Ignorance is Strength

Timothy Noah writes about Jim DeMint's strange advice to incoming Senate conservatives:

"[B]eware of committees," DeMint wrote. "Committee assignments can be used as bait to make senators compromise on other matters. Rookie senators are often told they must be a member of a particular committee to advance a certain piece of legislation. This may be true in the House, but a senator can legislate on any matter from the Senate floor."

Noah gets a theory from Thomas Mann on why DeMint might say that:

"Perhaps," Mann mused, DeMint "is afraid that his new minions will go native on committees and dilute their role in the revolutionary vanguard." Action equals corruption. Mere knowledge equals corruption. Ignorance is strength.

Noah then goes on to decide that DeMint is just being cynical and posturing to burnish his non-compromising image.

But I think Mann was on to something. In the far right wing, DeMint is kind of the minister leading the congregation. And what was that I saw an evangelical minister saying the other day...


Oh right.