whippersnapper smackdown

Posted: Sun, 03 Jun 2007

Eric Alterman , who most people wouldn’t characterize as a Fogey, comes down hard on the Whippersnappers:

Paul [Berman’s] path [as an independent intellectual], in other words, is open to anyone willing to invest the hard, lonely, and materially unrewarding work he has spent decades putting in. There is a point to be made about people with no experience, no qualifications, and no particular expertise, mouthing off about the work of people with experience, qualifications, and with expertise. They may be right, but they had better be able to prove it. Simply assuming the virtue of youth and inexperience is more wrong than not. …

When I read an attack on someone I respect by someone I’ve never heard of, I need a reason to take it seriously. The best reason is evidence. The second best is a track record. The third possibility is that it is intrinsically interesting and original, however speculative. Absent any of these qualities, it’s masturbation, which is certainly edifying for the person doing it, but for the rest of us, not so much …

Alterman is pissed off because Berman is his friend. But that doesn’t detract from his larger point, which is solid: the purge-happy young status warriors in Washington are both out of their depth and overinfatuated with themselves. And anti-intellectual to boot.