Posted on 04/29/2020 4:58:12 AM PDT by Kaslin
Dr. Victor Davis Hanson is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, a military historian and a professor emeritus of classics at California State University, Fresno. He has written two articles relevant to today's society. Last October he published, "Members of Previous Generations Now Seem Like Giants," and he recently wrote, "Is America a Roaring Giant or Crying Baby?"
In the first article, Hanson starts with some observations and questions regarding the greatness of previous generations compared with today's Americans. He asks: "Does anyone believe that contemporary Americans could build another transcontinental railroad in six years? ... America went to the moon in 1969 with supposedly primitive computers and backward engineering. Does anyone believe we could launch a similar moonshot today?" Hanson observes: "We have been fighting in Afghanistan without result for 18 years. Our forefathers helped to win World War II and defeat the Axis Powers in four years." Keep in mind that the Axis powers (Germany, Japan and Italy) had far greater firepower than the Afghan rebels that we've fought. Hanson also could have asked whether today's Americans could build a 1,700-mile road such as the ALCAN Highway, connecting the lower 48 states to Alaska, whose construction started in March 1942 and was completed in October that year.
In terms of learning, Hanson asks whether anyone believes that a 2020 college graduate knows half of what a 1950 graduate knew. In the 1940s, he says, young people read the works of William Faulkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Pearl Buck and John Steinbeck. He doubts that today's high school graduates could even finish "The Good Earth" or "The Grapes of Wrath." I attended Benjamin Franklin High School from 1950 to 1954, and our senior English class required reading included Geoffrey Chaucer's "The Canterbury Tales" and William Shakespeare's "Macbeth" and "Julius Caesar." By the way, when I attended Benjamin Franklin High, it was ranked the lowest among Philadelphia's high schools.
Hanson's second article asks whether our response to the COVID-19 epidemic will be that of a "roaring giant" or "crying baby." We can awaken, just as we did on Dec. 8, 1941, with massive amounts of fight, ready to get on a war footing. For those who were not around then or do not know our history, in 1941 our nation had seven fleet aircraft carriers and one escort carrier. By 1945, it was deploying 27 fleet and 72 escort carriers. In December 1941, we had 2.2 million service members in the U.S. military. By the war's end, there were more than 12 million Americans in the armed services. That's an astonishing mobilization considering our population was a little over 132 million. What's even more amazing is that our gross domestic product for 1944 exceeded the combined economic output of the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, Japan, Italy and Germany.
Hanson says that our other choice regarding the epidemic is whether to continue the partisan bickering and blaming. We can ignore the importance of the crisis and instead scapegoat and play the blame game. We can talk not of an America in crisis but of the virus's effects on particular groups. We can decide that to hold China responsible for lying about the virus is mean, racist and, at best, xenophobic.
In other words, Hanson says, "The choice is ours whether America awakens as a roaring giant or a crying baby." My prediction is that Americans, left to their own tendencies, will roar together as giants and will ignore the political and media crybabies.
The left has “pussyfied” this once great nation. The governments have us cowering in our houses, behind masks, in total panic. I’m afraid too, afraid of what this nation will do to itself this coming November.
Agreed about this coming Nov. I’m nowhere near as optimistic as Mr. Williams is about the American public.
“Does anyone believe that contemporary Americans could build another transcontinental railroad in six years? ...
Doubtful.... as they can’t even build 6 miles of highway in 6 years.
The United States has not won a war since the Department of Defense was created.
In regards to the construction projects, you couldn’t get the environmental impact studies done in the amount of time it took to complete the project back then.
We are FRAIDY CATS! SPOOKED by FRAUDS! War of the Worlds crap.
There is no question but that the progressive democrats are America’s most dangerous enemy. Absent a civil war that destroys them by the tens of thousands, there can be no real change.
If Normandy were to occur today; we would all be speaking German.
Yesteryear if you don’t work you don’t eat.
Yes, and if anyone thinks that a Pinochet will arise out of the military ranks to restore order if the commie/RATS should gain and exert dictatorial power, he is sadly mistaken, as Clinton and obama have stripped the general class of our warriors.
‘War of the Worlds’ crap...perfect!
All due to the decline in music....rap displacing Cole Porter tunes...John Henry wept.
There is so much I want to say about our situation, but I don't even know where to start...
Yeah, we're whipped alright.. The women, the fagots, the commies and all those "highly educated" pinko punks coming out the nations collages and universities nowadays (most are women) love to bully people around... They really get off on telling folks how smart they are, and how totally dumb the American working class is, and we make no REAL effort to correct them. And therein lies the problem.
They have rings in their nose, studs in their tongue, their pants down around their butts and not a single damned clue on how to do a days work.!!!
Ah.. Forget it, I believe this nation is toast by 2030.. I'm sorry, but it's all my fault.. It wasn't all that hard to see which individuals needed addressing when I was young enough to do it.. Starting with Jane Fonda and continuing from there... But now, I think it's darn late... :(
Before we get too harsh in our judgements of “contemporary” Americans lets first remember that many of them aren’t American.
Then ask yourself why would a young man be loyal or sacrifice himself for a multi-ethnic pile of crap?
They simply won’t. What you are witnessing is the inevitable “every man for himself” logic that is born out of a low trust culture.
I am loyal to my tribe at this point. Everything else is flammable to me.
Part of that is that the unions won’t allow it to be done quickly.
Here’s what changed. America over the past 70 years has become a welfare state. Our K-12 and secondary schooling have become institutions of liberal indoctrination that have shaped the minds of 2 generations.
There is some truth to that for sure. Blacks were apart of so much musical origin and were extremely talented. Rap just reflects the decline in society and talent.
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