Who Authorized This?

[Ken Brown]

Steve Schear posted:
> 
> Who Authorized This?
> Andrew Sullivan, Forbes ASAP, 12.03.01

[...]

> Moreover, the power and status of rulers derived from their own perfection.
> Kings and queens commanded artists to portray them as demi-gods. Dissenters
> were not merely troublemakers; they were direct threats to the perfect
> order of the modern state. This was a political order in which everything
> had to be perfectly arranged, even down to the internal thoughts of
> individual consciences.

Some of that might have been true of England in 1576. Much of it would
have been true of Spain in 1676. But if Mr. Sullivan really thinks  that
it is a reasonable description of Britain in 1776 then his idea of
history is so screwed there's no point in paying attention to him.

Ken Brown