Thursday, March 15, 2007

On The Economist

Today Crooked Timber points out an article written by James Fallows for the Washington Post in 1991. Can I blog about something sixteen years old? Why not.

The piece is about The Economist, and it ain't too kind. He does echo some of my own thoughts about the matter, but I hasten to say they aren't about The Economist so much as about its readers. Why is everyone always so proud to say they subscribe, or have read this or that article, or buy it all the time, etc.? It's like someone who donates to their PBS affiliate and carries their tote bag everywhere to tell everyone about it.

The magazine has a deep and an international take on the news of the world, and it is, being an English magazine, not Americentric. That's great, and particularly valuable now. The magazine is not, however, hiding in its pages the ticket to self-actualization and world harmony. And often -- shhh -- it's boring.

Fallows focuses on The Economist's reflection of what he considers two English flaws: class snobbery, and intellectual, well, snobbery, in the form of a simplistic style of argumentation: "Michael Kinsley, who once worked at The Economist, wrote that the standard Economist leader gives you the feeling that the writer started out knowing that three steps must be taken immediately -- and then tried to think what the steps should be."

Fallows also gets off some zingers at the country at large:

England is a perfectly nice little country, with many achievements to its credit. If you like to attend plays, want to read comic novels, hope to spare your skin the damaging effects of the sun, then England’s the place for you.

[Updated 7:10 p.m., to reflect correct original venue of Fallows's piece]

Posted by Evan Hughes at 01:54 PM

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