---------- From: "charles moyer" <[log in to unmask]> To: [log in to unmask]>EDU Subject: FW: Pound on Jefferson Date: Thu, Jun 1, 2000, 9:15 AM ---------- From: "charles moyer" <[log in to unmask]> To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Pound on Jefferson Date: Thu, Jun 1, 2000, 8:37 AM from "A Casebook on Ezra Pound" by Edward Stone. The author cites an article by Jack LaZebnik which appeared in "New Republic" April 1, 1957. "He (Pound) defined himself as a Jeffersonian republican: '...you can throw in Confucius and Van Buren, but you must distinguish between 1820 and 1930 and you must bring your Jefferson up to date.' His preconception of democracy "...as it existed in the minds of Jefferson and Van Buren, is that the best men... will take the trouble to place their ideas and policies before the majority with such clarity and persuasiveness that the majority will accept their guidance... The preconception of let us say the Adamses, or aristodemocratic parties is that privilege, a little of it, will breed a sense of responsibility... It seems fairly proved that privilege does NOT breed a sense of responsibility... 95 percent of all privileged classes seem to believe that the main use of privileges is to be exempt from responsibility... Obviously no best, no even good governing class can be spineless... 'good' must include a capacity for action, some sense of relation between action and mere thought or talk."