In praise of Andrew Sullivan

Wednesday, 15th April 2009

My father is fond of telling a story that, though possibly apocryphal is, in the old newspaper terminology, too good to check. Apparently Georges Simenon was in Edinburgh and, as you would, asked what the gothic rocket on Princes Street was. On being told it was a monument to Sir Walter Scott the great detective writer was left open-mouthed in astonishment. "You mean they erected that for one of us?" he asked. Well, yes, they did. "Well, why not, he invented us all" Simenon is said to have said. The Scott Monument is quite a thing. One day the blogosphere might have to consider an equivalent monument. And when it does, the chap credited with inventing us all will have to be Andrew Sullivan.

Andrew is by turns perverse, infuriating, stimulating, entertaining, humane, amusing, provocative, admirable, obsessive, generous, contradictory, witty and above all, incorrigable. Everyone who blogs owes Andrew a measure of gratitude because he, more than anyone else, has made blogging what it is today. Of course, I would say that since he's kind enough to link to this blog quite often. Nevertheless, any credible account of the history and impact of blogging will feature Andrew prominently. If it doesn't it won't be worth reading. He has been a pioneer and a courageous one at that. The blogosphere would not be what it is today without him.

Although we have several friends in common and I lived for years within a ten minute walk of his house in DC, I've never actually met Andrew. But one of the great virtues of the blogosphere is its intimacy. Blogger Andrew may not be the same chap as non-blogging Andrew, but he is a person I know well. This too in one of the great virtues of the internet. Just as once upon a time lifelong friendships could be formed on the back of epistolary relationships, so a sense of intimacy can be fostered by the blogosphere these days. I've been reading Andrew since 2000 or early 2001 and now find it hard to imagine a day without his writing. Agreement is not the issue; thinking is.

Like most people, I've had my disagreements with Andrew, but that's part of the point. It's a discussion, not a commandment.

All of which is to say that I most heartily recommend Johann Hari's profile of Andrew which helps explain how this very English fellow became such a good and even great American.

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Conservative Cabbie

April 15th, 2009 11:57am Report this comment

"In Praise of Andrew Sullivan"

Well that's a red rag to a bull. I shan't rise to the bait however except to say, how can Alex Massie lambast Rush Limbaugh in one post but then praise Andrew Sullivan in another? Andrew Sullivan is a hate-monger, the left's version of Limbaugh or Hannity.

Craig Strachan

April 15th, 2009 3:34pm Report this comment

But would a monument to a blogger be real or virtual?

Johnathan Pearce

April 15th, 2009 4:43pm Report this comment

The Hari article is quite good but he makes a rather strange point about Michael Oakeshott - Sullivan's philosophical hero - and FA Hayek. If Hari quoted Oakeshott accurately, he got Hayek totally wrong. Far being a utopian of any kind, Hayek was quite the opposite. His prediction that socialism would be a disaster has been largely vindicated.

I talk about this a bit more over at www.samizdata.net

Hayward Maberley

April 19th, 2009 2:26am Report this comment

Interesting that JM Keynes wrote to FA Hayek following the publishing of "The Road to Serfdom"
In the letter he commended Hayek on the book but also said "Your greatest danger is the probable practical failure of the application of your philosophy in the United States."
Keynes was correct there. It is as cogent a statement as the one he uttered concerning the oppressive reparations regime, imposed on Germany at the end of WWI, being the origin for another conflict.

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