Ronald Reagan -- The Man, The Myth, The Eulogy

06 June, 2004

As usual, Fafblog gets it right, Quoth the Medium Lobster:

Was Ronald Reagan the best president? No, nor was he the worst. But the important thing is that now, long after his passing, he can be idealized, transformed and transfigured by time and ideology into a symbol of everything we desire or loathe in America, so that Ronald Reagan the man is utterly erased and replaced with Ronald Reagan the Icon, a convenient projection of our most feverish motivations in animatronic Hall-of-Presidents form.

I don't have much of an opinion on Reagan the Man. I didn't emerge from my youthful political apathy until well into Clinton's second term. So I've done little more than exchange "he is a good President, because my parents say the Republicans are the good guys" for "he was a bad President, because I've decided now that the Republicans are the bad guys."

I do dissent a bit from the Medium Lobster's conclusion that Reagan the Myth is all bad. Myths are both inevitable and necessary in human society. Inevitable, because all history is interpreted. There are more and less accurate accounts, but none that is, or can be, completely objective.

Myths are necessary because they clarify and make concrete our ideals and fears. They give us a way of expressing who we are and who we want to be. Ronald Reagan the conservative devil plays a useful role in liberal philosophy.

What's important is to keep separate the Myth and the Man, to recognize the Myth for what it is rather than confusing it with the Man and thereby claiming the justification of history for what we project into him. As the Medium Lobster points out, the Myth can easily squash the memory of the Man. But it's tricky, if not impossible, to go the other way.

Stentor Danielson