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Members of Previous Generations Now Seem Like Giants
Townhall.com ^ | October 10, 2019 | Victor Davis Hanson

Posted on 10/10/2019 5:33:26 AM PDT by Kaslin

Many of the stories about the gods and heroes of Greek mythology were compiled during Greek Dark Ages. Impoverished tribes passed down oral traditions that originated after the fall of the lost palatial civilizations of the Mycenaean Greeks.

Dark Age Greeks tried to make sense of the massive ruins of their forgotten forbearers' monumental palaces that were still standing around. As illiterates, they were curious about occasional clay tablets they plowed up in their fields with incomprehensible ancient Linear B inscriptions.

We of the 21st century are beginning to look back at our own lost epic times and wonder about these now-nameless giants who left behind monuments that we cannot replicate, but instead merely use or even mock.

Does anyone believe that contemporary Americans could build another transcontinental railroad in six years?

Californians tried to build a high-speed rail line. But after more than a decade of government incompetence, lawsuits, cost overruns and constant bureaucratic squabbling, they have all but given up. The result is a half-built overpass over the skyline of Fresno -- and not yet a foot of track laid.

Who were those giants of the 1960s responsible for building our interstate highway system?

(Excerpt) Read more at townhall.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: vdh; victordavishanson
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To: rlmorel

I have said for a long time that if I were half the man my grandfather was, I’d be twice the man of anyone else.
You’d have to know his history.

But...

We build CVNs that dwarf Iowa class BBs.

Dunno if we could roll armor plate like what protected the Iowa class or make a 16” rifle, though, but that is an industrial issue.

We can’t build a Hoover dam, but that is not because we lack the ability but because we have tied ourselves in knots with regulations.

For instance, I have no doubt we COULD build a transcontinental railroad in six years, if the gub’mint ruthlessly seized the lands necessary (just like the first one...), ignored the lawsuits, and trashed the environmental requirements. The paperwork and lawyering is what holds these things up, these days.

As for the California high-speed rail? That was pure corruption. Its sole reason for existence was to launder taxpayer money though Democrat cronies back to the Democrat party. Whether or not it got built was irrelevant.

We got a lot to regret, but we’re not that poorly off...


41 posted on 10/10/2019 8:07:02 AM PDT by Little Ray (Freedom Before Security!)
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To: Kaslin

Freedom creates giants. Jealousy of their achievements creates government.


42 posted on 10/10/2019 8:12:56 AM PDT by Mr Rogers (Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools)
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To: BobL

“his partner Neil Parkinson heard him choking at 9pm”

This explains a lot. He was probably used to shoving meat right down his gullet without chewing.


43 posted on 10/10/2019 8:15:37 AM PDT by Boogieman
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To: rlmorel

It took several years to widen about three miles of road near me within the past decade. It was the kind of project that once would have been done in a couple of months barring really wet weather. There were enough earth movers parked along the way to build a fifty mile stretch of interstate highway.


44 posted on 10/10/2019 11:04:04 AM PDT by RipSawyer (I need some green first and then we'll talk a new deal!http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3763)
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To: Kaslin
We get what we reward, and there is both a good deal of money and a great deal of fame and power in the game of saying, "No, that's forbidden." It's also easy work.

That said, we shouldn't ignore the magnificent achievement of modern computer and communications technology, it truly has changed the world. Such grifters as Zuckerberg aren't giants, they've ridden on the shoulders of giants and are damn lucky to be there. But consider that thing in your pocket and how you can push a button and converse with someone in Zanzibar. That isn't nothing. And if the best the current generation can do is take selfies with it, that's not the fault of the people who built it.

45 posted on 10/10/2019 11:22:45 AM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: wastoute

Marxists have waged their battle to tear down Western civilization for over a century and slowly they are ‘winning’ and the past and opponents are being buried or banned.


46 posted on 10/10/2019 2:30:59 PM PDT by a fool in paradise (Denounce DUAC - The Democrats Un-American Activists Committee)
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To: Leaning Right

We ended WWII with 2 atomic bombings in rapid deployment.


47 posted on 10/10/2019 2:31:44 PM PDT by a fool in paradise (Denounce DUAC - The Democrats Un-American Activists Committee)
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To: Leaning Right

WWII waged for longer than 4 years. We came in late to a show already in progess


48 posted on 10/10/2019 2:33:22 PM PDT by a fool in paradise (Denounce DUAC - The Democrats Un-American Activists Committee)
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To: a fool in paradise

“We ended WWII with 2 atomic bombings in rapid deployment.”

Ummm...Europe?


49 posted on 10/10/2019 3:41:31 PM PDT by dsc (Our system of government cannot survive one-party control of communications.)
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To: dsc

Japan wasn’t an Axis Power?


50 posted on 10/10/2019 6:21:58 PM PDT by a fool in paradise (Denounce DUAC - The Democrats Un-American Activists Committee)
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To: Kaslin

Bump


51 posted on 10/10/2019 6:26:25 PM PDT by foreverfree
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To: a fool in paradise

“Japan wasn’t an Axis Power?”

Soitenly, but the Krauts and Italy were defeated without nukes.

When I was a boy, we celebrated both VE day and VJ day.


52 posted on 10/10/2019 7:06:43 PM PDT by dsc (Our system of government cannot survive one-party control of communications.)
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To: dsc

We were at cold war with east Germany for almost half a century after “WWII”.

The people were fought in Iraq after toppling Saddam weren’t the same war.


53 posted on 10/10/2019 7:15:37 PM PDT by a fool in paradise (Denounce DUAC - The Democrats Un-American Activists Committee)
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To: RipSawyer

I know.

We had a small, quaint stone bridge near me, and when it was failing they wanted to rebuild it in the same manner to preserve its character.

It took five years, and “almost” looked like the original. It was over a wetland...so you know how that went.


54 posted on 10/11/2019 6:13:08 AM PDT by rlmorel (Trump to China: This Capitalist Will Not Sell You the Rope with Which You Will Hang Us.)
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