A short list. In no particular order.
We had car shows, boat shows, beauty shows, and dog shows.
We ran robots on the surface of Mars by remote control.
Our women came from all over the world in all shapes and sizes and hues and scents.
We actually believed that all men are created equal and tried to make it come true.
Everybody liked our movies and loved our television shows.
We tried to educate everybody, whether they wanted it or not. Sometimes we succeeded.
We did Levis.
We held the torch high and hundreds of millions came. No matter what the cost.
We saved Europe twice and liberated it once.
We believed so deeply and so abidingly in free speech that we protected and honored and, in some cases, even elected traitors.
We let you be as freaky as you wanted to be.
We paid you not to plant crops and not to work.
We died in the hundreds of thousands to end slavery here. And when that was done continued to fight to end slavery for a century and a half after all around the world.
We invented Jazz.
We wrote the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Gettysburg address.
We went to the moon to see how far we could hit a golf ball.
We lifted a telescope into orbit that could see to the edge of the universe.
When people snuck into the country against our laws, we made parking lots and food stands off to the side of the road so they wouldn’t get hurt, and we let them use our hospitals for free, and we made their children citizens.
We didn’t care what God you worshipped as long as we could worship ours.
We let the People arm themselves at will. Just to make sure.
We gave everybody the vote.
We built Disney World. Just for fun.
We had a revolution so successful it was still going strong two and a quarter centuries later.
We had so many heroes, even at the end, that we felt free to hate them and burn them in effigy.
We electrified the guitar.
We invented a music so compelling that it rocked the world.
We had some middling novelists.
We had some interesting painters.
We had some pretty good poets.
We had better songwriters.
We ran our farms so well we fed the globe.
We made the automobile and the airplane.
We let you get rich. Really, really rich.
We didn’t care who you were or what you were or where you came from or who your parents were. We just cared about what you made or what you did.
We had poor people who, even at their most wretched, were richer than any other poor people on the face of the planet.
We were the noblest nation the world had ever known.
We had so much freedom that many of us voted to just throw it all away.
Even towards the end, as we dissolved into the petty bickering and idle entertainments that come with having far too much leisure and money, many among us were still striving to make it higher, finer, brighter, better, and more beautiful.
Even towards the end, the best of us declined to give up and pressed on. “Where to? What next?”
20 replies on “How Beautiful We Were – American Digest”
Beautifully put, by a man whose work I’ve found much depth in ever since reading his account of seeing the twin towers fall on 9/11. He described the tragic, self-inflicted creep of collectivism well too, in an unforgettable line in The Banality of Sedition: “[T]here are some lies that lodge so deep in the hopes of man that they can never be killed no matter how many are executed to make the lie true.” We were beautiful indeed. Still are. What’s left of this rare and precious place. They can black out the windows all they want. My candle’s still lit.
Gerard’s site is a worthy place on the WWW – I visit everyday, to glean some wisdom, some humor, sometimes horror, introductions to places I’ve never been, and the comment section is always a great read, too.
Nice list. I disagree with a handful of points but will not start to nitpick. It’s a journey from
https://youtu.be/_yijcWsLda8?t=10
to
https://youtu.be/wTjMqda19wk?t=194
On the latter crowder made a rebuttal in ’15. It was fishy even then, nut it aged very poorly
https://youtu.be/qOhDFCcmgvY
also pretty much demonstrates the main point in the previous clip that how much easy it is to argue FROM conclusion and keep pointing to all the convenient stuff from outside to coin the faulty proposition not ever need to have honest reflection. And discover that while maybe other countries having all kinds of problems is poor reason to let your country rot away without even an attempt to pull it back to the road it started back in time. Especially when it is is jumping down the cliff.
Just noticed that Bill’s most recent episode is related with ‘pride goes before destruction’ and all the related stuff. As usual language only helps confusing the important issue with the word “pride” having two very different meanings.
The US is like moldylocks … so beautiful, but has chosen to be ugly.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C-K93BJXgAEBfLc.jpg
Well said with just the right amount of grit grinding between your teeth, subtlely italicized in just the right place, way to make the message sing. Kudos. Where to? What next? I’m here waiting to find out. Bill said he needed a thousand, I signed up and now waiting for a task. I’m old, broken down from being a blue-collar worker all my life, retired with time on my hands, and taking care of my last child, a daughter who was brain damaged at birth from listeria meningitis. If I can do something anyone can.
Welcome James!
I posted a list of “things to do” on the members forum. Suggestions.
You can start there with a whole list related to some of the stuff Bill’s been talking about.
Let me know if you need help finding it. 🙂
I Love this! Even though it fills me with sadness and anger. The most frustrating thing and the reason it depresses me is .I have no singular entity to direct it too. I fear our frustration will someday explode.
