Andrew Gimson, an Englishman, has written a perfectly wonderful essay on his view of Americans in The Telegraph. I think that in this very difficult time this article is worth a regular read as an antidote to all those in this country that want to wimp out in our efforts to protect our democracy and others. See further thoughts at Althouse. The commenter Pogo provides us this excerpt from John dos Passos, a survivor and veteran of several wars during the first half of the twentieth century:
"Every generation rewrites the past. In easy times history is more
or less of an ornamental art, but in times of danger we are driven to
the written record by a pressing need to find answers to the riddles of
today. We need to know what kind of firm ground other men found to
stand on. In spite of changing conditions of life they were not very
different from ourselves, their thoughts were the grandfathers of our
thoughts, they managed to meet them sometimes lightheartedly, and in
some measure to make their hopes prevail. We need to know how they did
it.
In times of change and danger when there is a quicksand of
fear under men's reasoning, a sense of continuity with generations gone
before can stretch like a lifeline across the scary present and get us
past that idiot delusion of the exceptional Now that blocks good
thinking.
In our past we have the hope that kept Washington's
army together the winter at Valley Forge. That was the world view of
1776. It still has meaning today."
John Dos Passos
The Theme Is Freedom
1956 pp.153, 159
