Woo-hoo! I'm hip!

Arthur Miller just died. Perhaps I'll have a proper post on him later, but I just want to comment now on David Edelstein's immediate reaction in Slate.

Edelstein does the conventional critic's insult in claiming Miller is more urgent today than he was previously. (So I guess in another decade Miller won't matter again.) You see, back in the 60s and 70s, people cared about each other, but now that we don't, Miller's socialist bent is needed. As Edelstein puts it: "In an era in which it's hip to be libertarian, Miller's sermons on behalf of social responsibility, of the effect of our actions on others, are unexpectedly bracing." Woo-hoo! I'm hip!

Yes, that's why libertarians are the way they are--because they don't care about anyone else. I thank Edelstein for clearing that up. As he notes: "Now that we live in an era in which our leaders labor (overtly and by stealth) to dismantle what's left of the New Deal and the Great Society, the fear beneath many of Miller's Depression-forged motifs hits home once more." To which a libertarian says: if only. (Most of these dismantled programs are operating at 100%+ of their original budgets, even taking inflation into account.)

It's helpful to see such a clear example of brain-dead liberal politics. Apparently, if you want to change any social program (short of doubling its budget) you want to destroy it, not reform it, and are doing something so obviously bad for society it doesn't matter what your plans are, or your intentions (though they're obviously selfish).