Today marks the 133rd birth anniversary of Henry Louis “H. L.” Mencken (1880-1956), American journalist, editor and satirist. Mencken wrote prolifically about American life and culture, often criticising it. What better way to introduce the man and his work than a selection of his writings on a variety of issues. These selection have been taken from Prejudices: A Selection edited by James T Farrell (available at the B. R. Shenoy Library at Centre for Civil Society). Those of you who have read Mencken will vouch for his wit, and those who have not, I urge you to read him.
Some of our favourite excerpts from his works are:
On “The Cult of Hope”
Of all the sentimental errors which reign and rage in this incomparable republic, the worst, I often suspect, is that which confuses the function of criticism, whether aesthetic, political or social, with the function of reform. Almost invariably it takes the form of a protest: “The fellow condemns without offering anything better. Why tear down without building up?”… It is impossible to get an audience for an idea that is not “constructive” – i.e., that is not glib, and uplifting, and full of hope, and hence capable of tickling the emotions by leaping the intermediate barrier of the intelligence.
In this protest and demand, of course, there is nothing but a hollow sound of words – the empty babbling of men who constantly mistake their feelings for thoughts.
On “Democracy”
Democracy is that system of government under which the people, having 35,717,342 native-born adult whites to choose from, including thousands who are handsome and many who are wise, pick out a Coolidge to be head of the State. It is as if a hungry man, set before a banquet prepared by master cooks and covering a table an acre in area, should turn his back upon the feast and stay his stomach by catching and eating flies.
On “The Politician”
… a like increase would follow if the American people could only rid themselves of another and worse false assumption that still rides them – one that corrupts all their thinking about the great business of politics, and vastly augments their discontent and unhappiness – the assumption, that is, that politicians are divided into two classes, and that one of those classes is made up of good ones.
… if experience teaches us anything at all it teaches us this: that a good politician, under democracy, is quite as unthinkable as an honest burglar. … He is not one who serves the common weal; he is simply one who preys upon the common wealth.
On “The Voter”
Today he chooses his rulers as he buys bootleg whiskey, never knowing precisely what he is getting, only certain that it is not what it pretends to be. The Scotch may turn out to be wood alcohol or it may turn out to be gasoline; in either case it is not Scotch. How much better if it were plainly labelled, for wood alcohol and gasoline both have their uses – higher uses, indeed, than Scotch. … The danger is that the hopeless voter, forever victimized by the false assumptions about politicians, may in the end gather such ferocious indignation that he will abolish them teetotally and at on insane swoop, and so cause government by the people, for the people and with the people to perish from this earth.
On “The Government”
One hears it [the government] spoken of, not uncommonly, as one hears the law of gravitation and the grace of God spoken of – as if its acts had no human motive in them and stood clearly above human fallibility. This concept, I need to argue, is full of error. … when we examine this group of men realistically we almost invariably find that it is composed of individuals who are not only not superior to the general, but plainly and depressingly inferior, both in common sense and common decency – that the act of government we are called upon to ratify and submit to is, in its essence, no more than an act of self-interest by men who, if no mythical authority stood behind them, would have a hard time of it surviving in the struggle for existence. … Their purpose, first, last and all the time, is to promote their private advantage, and to that end, and that end alone, they exercise all their vast powers that are in their hands.
The extortions and oppressions of the government … will come to an end when the victims begin to differentiate clearly between government as a necessary device for maintaining order in the world and government as a device for maintaining the authority and prosperity of predatory rascals and swindlers. In other words, they will come to an end on the Tuesday following the first Monday of November preceding the Resurrection Morn.
It is obvious that these definitions and commentary are not applicable only to the early 20th century USA, which is when Mencken wrote these words, but also to the present day India – perhaps more so.
Today when the government has permeated almost all walks of our life, it would be a good start if – as Mencken suggested – we start viewing government more realistically. We should not let its necessary and perhaps useful function blind us to its ever-increasing crimes against the ordinary rights of the free citizen and the common decencies of the world.
