American Perfection
250 Years On...
PART I
I had intended to write something very different this week; as it stands I fear we’ll have to wait until mid-May to explore Austria-Hungary. I am leaving for three weeks on April 16 to do some touring around Britain which be the source of my writing until my return hither. I have been distracted this week by an article in the May Atlantic by David Brooks. Derided by some as the New York Times’ “pet Conservative,” he is in actuality a thoughtful man, not given to hyperbole as a rule. His article, entitled, “I Should Have Seen This Coming,” the articles tagline is “When I joined the conservative movement in the 1980s, there were two types of people: those who cared earnestly about ideas, and those who wanted only to shock the left. The reactionary fringe has won.”
Now, this article appears when the United States are about to begin the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution and the origins of our political system. In contrast to the enormous hoopla of a half-century around the Bicentennial (which I remember very well) there is (unless you live in Eastern Massachusetts, where the commemorations shall begin this Easter Weekend), there is a strange silence about the whole thing. The Woke not wanting to celebrate is truly a no-brainer both senses -the California Legislature voted down a measure to form a State Semiquincentennial Commission. But the two plaintive first paragraphs are illustrative of a deeper problem afflicting many in our nation to-day:
“Charles de Gaulle began his war memoirs with this sentence: ‘All my life I have had a certain idea about France.’ Well, all my life I have had a certain idea about America. I have thought of America as a deeply flawed nation that is nonetheless a force for tremendous good in the world. From Abraham Lincoln to Franklin D. Roosevelt to Ronald Reagan and beyond, Americans fought for freedom and human dignity and against tyranny; we promoted democracy, funded the Marshall Plan, and saved millions of people across Africa from HIV and AIDS. When we caused harm—Vietnam, Iraq—it was because of our overconfidence and naivete, not evil intentions.”