Posted on 06/26/2008 12:54:46 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
We have become a nation of second-guessing Hamlets.
Shakespeare warned us about the dangers of "thinking too precisely." His poor Danish prince lost "the name of action," as he dithered and sighed that "conscience does make cowards of us all."
With gas over $4 a gallon, the public is finally waking up to the fact that for decades the United States has not been developing known petroleum reserves in Alaska, in our coastal waters or off the continental shelf. Jittery Hamlets apparently forgot that gas comes from oil -- and that before you can fill your tank, you must take risks to fill a tanker.
Building things is a good indication of the relative confidence of a society. But the last American gasoline refinery was built almost three decades ago. As "cowards of our conscious," we've come up with countless mitigating reasons not to build a new one. Our inaction has meant that our nation's gasoline facilities have grown old, out of date and dangerous.
Maybe Americans can instead substitute plug-in, next-generation electric cars that can be charged at night on the nation's grid powered by nuclear power plants? Wrong again. We haven't issued a single new license that actually led to the building of a nuclear power plant in over 30 years.
Shakespeare's Hamlet again would warn second-guessing Americans that, "A thought, which, quarter'd, hath but one part wisdom/And ever three parts coward."
But the problem of inaction extends far beyond the present energy crisis.
Whatever one thinks about the wisdom of a border fence with Mexico, President George Bush signed into law a bill passed by both houses of Congress authorizing over 700 miles of fencing at key junctures. This was back in 2006.
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearpolitics.com ...
VDH nailed it. Required reading for all.
This is what comes of electing people to lead us and considering them “all knowing” simply because we have done so.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Thanks for posting, 2ndDiv.
America became a great nation by nurturing such liberty people boldly dared to plunge into the unknown future with self-confidence and faith even when all the answers were not obvious.
I have often wondered why VDH doesn’t run for some type of higher office. If anything he would seem to be overqualified. His intellect is something to behold.
PING!
I know, I know, it's useless to use logic to examine Democrat talking points, but it's still fun to draw out the implications of their statements.
Let me know if you want in or out.
Links: FR Index of his articles: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=victordavishanson
His website: http://victorhanson.com/
NRO archive: http://www.nationalreview.com/hanson/hanson-archive.asp
Pajamasmedia: http://victordavishanson.pajamasmedia.com/
Excellent. He perfectly describes what most of us know, but refuse to act upon.
We are now a very self destructive nation. We say we care about our kids and grandkids and then let the politicians and the media, march them to destruction.
I wonder what it would take for a major march on Washington DC?
ping for later
Can you imagine how the history of the 19th century would read if today’s panty-waist worry-warts had control back then?
The transcontinental railroad was first conceived in the 1830s and it took nearly four decades to move from concept to reality to completion in 1869. The project was enormous in scope and required amassing huge amounts of capital, technology and political will. Today, Democrats would be saying that “It would be ten years before we could move a single ton of freight on the railroad. We better continue using wagon trains and ships through the Straits of Magellan. Besides, the current technology doesn’t bother the buffalo on the plains and smoke up our pristine skies.”
The first successful cable across the Atlantic Ocean was opened in 1866 and success came only after numerous failures over a 20 year span. Again, the perseverance of a couple of key individuals and the ability to gather huge sums of capital, invent new technology and navigate difficult politics was necessary to succeed. Today Democrats would say that “It would be ten years before we could get a single message across the ocean. Be better continue sending stale newspapers and letters by ship which now only takes four weeks instead of the 10 weeks it took our forefathers. Besides, the cable would endanger whales and who knows what else on the seabed.”
Two of my favorite books about these projects are “A Thread Across the Ocean: The Heroic Story of the Transatlantic Cable,” by John Steele Gordon and “Empire Express: Building the First Transcontinental Railroad,” by David Haward Bain. If you want to read about a time really not so long ago when can-do giants overcame the biggest obstacles imaginable, you won’t go wrong with these books. It will make you yearn for a different time in America and really question our nations future.
"By the Year 2000, the United States will be energy independent...if all the liberals pack up and head to Europe" :-)
American technological resolve has and can accomplish great feats in short order. Consider the Manhattan Project in WW-II in four years moving from what was only a theoretical concept to a deliverable atomic bomb. In peace time the Internet sprang from a university experiment to a ubiquitous global network in less than a decade. Consider the I-touch, Apple’s new hand held Wi-Fi multimedia device, such a device would have been considered the stuff of science fiction even five years ago. The the “no we can’t” Democrats are failing to look at history. With oil prices at current level there is ample financial incentive to drill in the US for more oil supplies and to look toward future technologies. It is the nay sayers in Congress and the environmental luddites that are keeping this from happening.
“Those who wait for every condition to be “right” before proceeding NEVER GO FORWARD.”
Remember Patton’s quote: “A good plan executed today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow.”
Sorry, but I must take issue here. Reading through the whole piece, I smell “malaise speech.”
One could say we’re all just going to hell in a handbasket and that we’re lazy wimps compared to our forefathers but I would be inclined to use a narrower brush.
The reason nothing gets built nowadays (especially in CA) is because of the huge amount of power ceded to Big Green. The enviros have become the fourth pillar of government. By default, and with the help of the activist judiciary and the permanent bureaucracy, they have been given way, way too much power to obstruct.
Once upon a time they were seen as grassroots activists, honestly interested in cleaning up the effluent that an agressively growing nation had considered unimportant and salvaging a natural legacy that previous generations had considered inexhaustible. That was just common sense “wise stewardship” and I certainly continue to believe in that. But it should be obvious to all thinking people by now that this is no longer the case and that “green” issues are but a stalking horse to impose statist socialism on us. Too many of their laws and crusades are BAD for the environment: Ethanol and its unintended consequences, the Endangered Species Act and its perverse incentives, brownfields legislation that makes it too expensive to build on old industrial land, “environmental justice” that keeps factories out of poor neighborhoods, the Anti Wal-Mart movement that keeps big box stores away from same, and their oppositon to powerplants, refineries, roads and just about any infrastructure-building that occupies physical space.
Their mindless obstructionism to any energy-usage has been sharply and starkly illuminated in recent months for all to see. It’s going to take real leadership from the top to take these people on and wrest away their power over us.
I DON’T think that America has lost her mojo. Others have bet on that and lost big time.
You nailed it. Environmental conservation is a great idea, within reason. But we have gone way beyond reason and are headed back to the stone age.
The fact that we cannot explain in court the exact consequences of progress should not be enough to stop it. Environmental impact statements and endless requests for further details and more analysis have paralyzed us for two generations.
I support just invading oil-producing countries and taking their oil. Why not? The whole world hates us anyway, right?
I say let the bombing begin in 10 minutes.
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