The Curmudgeon

YOU'LL COME FOR THE CURSES. YOU'LL STAY FOR THE MUDGEONRY.

Saturday, October 01, 2005

Virtue Speaks

The Republican moral crusader, former drug czar and gifted comedy entertainer William Bennett has proposed an interesting way to be tough on the causes of crime.

In his time, Bennett has gladdened the book market with a series of moral tracts, including such titles as The Death of Outrage: Bill Clinton and the Assault on American Ideals and Why We Fight: Moral Clarity and the War on Terrorism. He has also sought to elevate the moral character of America's little people with The Children's Book of Virtues; The Children's Treasury of Virtues; and The Book of Virtues for Young People. He has also edited an enticing 832-page compilation, titled for variety's sake The Book of Virtues, in which he utilises a variety of sources - biblical, literary, traditional and political - to illustrate the virtues he considers it desirable to be seen as supporting. "Most selections," comments Library Journal, "are introduced by a short thematic note, e.g. 'an honest heart will always find friends'." Booklist, meanwhile, noted that the collection is "perfect bedtime, anytime family reading" with some pieces "so brief they can be read at the dinner table", presumably before getting down to the more important business of consumption. As might be expected, Bennett served under Reagan as secretary of education.

Bennett's selection of virtues - self-discipline, compassion, work, responsibility, friendship, courage, perseverance, honesty, loyalty, faith - is predictable enough; and given his eight-hundred-thousand-a-year gambling habit, the absence of thrift from the list is an encouraging sign of consistency. He defended his remarks about pre-emptive pickaninny termination by appealing to honesty: "we can't say this is an area of American life [and] public policy that we're not allowed to talk about - race and crime." Compassion also got a look-in: "I'm sorry if people are hurt, I really am."

"If you wanted to reduce crime," Bennett said on his daily radio show, "you could, if that were your sole purpose; you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down." As a man of (presumably anti-abortionist) faith, Bennett went on to say that aborting black babies to reduce crime would be "an impossible, ridiculous and morally reprehensible thing to do", in which case one wonders why a man of his self-discipline, responsibility and honesty suggested it in the first place.

As a matter of fact, shorn of its racial aspect, Bennett's proposal makes perfect sense. The more abortions, the fewer births; the fewer births, the fewer people; the fewer people, the fewer criminals. And, incidentally, the fewer drivers, the less pollution, the less crowding, the more homes, the more employment. It is on such sensible grounds as these that a rational society would foster homosexuality, place compulsory limits on the size of families, and offer financial incentives for remaining childless; but I doubt that Bennett has thought the matter through to this extent.

Nor will he. The White House press secretary has said that George W Bush "believes the comments were not appropriate", presumably because Bush prefers to let God drown his blacks rather than risk the divine wrath by aborting them. Friendship and loyalty will doubtless do the rest, and Bennett's lapse into near-sanity will prove a mere momentary aberration.

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