Mormon Mentality - Thoughts and Asides by Peculiar People

Sep. 19th, 2009 at 1:23 pm

Irving Kristol died yesterday of lung cancer at 89. A titan of political and social theory, he invented neoconservatism. He was, by the accounts of everyone who knew him, an absolute prince of a man. And he had among the most vigorous minds in American political thought, as he made obvious whenever he wrote or spoke.

Among his accomplishments, aptly summarized by Wikipedia, are the following:

He was an editor and then the managing editor of Commentary magazine from 1947 to 1952; co-founder (with Stephen Spender) of the British-based Encounter from 1953 to 1958; editor of The Reporter from 1959 to 1960; executive vice-president of the publishing house Basic Books from 1961 to 1969; Henry Luce Professor of Urban Values at New York University from 1969 to 1987; co-founder and co-editor (first with Daniel Bell and then Nathan Glazer) of The Public Interest from 1965 to 2002;. These were originally liberal publications. He was the founder and publisher of The National Interest from 1985 to 2002.

Kristol was a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a fellow emeritus at the American Enterprise Institute (having been an associate fellow from 1972, a senior fellow from 1977 and the John M. Olin Distinguished Fellow from 1988 to 1999). As a member of the board of contributors of the Wall Street Journal, he contributed a monthly column from 1972 to 1997. He served on the Council of the National Endowment for the Humanities from 1972 to 1977.

In July 2002, he received from President George W. Bush the Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.

Kristol was married in 1942 to the historian Gertrude Himmelfarb. They had two children, Elizabeth Nelson and William Kristol, the editor of The Weekly Standard. His family dog, Sniffy, was said to be the inspiration for Snoopy, which was created by his then neighbor Charles M. Schulz.

I am not, myself, a neoconservative. My own conservatism tends to be an economically-focussed version of traditional conservatism with a hint of libertarian conservatism — probably best described as American Thatcherism. But on a gut level, I’ve always felt a strong sympathy for the neoconservative outlook, and I’ve always admired Kristol’s transformation from a radical liberal into a conservative who helped other liberals to make the same transformation and helped to shape American foreign and domestic policy for decades.

Billy Mays died today at age 50. Most people connect Billy Mays to the products he pitched, like OxiClean, and I’m guessing that would make him proud. I never met Billy, but I wish I had. Many people will remember him for his enthusiasm, and that is fitting. I’ll remember him, because more than anyone I know of, Billy Mays embodied hardworking, vigorous American entrepreneurialism and the American dream.

Billy was born into working-class Pennsylvania home, and after a short stint at college, he began the grueling work of pitching products to passers-by on the Atlantic City boardwalk, transitioning to an arduous schedule of state fairs and auto shows for another 12 years. He loved what he did, and he was, by all accounts, kind and good with a strong sense of fairness. The man who hired Billy to be the national spokesman for Orange Glo was former rival, Max Appel, who had once competed fiercely with Billy for audiences at events. Billy earned Max’s respect and his friendship when he lent Max a microphone when Max’s had broken.

When Billy made himself into a household name, he wasn’t just some TV actor who’d won an audition. Billy Mays was the real deal. Through his own hard work and his own ingenuity, he developed a memorable pitching style and parlayed it into a multi-million dollar empire. All with an easy sense of humor that was as happy to laugh at jokes about himself as about anything.

In a world transfixed by cheap thrills and momentary sensationalism, where respect falls too often upon useless “high brow” experts who just bloviate about the abstract, Billy Mays sold products by communicating their value, and he thrived in a realm where only concrete results mattered. He made his name famous through many years of hard work and exceptional performance. How many famous people can we say that about? (At our house, we keep a tub of OxiClean by the washer & dryer, and it works.)

He is survived by his wife, his 3-year old daughter, and his stepson in his 20s. Our thoughts and our prayers are with them.