Dear Editor,
I read with some surprise your fawning and uncritical review of Ann Coulter’s latest book, Demonic: How the Liberal Mob is Endangering America. Ms. Coulter is not simply a benign political commentator. She is a violently right wing extremist. Her opinions are uniformly racist and intolerant toward those who are not white protestant Christians. One of her better-known quotes is with respect to Muslims: “We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity.” She has advocated violence against civilians, including the carpet-bombing or Arab cities. She has referred to Native Americans as “Savages.” Her views of Jews and other minorities are no more charitable. Ms. Coulter has vocally defended white supremacists in the American media. It is most troubling that this purveyor of hate speech is lauded as “insightful” and “witty”.
Fortunately, there is more constructive and positive literature available for those with an interest in public policy. One recent book is The Spirit Level: Why Equality is Better for Everyone, by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett. Wilkinson and Pickett are British epidemiologists who have studied the social determinants of health.
Their point in The Spirit Level is quite simple. They demonstrate that many social problems are related to income gaps between the rich and the poor. With the aid of easy to understand graphs they show that social problems such as violence, teenage pregnancy, drug abuse, mental illness and obesity are more common in societies with greater inequality between the rich and the poor. Conversely, societies with which are more equal have far fewer of each of these social ills. They show that it is not the absolute wealth of a society that leads to a healthier and happier population. They argue that great inequities in wealth are a sort of social toxin that makes most people unhappier, and makes even the rich no happier.
This idea need not be seen as purely left-wing or purely right-wing. It is an idea that rings true in the personal experience of many. We are social beings who judge ourselves as successful or unsuccessful, as worthy or worthless, in relation to our neighbors and relatives. Those who are anywhere but at the top of the food chain find the feeling of relative poverty stressful and unpleasant. If we feel more equal to more of those around us, and less compelled to see our neighbors as our competitors, we will generally be better adjusted and happier. Keeping up with the Joneses is stressful and drives one into debt. One does not need to be an esteemed epidemiologist to understand the benefits of fairness.
Though one hesitates to discourage the enjoyment of “witty” racist put-downs and “insightful” tirades of American political commentators, it may be that one’s time is better spent with more optimistic and progressive readings.
Randy Brandt
St. Paul
