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The Nation's Pulse
Recollection
One of the many gifts that separate men from animals is that of memory. Not the sort that makes a dog shy away from a chair after being hit on the nose with a newspaper, but real, conscious memory that can make the past as real to us as the present. In some ways this gift is a curse, as it is said that man can suffer pain and anguish in a way that animals never can, because pain most keenly remains in the memory that sometimes produces the most suffering.
Similarly burned into our consciousness are sensual memories like the smell of spring, bucolic scenes, and the voices of our loved ones. Our memory can also be a repository of things not apparent to the senses; those that inspire us and shape our behavior, especially as a nation. As we approach the beginning of a new year, one that heralds the first post-Baby Boomer presidency, we should pause to recollect those things which, it seems, might soon disappear from our national memory.
The most important of these might be the sacrifices of our forefathers. I say this not just because most Gen-Xers have no real connection to World War II, but seem ignorant as well of the Communist threat during the Cold War, though millions of their countrymen who lived through the latter are still alive. The truth is, they just don't seem to care. This is why phrases like "redistribution of wealth" fail to raise red flags in their minds, so to speak. The threats of murderous regimes are oh-so-boring when compared with "change you can believe in."
But maybe it's not their fault. It appears that we are allowing our collective memory to be overcome by the media monster which, unlike its predecessor, an unbiased press, now shapes our culture instead of reflecting it. For example, although most of us of a certain age know better, we are constantly told by the media that the "Ozzie and Harriet" depiction of American life was a lie; that we are to believe them and not our own experience. This indeed is the ultimate betrayal of memory.
And it continues apace. Unfathomable are the number of young people who are chanting the media mantra that today's economic woes are "worse than the Great Depression," a deception easily disproved by anyone possessed of the industry to put down the iPod and open a book. Of course, much of the blame rests on those who have corrupted our educational system in order to produce students whose grasp of American history is abominable.
But it's not just our military and economic history that needs to be seared into the American memory. If we are to continue as a great nation, we need to ensure that we may always recollect the virtues that made us so. Particularly lacking in modern America -- except in our military -- is the concept of honor.
From corporate thieves to sports figures to politicians, we have seen that pride in the acquisition of personal power and wealth has taken the place of honor. No deal is too dirty, no contract or promise so unbreakable, that would restrain the actions of those who have no regard for their reputations in the eyes of others. Why should they? Fame and fortune -- worshipful aspirations as taught by the media -- at any cost are the goals; personal responsibility and integrity be damned. How far away seem the words of our Founding Fathers who pledged their lives, their fortunes and their "sacred honor" in support of our Declaration of Independence.
From the lack of honor proceeds a dearth of its attending virtues: prudence, honesty, self-control and moral courage. Without these qualities, our country cannot endure as originally and most beautifully conceived. As John Adams put it: "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." And maybe this is the aim of our liberal friends and their allies in the media, seeing as they seem to regard our Constitution as just so much outdated fishwrap.
So, is it possible to revive the values necessary to continue our
voyage on a "skiff made of paper"? Will future generations have a
clue about our heritage or even care about "the Glorious Cause"?
Let's hope that the old adage about folks who cannot remember the
past will work the other way; that those who cherish their
illustrious past will be honored with its future blessings.
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Marc Jeric| 12.31.08 @ 10:23AM
Ms. Fabrizio touches lightly on dismal education of our young. Show me a strong union and I will show you a dead or dying industry - be it steel, automobile, electronics, textile, appliances, etc. Teacher union - an extremely entrenched and stron union; no wonder education has been destroyed, producing millions of illiterate, ignorant bozos full of self-esteem.
VinceP1974| 12.31.08 @ 11:51AM
I would wager our current condition was quite foreseeable:
Thomas Jefferson:
“God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the Gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that His justice cannot sleep forever.”
James Madison
“We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all of our political institutions upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.”
George Washington:
“The thing that separates the American Christian from every other person on earth is the fact that he would rather die on his feet, than live on his knees!”
