Thoughts on Derbyshire 2

One choice when confronted with change is to run away.
If there is a good deal of space, one can run far away and put miles and miles between oneself and the change which feels threatening.

If, however, there is little space: if one is constrained to live within the same village, city, state, or even country; if one cannot escape to a totally new polity which is clean and free of the threat, what then?

One can still run away, only the room is much smaller. One can run away in the small space of one's head...
This is what Mr. Derbyshire has done: he has created a plan to abolish proximity in his mind and in the minds of his children and the minds of his readers. Within the small room of the mind, we can withdraw from other people. By the ferocious indictment of their souls, bodies, behaviors, and intellects, we abolish them as meaningful entities, and they are symbols of our despair.

What is the next step?
The next step is either to continue to agitate for the Politics of Cultural Despair, and to create an enormous mental gap between people, and to thus become insane; or to remedy the problem and come back into society which, albeit imperfect, is committed to the effort of harmonious co-existence.

If Mr. Derbyshire choose the latter course, we should pay attention and be forgiving. If not, the dogs of war will decide the outcomes.
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