Any Man’s Death Diminishes Me
I want to say something about Irving Kristol’s passing at the age of 89. The neoconservative movement, which Kristol founded and which, at least for now, is being led by his son, William Kristol, has had, in my view, a very pernicious effect on U.S. foreign and domestic policy. I did not admire Irving Kristol, and I cannot feel grief or sadness at his death. But neither can I feel happy about it.
If it’s true that we are all interconnected in a wondrous and mysterious web of existence, and that everything we do affects everything and everyone else, albeit usually in ways we cannot possibly know on an individual level, then Irving Kristol’s life was connected to mine, and to everyone else’s. And that means his life mattered, and his death matters, too.
How does one take note of another person’s death when either you did not like the person, or you did not like what the person stood for, or opposed what the person did? That’s a hard one to figure out.
When my father died — over 30 years ago now, in October 1978 — a man I worked with at the time gave me something I will never forget. He was probably about the same age then that I am now, and the thing about him was, no one could get along with him except for me. He was, in truth, not an easy personality to get along with. He was brusque in his manner, often sarcastic and curt. Most people found him rather intimidating, and I don’t think they were crazy to feel that way. But for whatever reason, I liked him, and he liked me.
When I returned to the office after my father’s death, of course everyone told me how sorry they were for my loss, and were sympathetic. Terry did, too. But he also gave me something: a fine, gift-quality reproduction on fancy paper, of the famous poem by John Donne — formally titled Meditation XVII, but most commonly known by its first line: “No man is an island.” Ernest Hemingway used another line from the same meditation — “for whom the bell tolls” — as the title of one of his most famous novels.
I don’t want to ignore Irving Kristol’s death, or pretend it didn’t occur, but I also want to say only what is true for me, and what I truly feel. And having given it some thought, I think these lines feel right:
No man is an island, entire of itself
every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main
if a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were,
as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were
any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind
and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls
it tolls for thee.
Rest in peace, Irving Kristol.
13 Responses to “Any Man’s Death Diminishes Me”
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I don't know beans about Irving, but people say Bill is a chip off the block. I remember the day I sat slack-jawed listening to a Fresh Air radio show while Bill waxed poetic about how we would march victoriously into Iraq, and how we would democratize the place in 6 months or less. I will give him credit for this, he said it didn't matter if there was WMD or not.
I was slack-jawed because I asked myself, “Has he even BEEN THERE?” and if he had, did he engage the ordinary guy on the street in conversation (and the ordinary guy does not speak English)? I'm pretty well traveled and I was convinced that after the dust settled there was no way these folks were going to have anything anyone would describe as a “liberal democracy.”
Wow was I hopped up as I listened to him. When Bill passes, I will not mourn someone that advocated the death of thousands of Americans on behalf of people that don't care about us. Maybe I will mellow by the time I am your age, Kathy.
I don't mourn Irving Kristol, vey. I deplore his political values and the things he stood for. I just really believe that there's an interconnectivity to life and so, like it or not, other people's lives affect ours — in beneficial ways *and* in malignant ways. Which unfortunately means that people I dislike or whose beliefs I disapprove of are part of my life (in the broadest sense, obviously) just as much as people I admire and respect. I just feel like I can't say we're all interconnected and then act like we're not when someone I don't like passes away.
I know it's a subtle distinction, but it means something to me.
Very beautiful, Kathy. I often think of those lines by John Donne. Thanks and may we all live in peace.
What's done is done. RIP Irving. I forgive you everything except your son, but then I wasn't the best son to my dad either.
Kathy, there are many people I disagree with, but still respect. And if I didn't respect them, they would have beat me over the head until I did.
Bill Kristol is not one of them. When you start off in that “inter connectivity stuff” and bad is good/good is bad, but it's all apart of life, you lose me.
If you want to say that even bad people make up who you are, I'm hep to that. I'm a simple man.
“but then I wasn't the best son to my dad either.”
My dad told me I was a POS my whole life. Much later, people told me how he spoke in glowing terms about me. Then, even later, people told me that they thought I was twice the man my dad was.
Why do they tell me these things? Are they trying to drive me crazy? Bexause as far as I am concerned I am still 7 years-old and a bad boy that will never be able to do anything.
I don't respect Bill Kristol, either.
The concept of interconnectivity is not about bad is good or good is bad or it's all part of life.
Okay, that's a ROFL.
Thanks, SBSF. Those lines are extremely meaningful to me. They are among the most beautiful ever written, in my view.
vey,
I am going to guess, because I really don't know: Does POS mean “piece of s**t”?
That's the only thing I can think of that makes sense in the context. And vey, I'm sorry. That's rough. No one should have to go through crap like that. If you haven't already, you should find someone you can talk to about these things. I hope you don't take this as condescending, because it's not intended that way at all. It comes from personal experience, although my parents' tsuris (crap!) was different.
89 is a pretty full life, I don't see why people should be saddened.
In the late 1990s, when Ira Katznelson, an eminent political scientist at Columbia, came to deliver a guest lecture. Prof. Katznelson described a lunch he had with Irving Kristol during the first Bush administration.
“The talk turned to William Kristol, then Dan Quayle's chief of staff, and how he got his start in politics. Irving recalled how he talked to his friend Harvey Mansfield at Harvard, who secured William a place there as both an undergrad and graduate student; how he talked to Pat Moynihan, then Nixon's domestic policy adviser, and got William an internship at the White House; how he talked to friends at the RNC [Republican National Committee] and secured a job for William after he got his Harvard Ph.D.; and how he arranged with still more friends for William to teach at Penn and the Kennedy School of Government.
“With that, Prof. Katznelson recalled, he then asked Irving what he thought of affirmative action. 'I oppose it,' Irving replied. 'It subverts meritocracy.' “