The Sage of Baltimore was not a religious man and did not believe in an afterlife. If there is one, though, his rightful place in it would not be in heaven, of course, nor even in purgatory, but instead in the First Circle of Hell according to Dante along with other great pagans. If it's possible to return from the afterlife and, if nothing else, haunt this sorry world, I think he would be with us now, if only to enjoy the increasingly perverse course of our Great Republic and congratulate himself for having anticipated so well the decadence of our democracy.
I think Mencken had his faults, and have described them previously in this blog. But I know of nobody in the history of American journalism or opinion who wrote so well, and so savagely, of American politics and politicians, and American culture (I can almost hear him say "such as it is") with the exception of Gore Vidal. I regret that he can't write of the current occupant of the White House and the rogue's gallery of our national leaders. How well he would excoriate them, revile them!
We have people enough in journalism and elsewhere who do or would do the same, of course, but either the times or the people have changed. Criticism as we now know it is crude and often vulgar, if omnipresent thanks to the Internet and social media. Now people of all kinds, regardless of levels of intelligence, wit, literacy or sophistication, can express their opinions regarding current events and figures of significance and popularity, and do so with some relish. Unfortunately, they for the most part are incapable of doing that well. Just read what passes for commentary these days, or worse yet the comments readers can now make regarding the commentary.
And yet I think that those who are today professional commentators and pundits, who express their opinions weekly or daily on television, newspapers and journals are, in an odd way, actually more restrained than Mencken was in his heyday. Read what Mencken wrote of such worthies as Woodrow Wilson and William Jennings Bryan, for example. There's nothing like it being written now.
Perhaps "limited" is a better word than "restrained" though. Limited, that is, in ability, knowledge and intelligence. Someone with great powers of expression, like Mencken, can mock and revile far more effectively than someone who is merely consumed with hatred and self-righteousness as so many are today. Today's political figures, and especially our current president, are barely capable of expressing themselves, verbally or in writing. Against Mencken they would appear embarrassingly overmatched.
And I think it would do our nation a great deal of good if they were overmatched, overtasked and overwhelmed by a great writer and critic. They would be shown to be the mediocrities which, at best, they are, and the strikingly small and pitiable people they are and which, perhaps, we've become.
If you can return, Mencken, please do. And hurry.
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