Attorney General Eric Holder provoked major controversy by calling America “a nation of cowards” for our purported unwillingness to talk about race. A few months ago, former Senator Phil Gramm provoked universal denunciation (and forced his own resignation from the McCain campaign) because he called the country “a nation of whiners.” Isn’t Holder’s insult even worse?

 It’s especially obnoxious since the nation’s been gabbing obsessively about race since Barack Obama announced his candidacy. Every major press account of his campaign emphasized the candidate’s racial identity and the deeper significance of the contest for African-American history. After Senator hugely over-praised Obama’s “race speech” in Philadelphia, leading commentators spent weeks pondering its deeper meaning.

In Mr. Holder’s remarks the Attorney General sounds indignant over the undeniable fact that racism still exists in the United States – just as it continues to play a role in every corner of the globe, often leading to violence and bloodshed vastly worse than the occasionally strained feelings in America. The oddest aspect of Mr. Holder’s bizarre comments involves his na?ve faith that the only way to reduce racial misunderstanding is to focus even more ferociously on racial identities.

 On what basis does he assume that bigots who nurture resentment or hostility toward black people suddenly will feel more neighborly and accepting if they hear ever-increasing doses of black complaints? The notion that all quarrels and grudges can be solved through talk represents a daft, dangerous liberal delusion. Will America and Iran suddenly patch up their differences if their leaders just sit down for a nice chat? Will Serbs and Croats and Bosnians and Kosovars find a new spirit of brotherhood and understanding after a few more decades of discussion of their historic grievances? After more than thirty years of often exhaustive negotiation, will the Israeli-Arab dispute suddenly yield to new conversation?

On occasion, talking over sore points makes them worse, not better – like picking a scab. In this context, it makes more sense to ignore or ridicule or transcend racism than to concentrate at all times on racial identity, reviewing yet again the ancient, over-familiar wounds and resentments. The best way to settle some arguments is to say nothing and to move on, letting time and new realities change the basis of the dispute. Constructive efforts for the future help even the most horribly aggrieved escape the victimhood of the past. Despite the mystical and misplaced leftist faith in the power of conferences and meetings and commissions and encounter groups, talk only rarely displays healing powers – for psychotherapists, for warring nations, or for ethnic antagonisms.