Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

Charles Krauthammer on Man of the Century

Krauthammer’s book, Things That Matter, is filled with a bewildering array of profound editorial material. In the course of the day something from his book will bubble up in my mind and I’ll try and recall in what essay he wrote it. I can spend an hour leafing back through and still not find the reference I’m looking for.

At some point I stop and ask myself, “Why is the exact quote so important? Don’t you remember the essential drift of his thinking?”

“Yeah,” I tell myself. “I still remember the drift, albeit imperfectly.”

This is where I find myself tonight as I look at the clock ticking away. My blog has a calendar and if I don’t post before 11:00 pm I will have a “no blog day.” In deciding what to write about I remembered that Krauthammer preferred Winston Churchill to Albert Einstein as the man of the Century.

Let me begin by saying that Krauthammer believes that politics is one of the most serious responsibilities a citizen has. Most voters become so frustrated and disenchanted by their politicians that they want to put aside the whole process. Charles says we do so, only at our peril.

Thus it is that he sees in Churchill rather than Einstein the most important man of the century. He explains this saying that if Einstein had never been born then some other physicist would have come along to make the discoveries. It might have taken longer but they were inevitable. There were other smart scientists around who would have risen to the challenge and figured things out. Churchill on the other hand, by a sheer exercise of will, turned the course of history. Had he not been on the scene and in a position of power the post WW2 world would have been a much different place. I have to agree with his assessment.