The Power of Myth I

In a recent post I reviewed a book on the defeat of Reconstruction and, collaterally, the way our historians bastardized the past with myths about what happened, giving the battle for our history over to forces that epitomize the evil in our national character. It's horrifying but fascinating to see it in retrospective; it's worse to see the incorrect and warping recitation happening before your eyes. But here's the Christian Science Monitor, one of our best newspapers, this morning with commentaries on recent deaths proclaiming Ford "reconciler in chief" and Milton Friedman "objective scientist first." Please, please, please. Ford continued and enabled Nixon's "divide and conquer" politics, both in Congress and as President, that set the stage for Gingrich, impeachment, and everything Bushnev. He may have been a good guy (what was it that drove his wife to drink, I wonder) and held a few positions that Repubs now barf over, but his legacy will be all the links in the chain he placed to where we are now. And as for Friedman, Chile had to dump his recs before it could recover economically, he is famous for "greed is good," that well-known objective philosophy, and had bankers laughing or cursing over his claims that money supplies could actually be tightly controlled. Entire worlds are built on illusions and inability to deal with reality. They survive for a while (see Union, Soviet), but eventually they fail. Surprised about where ours is right now?