It needs to explode but in a constructive manner.
I have never seen a constructive explosion. Please explain!
A nonconstructive explosion would be violence, which would be playing into the hands of the opposition. A constructive explosion would be an explosion of peaceful protest daily somewhere along with it a lot of peaceful civil disobedience. You have to use the weapons of the opposition against them, it takes them by surprise, and there is nothing most devastating than the surprise attack without mercy. A lot of idiots voted for Biden in hopes of getting rid of the protest and civil disobedience of the leftist groups. We have to prove them wrong, they have to eat crow for their cowardice. Let’s make some noise sheeple, “peacefully.”
Hi James, First let me thank you for your kind response. I think I understand what you are trying to say. I would not use the word “explosion” in this context so euphemistically. The word “explosion” connotes a violent act . Although an explosion can be used to obtain a more desirable outcome. Like accurately setting off a series of explosions to bring down an old building. Even in this context it is still violent. In terms of violent acts, I often hear ” Violence is never the answer and will NEVER be justified ” OK then, if you could change history. would you change the? 1. Civil War, 2. American war for Independence , 3.The Alamo , World War One 5. World War Two 6. ,The overthrow of The Facist dictatorial Government of Romania Nicolae Ceauşescu 1989, 7.The stand of the 300 at Thermopylae. I could go on for days. Just exactly tell me what Violent struggle amongst these would you stop???? While Violence should be tempered, It should never be eliminated or be used as the last choice even. As history has proven delaying the inevitability of a violent confrontation only produces more violence . Yes we should use civil disobedience first and other methods. However please tell me why we were not doing this 10,15, or 20 years ago. The end results seamed obvious at that time. So why now? Where has this “Civil disobedience changed a country before. Please prove me wrong as everything I hold dear is at risk.
Civil disobedience only has power when basically most of the people do it.
When the government understands the “sheeple” aren’t listening to them anymore and aren’t afraid of them.
But then comes the question of how to rid ourselves of all the corrupt politicians and replace them.
(But once the “dictators” realize they’re losing power, they will lash out with troops against the citizens. Do we really believe they wouldn’t?)
Perhaps if 75% of all voters refused to vote for Dem or Rep or re-elect any of them, but then the “election integrity” question comes into play.
The mid-terms in 2022? The general in 2024?
Do we have that much time? Biden has done a lot of damage in his first few days. I don’t know the answer, but I think history has a way of repeating itself.
During the American war for Independence only 3% of the populous participated in the defense of Liberty. Societies are not motivated by the means; The are always moved by the extremes. It is part of our nature. It is kind of a human murmuration. This is deeply rooted in a psyche. Think of what happens when one Zebra in the herd is startled and runs. They all run.
They are setting up the removal of peaceful protest and will shortly demonize and punish all “insurrectionists” or “extremists”.
Unless we have massive numbers protesting, they’ll have their “goons” come and scoop us up.
Thousands in every city must open their businesses, stop following local Napoleon’s “edicts”, go back to work, etc.
If a few do it, they’ll just be shut down and/or jailed.
I don’t think we can count on local police to side with citizens, so . . .
Hit them where it hurts. I hope that Texas will start its own unbreakable Crypto-Currency and tell the Feds to go to hell. Lets see them stop that.
If using crypto requires Internet services (much like debit cards, etc.) it’s vulnerable.
A corrupt govt. that’s losing control could restrict usage, much like China & N. Korea.
The Fed needs to go.
Hi De, Crypto is unbreakable even by the most powerful computers. Currently it would take a 32 bit quantum computer to break the cryptology. We are at least 30 years away from a operational 2 bit practical quantum computer. The feds are defenseless. Please see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBC-nXj3Ng4&ab_channel=3Blue1Brown and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9JGmA5_unY&ab_channel=3Blue1Brown. They would have to shut down the entire internet world wide. EG. The “World Wide Web”
You make a perfect point, no singular entity, this is a very effective tool. The “Government” utilizes this tactic and simply references the FBI, DOJ, CIA, etc., not one specific person.
This is not just a government tool, but in the bigger sense, it is a corporation tactic. This is why your boards of corporations move positions every two years. The first year they can’t be held accountable for what the predecessor did, and by the time they can in the second year , they have moved positions. So it was done by the Head of Marketing, but the current Head of Marketing just took it over this year so…
In addition, if you did not know our UNITED STATES is actually a corporation.
Very true, This is why there will never exist an enforceable contract between people of ill will.
The singular entity is our government (without consideration to whom is actually playing them).
We have allowed it to grow into this grotesque “poser” of a once beautiful form of checks and balances.