The ‘Greatness’ Gimmick

Rankings and honors are just popularity contests.

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Woodrow Wilson, the 28th President of the United States, sits next to frst lady Edith Wilson. (Photo by Library of Congress/Corbis/VCG/ Getty Images)

Hi,

Hopefully most of you have finished cleaning up after your Presidents’ Day festivities. I still have my lights up and I really need to hose off the sacrificial altar. But my wife isn’t home for a few days so I have time. 

A minor ritual of Presidents’ Day—not as consistently observed as the more familiar dances and feats—is the release of a ranking of presidents in terms of their “greatness.” 

I promise not to dwell too long on the actual list released this week, mostly out of respect for your hangovers. But I do want to make a broader point about scientism, pseudo-social-science, or what might be better described as “scienciness.” (This is a play on “truthiness” in case the weird appearance of “scienciness” throws you off.).

As one guy at the annual Presidents’ Day costume orgy said, “Let’s start with James K. Polk.” 

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  1. Cegriffith3

    This is almost certainly why Eisenhower is ranked where he is (& his current ranking reflects a renaissance of sorts). Eisenhower has long been pilloried by academics for his mixed record on civil rights (a topic for another day) -a generation of academics infatuated with JFK (who for a while ranked as a “great” president despite a rather lackluster record). A similar case could be made for Truman. In fact Truman & Eisenhower, as the architects of the postwar world & American Cold War policy, as well as shepherding the long postwar economic expansion, both deserve reassessment. And while we’re at it, John Adams deserves better.

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    Ben Connelly

    It’s like the Calvin and Hobbes strips where Calvin polls “household six-year-olds” on their approval rating of his father and consistently finds low scores

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    Walter.Sobchak.Esq

    " ... the belief that climate experts have agendas beyond fighting climate change is, at minimum, a problem for climate science."

    Do they ever:

    "The Political Agenda of the IPCC Scientific Assessment or Environmental Advocacy Group? Pick One" by Roger Pielke Jr. | May 15, 2023 https://rogerpielkejr.substack.com/p/the-political-agenda-of-the-ipcc

    "So what is the political agenda of the IPCC in-group? Transformational change ... transformation involves more than simply transitioning from one type of technology to another ... transformation is the resulting ‘fundamental reorganisation of large-scale socio-economic systems’ ... which involve embracing post-development, degrowth, or non-material values that challenge carbon-intensive lifestyles and development models ..."

    Transformational change views climate policy as a lever through which to “change everything.” The expressed need for such momentous changes across society are grounded in a frightening, even apocalyptic, perspective on the future ... The billions of people around the world who may lack energy services or enough food probably would welcome an agenda of change. Instead, the IPCC emphasizes transformational changes in the lifestyles of ordinary people in rich countries, for instance, the recent Synthesis Report explained: “Many mitigation actions would have benefits for health through lower air pollution, active mobility (e.g., walking, cycling), and shifts to sustainable healthy diets.”

    You are going to be poor, cold, and hungry, and you are going to like it, Tovarich.

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    Gibby

    Absolutely fantastic article

    And absolutely true

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  5. Randall Briggs

    We saw this from many public health experts during COVID and the distrust they fomented borders on the criminal. Declining vaccination rates for measles and other diseases costs lives.

    I'd say that the bordering-on-criminal behavior was that of "health experts" like Donald Trump and his sycophants who told people not to get vaccinated, but to inject Lysol or consume horse-deworming medicine instead.

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    Michael J. McDonald

    The greatest women's prison escape movie of all time has got to be "The Big Bust Out." I've never actually seen it but it's greatness is all right there in the name. ;-)

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  7. John Boland

    As a former Time Person of the Year myself in 2003 (American Soldier), I feel I have some standing to commend Jonah on an excellent G-file this week. :)

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    Electricrook

    geography; Geography; GEOGRAPHY !!!

    Oh dear Jonah, how much you lose from not knowing Western American geography and history. President Polk sent General John Fremont to wrest California from the Mexicans. In addition to killing some of my family members, General Fremont who was an abolitionist, freed the slaves in California ... both Indian slaves and the very few Black slaves in California. One Black slave couple I know of—because I happen to live on the land they bought after they were freed from slavery by General Fremont, and started earning money for themselves— that family is named Monroe.

    So, I suppose you could add 'Freeing The Slaves' to President Polk's accomplishments.

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  9. Sullyaugustine

    Great article!

    One quibble. Any so-called historian who purports to rank a current or very recent president against the others is calling into question all his other pronouncements.

    For instance, had the Soviet Union failed to survive 1941 or 1942 President Roosevelt's failure to get the country into the war in time to stop that very bad man in Germany from dominating the whole of Eurasia would have revealed him as the worst president in history almost without question, regardless of where the historians ranked him in 1940.

    Perhaps nothing so stark will be revealed about the consequences of decisions or failures of recent presidents, but there is simply no way for a historian in 2024 to know that.

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  10. I.Leininger@Earthlink.Net

    Very interesting and worthwhile analysis. I would suggest a followup questionnaire be made 6 months after any "ranking", and I'd bet it could be quite different.
    And the term "skepticism" reminds me that you should schedule an interview with Michael Shermer, founder of the Skeptics Society. I enjoy listening to his interviews, as well as The Dispatch's.

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