Friday, March 25, 2011

The pleasures of reaction

The master aphorist Don Colacho says: "We reactionaries provide idiots the pleasure of feeling like daring avant-garde thinkers."


Perhaps he speaks of progressive critics who think they are on a march to enlightenment. They leave backwards thinkers behind.


Or perhaps he speaks of his admirers who quote him profusely and deem themselves to be part of a rising cognoscenti. 


The entire set of aphorisms is worth reading. The Anglosphere owes a debt to the translator Stephen, who has considerably boosted the reputation of this insightful Colombian.

3 comments:

Stephen said...

You are probably correct on both counts. There's a reason why Gómez Dávila included that quotation from Nietzsche in the epigraphs.

And now, to add one more level of irony to all this, I would suggest that those who have just discovered Gómez Dávila need to meditate on #669:

"Whoever cites an author shows that he was incapable of assimilating him."

Kevin J. Jones said...

Ha, that is another gem. Thanks for stopping by, and please do consider an e-book of your translations.

Stephen said...

I may have to think about a book, but it won't be any time in the near future.