E. J. Dionne The Washington Post "faire des siennes"

What should you believe, Alessandro, concerning the journalist E. J. Dionne? What does it matter what we believe politically when it is really how we live that makes all the difference in our lives. If we live lousy lives politics is not going to save us. I suspect, like you, that E. J. Dionne is little more than an alienator among us and a political propagandist.

Please, don't take my word for this. Continue to read his words for yourself and form your own opinion. I cannot criticize you for asking, as you say, such unvarnished questions, for no one is knowledgeable in everything. Dionne the writer is all that I am familiar with. As Dionne the writer he trivializes and smears as much or even more often than he accuses others of doing.

To me, E. J. Dionne appears to be a nasty little self-centered human being as any of us could ever wish to be. He is not hesitant in throwing projectiles at others whose views he does not share. It is only thoughtless idiots that think they can do this forever and not be held responsible for their insults.

His narrative does not follow any sort of logic that is not politically motivated and that is the real shame. Dionne is absolutely deliberate in his sentiments and no doubt very well paid for his pronouncements. Dionne is surrounded by willful people who are as designedly demoralizing in our present political climate as he is or as he thinks he sees.

I believe, at best, that he is a dissembler. Dionne may not think he is and he might disguise it very well, but you believe so and I do, too. We may be wrong but we are not fully wrong, and no one can accuse you or me of taking pleasure in the present political cockfight, the one in which Mr. Dion places his bets daily.

You and I, I think, are trying to live our lives reasonably well, when men and women like him scatter discord. Of course, and I am sure, that he is not a totally disreputable man. Yet, is he willing to give many others the benefit of the doubt? Nowhere in his present essays can he hope to appear to do so without dragging in some ancient draft or other, proving that he is not inclined to a prejudice.

Dionne is consistently wagging his intellectual finger at someone and patronizing a dozen others. He is an amateur rather than a professional, one who looks at human life from a distinctly jaded approach that can only come from political invective - say an acid-penned columnist. Oh, he can change but perhaps he has no incentive for real change.

We should often overlook each others faults, not encourage them. Neither should we praise fools (those who encourage falsehoods) because of their impetuosity or laying claim to some societal nobility or other. Good God, Alessandro, only those who are bilingual in profanity could be so stupid and live in such rotted air.

It takes considerable skill to cut through the political hype and hoopla that passes through the minds of journalists such as Dionne. In fact there are many of these people. Their disservice to society has no bounds and their disdain for others shows how vain they are. We are all cut from the same cloth. We can all descend the ladder of hypocrisy, not once but often, and who will show us the way up again?

Many people are taken in by Dionne's rhetoric. What he says lacks more substance than it actually gives. People such as this may be blinded by his standing among the press, or they are simply in awe of what he has achieved as a lecturer, writer, or who knows what. They may even secretly lament that they have very little force of their own and depend on people like him to procure what they cannot. Honors are very flattering, except that in themselves they cannot make a whole a person when half that person is absent. These honors are more often used as propaganda to the young and a silent personal excuse for our intellectual dishonesty, rather than an internal quality needed for making fair and crucial decisions in life.

Portraying E. J. Dionne in this way may hurt him, you say. It may hurt him and hurt his family, hurt his friends and his colleagues, even wound his neighbors to see him portrayed so publicly, but isn't that his business, to destroy, to scar, to wound? Political dialogue is rarely a dialogue of optimism and eloquent expressions, a guiding light for the masses. No, political dialogue is more often cowardly, greedy, ignorant, and narrow-minded wisps of wet straw cut and thrown about by men and women of little intelligence, who have absolutely no understanding of wisdom; their families, friends, cohorts, and societal positions notwithstanding.

Those who support windy oratory, whether spoken or written, who revere pompous impressions that will never leave a true lasting legacy will always be deluded by deceitful speech. They will never be reassured that what trips them up won't do it again and again.

Best to you, Alessandro,

Dom

I have just discovered that your name in Italian means defender of men. It sprang from the Greek Alexander. Also, I am very appreciative that we can converse by computer so easily and change our text to suit the needs of the moment -
I am speaking of spellings and grammatical mistakes, or to clarify a point.