A lovely tribute by Bill Kristol. Excerpt:
For quite a while now, optimism has had a bad reputation in intellectual circles. The fashionable books of my youth -- and they are good books -- were darkly foreboding ones like Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World" and George Orwell's "1984." Young conservatives of the era were much taken by Whittaker Chambers's gloomy memoir, "Witness." We who read Albert Camus -- and if you had any pretensions to being a non-Marxist intellectual, you read Camus -- loved the melancholy close of his essay "The Myth of Sisyphus": "One must imagine Sisyphus happy."The basic attitude one derived from these works was that pessimism is deeper than optimism, and existential angst more profound than cheerful confidence. This attitude remains powerful, perhaps dominant, among many thoughtful people today -- perhaps especially among conservatives, reacting against a facile liberal belief in progress.
Tony Snow was a conservative. But he didn't have a prejudice in favor of melancholy. His deep Christian faith combined with his natural exuberance to give him an upbeat world view. Watching him, and so admiring his remarkable strength of character in the last phase of his life, I came to wonder: Could it be that a stance of faith-grounded optimism is in fact superior to one of worldly pessimism or sophisticated fatalism?
Tony was one of the nicest guys you'd ever meet -- kind, helpful and cheerful. But underlying these seemingly natural qualities was a kind of choice: the choice of gratitude. Tony thought we should be grateful for what life has given us, not bitter or anxious about what it hasn't.
So he once wrote that "If you think Independence Day is America's defining holiday, think again. Thanksgiving deserves that title, hands-down." He believed that gratitude, not self-assertion, was the fundamental human truth, and that a recognition of this was one of the things that made America great.
After Tony's cancer diagnosis and surgery in 2005, his faith deepened. So, amazingly, did his sense of gratitude.
Read the whole thing. We should all live the kinds of lives that prompt those who knew us to remember us so fondly.
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Newsflash: Tolkien's world where everyone was either an Orc or an Elf, a Dunadan or an Easterling, is mythology. Good men can be mistaken in their principles and be on the wrong side -- yes, even some Germans -- and still have admirable qualities, and still be acting on principle. FWIW, I don't think Tony Snow was as mistaken as some of y'all do, but that's irrelevant -- there's more to the world, more to humanity, and more to morality, than white hats and black hats.
Good men can be mistaken in their principles and be on the wrong side -- yes, even some Germans -- and still have admirable qualities, and still be acting on principle. FWIW, I don't think Tony Snow was as mistaken as some of y'all do, but that's irrelevant -- there's more to the world, more to humanity, and more to morality, than white hats and black hats.
Posted by: pentamom | July 14, 2008 11:13 PM
Thank you, pentamom. Well said! And thank you for your brave confession that "I don't think Tony Snow was as mistaken as some of y'all do..." You're probably the first to admit that here in the land of the omniscient and self-righteous... the first to suggest that things aren't black and white and that good people can disagree about this war. You're also correct, of course, that your opinion about the war is irrelevant in this case. Your wisdom, humility and kindness are refreshing. Thank you.
**Bob, that is EXACTLY what you and "treebeard" and "fish" are doing. You guys have no class.**
Yes, they are what our parents used to call in the old days "common," like the cretins who knock tombstones over or break church windows.
(and BTW, 'conservatives' who gloat over Ted Kennedy's cancer are exactly the same -- as I said on the other thread, ideology will always trump common decency)
Tony Snow was a great man. I used to watch Fox News Sunday every week when it started. I've heard a lot of good things about him. Its sad that he passed on at 55, but I'm sure he is at peace.
One owes respect to the living. To the dead, one owes only the truth.
- Voltaire
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