s (the keynote speaker) Liberal Fascism has the details.  Truth be told, I haven’t read Goldberg’s book—Goldberg is a really good columnist, always clever and amusing.  Then he wrote the Big Book which shows he is a Serious Thinker.  My experience with books of this type is that they are horribly tedious.  Horribly tedious.  Just because someone can write a fantastic magazine article does not mean the same person can write a great 200+ page book.  So, I have refrained from reading Goldberg’s book because as long as I haven’t read it, I can think very well of it, but I am afraid, very afraid, that if I read it, I’ll end up not liking it.  But I digress.  (Please contain your expression of shock.)  Goldberg’s thesis is that the old Progressives were, well, fascists.  He thinks this because, well, they were. 

            But, on the other hand, the crucial question is not the history of Progressives, but rather, if there is any link between Modern Progressives and Historical Progressives.  And after a weekend of hearing people talk about historical and modern Progressives, I am not so sure.  On  the one hand, what modern Progressives want is, in fact, a lot like, if not identical to, what those early 20^th century progressives wanted.  On the other hand, conservatives are by nature inclined to root their ideas in some historical development; Progressives like to imagine they are reinventing the world anew every 16 months or so.  Meet the New Progressives, Same as the Old Progressives.  But, at least they are New, right?  (Insert obvious music video.) 

Trip #2: Idaho, for my Grandfather’s funeral

            He was buried in May, Idaho, where his grandfather had a homestead.  If you haven’t heard of May, Idaho, don’t be alarmed.  It is a small town.  A very small town.  The population is under 200, but even that number is high.  It is ranching country.  There is a downtown strip with one main road, maybe two dozen buildings of which about a third are uninhabitable.  It was interesting driving out there—this is one remote area.  Standing in the windswept desert, it is hard not to dream of a life living out there—peaceful to say the least. 

Well except for the Boeing guy.  Some President or Vice-President of Boeing bought some land out there on which he has built a large house and a couple of guest houses.  (I didn’t drive out to see the houses, we just heard about them.)  He also built a private airstrip so he can fly there.  Being a Boeing executive, though, means that you don’t just build a small airstrip.  His private airstrip is big enough to land a 727.  But, don’t worry about the size—he is expanding it so that he can land a 747 on it.  Now why would you want to land a 747 in the middle of nowhere?  I assume it is simply so that he can fly 300 of his closest friends out from Seattle for a big party in the middle of Idaho.

            You can imagine how the Idaho ranchers feel about having a 747 land in the middle of their otherwise peaceful land.

            I can fancy myself living on a ranch reading books as the sun slowly sets over the desert.  But, then I’d have to get a satellite dish so I could watch the Raiders.  (Assuming they ever play football again (now this is getting depressing).)

Observation #1 on my trips.

It’s official:  I hate flying.  Between the two trips, I had four sets of flights.  On only one of them was there no problem.  And can I say that the customer service of airlines when there are problems with flights is seriously lacking?  I was thoroughly unimpressed with both Southwest and Delta.

Observation #2 on my trips.

It’s good to be home.