This book was a wonderful Christmas present and contains a collection of the brilliant writings of Charles Krauthammer. Dr. Krauthammer’s personal story is, in my judgment, even more fascinating than his book. He was “playing hooky” from classes as a medical student when he suffered a broken neck diving into a private swimming pool. The university was convinced to provide him classes at his hospital bed, and he finished his doctorate in psychiatry. He did not learn to handwrite for three years and he remains confined in a wheelchair. He was named by the Financial Times “…the most influential commentator in the nation.” Liberals, Conservatives, and Libertarians can all learn from this book, although I expect Conservatives and Libertarians will be more comfortable with what they read.
Chapter 1 titled “Marcel, My Brother’ is touching. Marcel is described as a brilliant doctor and professor of medicine. He was four years older than Charles, and was a magnificent athlete. When Marcel’s friends were organizing pick-up games they all understood the rule: “Charlie Plays. The corollary was understood” If Charlie doesn’t play, Marcel doesn’t play.” The chapter was written ten days after Marcel died. It is a powerful chapter. The words convey the love and respect Charlie felt for Marcel and a sense of the depth of emotion from the loss. I can’t imagine a more powerful first chapter.
The dust cover description is that the book “…presents a trove of always penetrating, often bemused reflections on everything from border collies to Halley’s comet, from Woody Allen to Winston Churchill, from the punishing pleasures of speed chess to the elegance of the perfectly thrown outfield assist.” I agree with all of that with emphasis on “bemused.” He was asked why he wrote the book, and he displayed a bemused smile and said something to the effect, “Gambling debts. I bet heavily on Obamacare and the Ed Show.” He explains that he left psychiatry for journalism and is said to have counseled that anyone wanting to become a syndicated columnist should first study medicine. I will warn that you should have a dictionary handy. I think I averaged using mine about once per page.
One fun aspect of reading the book is that you never know when you will encounter the next “bemused” moment. Dr. Krauthammer explains that his first choice of study was physics, but he came “…to the realization that I didn’t have what it took to do important work in theoretical physics, namely genius.” He also writes that, “The great physicist Max Planck did told John Maynard Keynes that he thought of studying economics but decided it was too difficult. That I take as an exercise in either humor or good manners.” Women readers should enjoy his observation that the “Women and Children First” rule on sinking ships makes good sense in the overall scheme. “You can repopulate a village if the women survive and only a few of the men…Women being more precious, biologically speaking, than men…”
I enjoyed his answer of how he changed from being a Liberal to being on Fox New. His reply was “I was young once.” A more serious explanation is that he agreed with trying to keep the anti-communist tradition of Truman and Kennedy, but “…few other Democrats followed…I didn’t leave the Democratic Party. It left me.” The Democrats did remain “…true to itself…” on domestic policy. The empirical evidence convinced Dr. Krauthammer that the Great Society program intended to implement liberalism’s perfectionist ambitions “…was causing irreparable damage to the very communities it was designed to help” His studies convinced him of the value of “…restrained free-market governance…” and limited government.
I recommend that everyone should read his introduction. He explains that everything lives or dies by politics. “Politics is the moat, the walls, beyond which lie the barbarians. Fail to keep them at bay, and everything burns.” He gives the examples of Germany in 1933, North Korea today, China’s Cultural Revolution, and the Taliban in Afghanistan for what happens when the barbarians are not kept at bay. He also explains why war is sometimes important by quoting John Adams who said, “I must study politics and war.” Adams explained that would allow his sons to study the various sciences and commerce and their sons to study the arts. Dr. Krauthammer further observed that politics done right will secure life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Politics done right is “…hard-earned, often by war.”
When I logged onto Amazon to provide a link for the book there were 2246 reviews. There were 1909 five star reviews and 223 four star reviews. My favorite one star review is that it is “…good reading but too many sophisticated words.” Another said the book arrived dog-eared and there wasn’t time to send it back. The first one star review listed said “Seems like he is just making money off recycled material.” I doubt Dr. Krauthammer would disagree with that last comment. The selected three star review observes that the reader thought the first part of the book is fluff (border collies, baseball, etc.) and that leaves the reader unprepared for the later essays. I admit to enjoying the “fluff” and being challenged to contemplate what is contained in the later essays.
The final essays are not entertaining, but they are filled with important information. Dr. Krauthammer obviously wanted to make strong points in writing Chapter 12 “The Jewish Question, Again.” The two following chapters are about the terrorism of September 11, 2001 and the justifications for being strong in continuing to prepare and to fight terrorism. The final chapter has fascinating observations of the history of international policies. He provides significant criticism of what he calls “liberal internationalism” that is “…the foreign policy of the Democratic Party and the religion of the foreign elite.” After the Vietnam War “…it transmuted itself into an ideology of passivity, acquiescence and almost reflexive anti-interventionism.” His criticism of President Obama will probably not be enjoyed by the President’s liberal supporters. Mr. Obama responded to a question about American exceptionalism by saying other countries probably believe in their own exceptionalism. As Dr. Krauthammer could explain to the President, “…if everyone is exceptional, no one is.”
Dr. Krauthammer puts forward suggestions on how to end America’s slide in international influence by accepting its role as the hegemon. “There is a reason so many countries…welcome our presence as balancer of power and guarantor of their freedom….And that reason is simple: We are as benign a hegemon as the world has ever seen.” For those who wonder about the definition of hegemon, Wikipedia explains “…hegemony denotes the geopolitical and the cultural predominance of one country upon others…”
Dr. Krauthammer advises that we should resist retreat as a matter of strategy and principle. He ends the book by saying we should follow the advice of Demosthenes who was asked what was to be done about the decline of Athens. “His reply? I will give what I believe is the fairest and truest answer: Don’t do what you are doing now.”