This guy is truly Prophetic
Daniel Webster
“There is no nation on earth powerful enough to accomplish our overthrow. Our destruction, should it come at all, will be from anothe quarter. From the inattention of the people to the concerns of their government, from their carelessness and negligence. I must confess that I do apprehend some danger. I fear that they may place too implicit a confidence in their public servants and fail properly to scrutinize their conduct; that in this way they may be made the dupes of designing men and become the instruments of their own undoing.”
“Hold on, my friends, to the Constitution and to the Republic for which it stands. Miracles do not cluster, and what has happened once in 6000 years, may not happen again. Hold on to the Constitution, for if the American Constitution should fail, there will be anarchy throughout the world.”
“If we abide by the principles taught in the Bible, our country will go on prospering and to prosper; but if we and our posterity neglect its instruction and authority, no man can tell how sudden a catastrophe may ovenvhelm us and bury all our glory in profound obscurity.”
[It's taken about 40 years for this happen]
“If religious books are not widely circulated among the masses in this country, I do not know what is going to become of us as a nation. If truth be not diffused, error will be; If God and His Word are not known and received, the devil and his works will gain the ascendancy, If the evangelical volume does not reach every hamlet, the pages of a corrupt and licentious literature will; If the power of the Gospel is not felt throughout the length and breadth of the land, anarchy and misrule, degradation and misery, corruption and darkness will reign without mitigation or end.”
Noah Webster:
“In my view, the Christian religion is the most important and one of the first things in which all children, under a free government ought to be instructed….No truth is more evident to my mind than that the Christian religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people.”
“When you become entitled to exercise the right of voting for public officers, let it be impressed on your mind that God commands you to choose for rulers just men who will rule in the fear of God. The preservation of a republican government depends on the faithful discharge of this duty;
“If the citizens neglect their duty and place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupted; laws will be made not for the public good so much as for the selfish or local purposes;
“Corrupt or incompetent men will be appointed to execute the laws; the public revenues will be squandered on unworthy men; and the rights of the citizens will be violated or disregarded.
“If a republican government fails to secure public prosperity and happiness, it must be because the citizens neglect the divine commands, and elect bad men to make and administer the laws.”
“Corruption of morals is rapid enough in any country without a bounty from government. And…the Chief Magistrate of the United States should be the last man to accelerate its progress.”
Jim Wilson| 12.31.08 @ 4:42PM
I don't see how Obama is post-Baby Boomer. He's a Baby Boomer, 2nd half. The Baby Boom generation is 1946 - 1966. He was born in 1961, slap in the middle of the Baby Boomer generation, though in the 2nd decade. He missed the 60s, but he made up for it since by chumming with the nastiest scum of that era he could find. He's more of a Baby Boomer than either Clinton by far; just as corrupt, not quite so venal and far more arrogant. He is the epitome of the 15% of the Baby Boomer generation that discredits the entire generation unfairly by bad example.
That being said none of this was unforeseen. When "intellectuals" from the 20s on spend all their time trying desperately to destroy the concept of morality by undermining every tradition they could find many warned what the end result would be. They were right on all counts. All the dire predictions have been bourne out and then some. We owe so much present misery to the Progressives and their successors; the real hingepin to all this was Prohibition in my opinion. That was the time how government by the people was lost and "law and order" became unfashionable.
Sickening as it sounds, what conservatives need to do is cut a new fashion. It really doesn't matter if everyone following the fad is fully informed of its intellectual roots. It's a mistake we make all too often, expecting everyone to care about Smith and Burke and Hayek etc. We don't preach misery wrapped in tinsel like the left; we preach happiness wrapped in oil-spotted brown paper. They preach fantasy and we preach reality; however it doesn't follow that everyone must be forced to face reality completely. You can't force anyone to think anything, so there's no point in getting upset that some folks simply won't understand the whole ideological underpinnings of the Classical Liberal movement from Plato through Ann Coulter. It would be enough if they were allowed to live happier lives unimpeded by the petite-fascist dreck clad in "liberal" lambskin.
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