Mr. Kennedy’s Clichés

What is most disheartening about Mr. Kennedy’s speech at Yale is the renewed evidence it gave of his inability to admit that it is possible for him to err. He talked of “truisms and stereotypes,” “stale phrases” and “myths,” “illusion and platitude,” “traditional labels and worn-out slogans,” “incantations from the forgotten past,” and “old clichés.” By myths and worn-out slogans he meant the opinions and phrases of those who disagreed with him. It was they who were trying to “engage in the wrong argument at the wrong time, between the wrong people in the wrong country.” He is only interested in “the real problems of our times.” What he wants is “not labels and clichés but more basic discussion of the sophisticated and technical questions involved.”

He listed the three great questions that needed discussion as “First . . . the size and shape of government’s responsibilities; secondly, the question of public fiscal policy; and thirdly, the matter of confidence.”

HH

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Henry Hazlitt

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What is most disheartening about Mr. Kennedy’s speech at Yale is the renewed evidence it gave of his inability to admit that it is possible for him to err. He talked of “truisms and stereotypes,” “stale phrases” and “myths,” “illusion and platitude,” “traditional labels and worn-out slogans,” “incantations from the forgotten past,” and “old clichés.” By myths and worn-out slogans he meant the opinions and phrases of those who disagreed with him. It was they who were trying to “engage in the wrong argument at the wrong time, between the wrong people in the wrong country.” He is only interested in “the real problems of our times.” What he wants is “not labels and clichés but more basic discussion of the sophisticated and technical questions involved.”

He listed the three great questions that needed discussion as “First . . . the size and shape of government’s responsibilities; secondly, the question of public fiscal policy; and thirdly, the matter of confidence.”