Mr. Barlow of Crooked Timber nominates Kim du Toit as America's Worst Blogger, based largely on the essay linked under his name. I have a few things to say about this.
First, this whole business of "worst blogger" is nothing but a publicity stunt. The rules of the contest require that any blog nominated be "commonly read and referred to." The idea appears to me to be this: loudly slam someone who has worked hard and built up a large, successful blog. Hopefully, they'll notice and reply or defend themselves. In doing so, they'll link to you, and...
But that's beside the point. There is a substance to the charge, which ought to be examined.
Barlow cites what he considers to be a thorough rebuttal of Kim's essay, which you can read here. The thing that comes across most strongly in the rebuttal is summed up in two places. One of them is the opening sentence: "I’m torn about Kim du Toit’s essay about, as I’ll put it, avoiding his gratuitous crudity, the wimpification of the Western male." The other is in this line: "I want to make it clear that I actually agree with a certain idea buried in du Toit’s screed: certain parts of our culture undervalue virtues traditionally thought of as masculine[.]"
In addition, Barlow cites several other things Kim has written, which share the same common thread. The objection to Kim is that he is gratuitously crude. The underlying ideas may have merit, but the expression is ugly. The objection, in other words, is aesthetic.
I don't say that to dismiss the objection. Aesthetics is a division of ethics, and has been since the time of Aristotle. An examination of what we find ugly, or beautiful, says a lot about what we value and who we are. Creating a thing is an exercise in aesthetics, and no number of "conceptual artists" have ever been able to change that.
You make something beautiful, or you make something ugly, and you choose which depending on your purpose. You make a flute if your purpose is to soothe. You make a siren if your purpose is to alarm.
Early this month, four Royal Canadian Mounties were killed by one man in a remote corner of Canada. I never saw it in the American news, but I have a friend from Canada who owns a shop nearby, and when I went to talk to him one day he told me all about it in a tone of hushed awe. The RCMP is still revered in Canada; it is a storied unit. That is why Mark Steyn is so angry about what has become of it. And in explaining his wrath, he touches on all the same themes as du Toit.
But his purpose is to sway you, and his anger is not out front. He cites a poem, just the opening lines. You may know it, or not. Perhaps you'll look it up. Perhaps you'll reflect on it, and it will draw you into his argument.
Kim has another purpose. He is trying to harden hearts. He thinks it is important, and he may be right.
Many of you, should you choose to read the essay, will likewise find it ugly. Remember this: The essay's title, which so offends the Philosoraptor that he won't give voice to it, is not there by accident, or from an absence of thought. And the essay itself, though frequently provocative, was designed to force you to be offended. That's part of the point. If the argument is that society is too soft, why couch it in gentle terms? And what better proof is there of the argument than if rough language is enough to cause people to reject the argument outright?
What remains for the reader with a hardened heart is this:
I want men everywhere to going back to being Real Men. To open doors for women, to drive fast cars, to smoke cigars after a meal, to get drunk occasionally and, in the words of Col. Jeff Cooper, one of the last of the Real Men: “to ride, shoot straight, and speak the truth.”I have read much of Kim's hospitality, from bloggers who have visited him. Hospitality is one of the few universal virtues, an older part of ethics even than aesthetics. Without exception, these writers have explained Kim du Toit to be as generous as a lord. They speak of how ready he has been with his time, in his offers not just of food but feasts, and in sharing his knowledge and property with people he knows only from the internet.
Not every road is beautiful. If this is where it leads, however, it may be a road worth taking once in a while.
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