Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Dedicated to Henry Louis Mencken

Ein Klassiker des wohl größten amerikanischen Publizisten der Zwischenkriegszeit des 20. Jahrhunderts, H. L. Mencken (1880 - 1956), ist nun - zumindest auszugsweise - auch deutschen Freunden dieses furchtlosen und kühnen Freiheitsdenkers zugänglich: Der Demokratenspiegel aus dem Jahre 1930 . Im deutschen Sprach-und Kulturraum ist Mencken, obwohl er deutsche Wurzeln hatte, noch weitgehend ein Desiderat. Sein Werk verdient es, auch hierzulande endlich die ihm zukommende Würdigung zu erfahren.

Als "teaser" für die Juristen unter meinen Lesern habe ich auch noch ein besonders hübsches Mencken-Zitat gefunden:


"All the extravagance and incompetence of our present Government is due, in the main, to lawyers, and, in part at least, to good ones. They are responsible for nine-tenths of the useless and vicious laws that now clutter the statute-books, and for all the evils that go with the vain attempt to enforce them. Every Federal judge is a lawyer. So are most Congressmen. Every invasion of the plain rights of the citizens has a lawyer behind it. If all lawyers were hanged tomorrow, and their bones sold to a mah jong factory, we'd be freer and safer, and our taxes would be reduced by almost a half."

–H.L. Mencken (1880-1956),
"Breathing Space", The Baltimore Evening Sun, 1924 Aug 4. Reprinted in A Carnival of Buncombe.

33 comments:

Dirk said...

Autsch! Das Zitat schmerzt mich ...

Dominik Hennig said...

Naja, ganz so eng wie Mencken sollte man es wirklich nicht sehen. Immerhin waren ja sowohl Ludwig von Mises, F.A. von Hayek, Eugen Richter und selbst Lysander Spooner Juristen! :)

Übrigens ist erst kürzlich auf DVD der in den 30er Jahren spielende Film "Ask the Dust" erschienen, in dem Colin Farrell einen jungen Schriftsteller namens Arturo Bandini spielt, dessen berühmter Förderer und angebetetes Idol kein geringerer als der große H.L. Mencken ist, für dessen Magazin er gelegentlich Kurzgeschichten schreibt und von dem er sogar ein Bild in seinem Hotelzimmer aufgehängt hat.

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