Dark Horses

CHILTON WILLIAMSON JR.

Myths we shall always have with us: it seems the religious ones are the only ones that are worth a damn. Secular myths simply loft an exalted form of knowing into spheres too superficial and arcane to support so robust and profound an intuition. In fact, what pass for social and political myths are chiefly only lies. Arnold Beichman is an intrepid tracker of such, as readers of his cogent book Nine Lies about America know. So it is good to see him battling once more on chosen ground: knocking down his adversaries and scalping them. None of them has much sentient tissue below the scalp line, so that’s about all it takes.

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CHILTON WILLIAMSON JR.

Myths we shall always have with us: it seems the religious ones are the only ones that are worth a damn. Secular myths simply loft an exalted form of knowing into spheres too superficial and arcane to support so robust and profound an intuition. In fact, what pass for social and political myths are chiefly only lies. Arnold Beichman is an intrepid tracker of such, as readers of his cogent book Nine Lies about America know. So it is good to see him battling once more on chosen ground: knocking down his adversaries and scalping them. None of them has much sentient tissue below the scalp line, so that’s about all it takes.