Quote of the Day -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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According to Wikipedia, Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803– 1882) was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champion of individualism and a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society, and his ideology was disseminated through dozens of published essays and more than 1,500 public lectures across the United States.

Quote of the Day -- Thomas Paine

Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered,” Paine wrote, “yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value.

-- Thomas Paine

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According to Wikipedia, Thomas Paine (1737- 1809) was an English-born American political activist, philosopher, and revolutionary. He authored Common Sense and The American Crisis, two of the most influential pamphlets at the start of the American Revolution.

Book Review: American Nations

I'm a sucker for a book that tackles a "big story," that synthesizes disparate information across time and space to develop a theory explaining the seemingly unexplainable. The book cover of In American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North American depicts the territorial and cultural divisions that Colin Woodard lays out in his book. He traces the history of how each "nation" was settled and describes the underlying values that motivate its citizenry. 

I'm a native and inhabitant of "Yankeedom," and Woodard's summary rings true -- emphasis on education, pursuit of greater good for the whole community, faith in the potential of government to improve people's lives. What I didn't completely understand is why other "nations" don't share these values; why their heritage emphasizes different, even diametrically opposed beliefs and moral virtues. 

Woodard provides a unique lens for viewing key events in our history and highlights the "life and death" battle that Yankeedom and the Deep South continually fight for control and for the ascendancy of their world view. Each considers the others' success an existential threat to their way of life. Each battles, with varying degrees of success, to form coalitions with the other nations to achieve that control.

Understanding the root of a problem doesn't necessarily solve the problem, but it goes a long way toward appreciating how we got here. I'm sure there are holes in Woodard's arguments that astute students of US history will find, but overall, his characterizations ring true and explain so much about the divisions we are experiencing today.

Quote of the Day -- Henry Kissinger

Corrupt politicians make the other ten percent look bad.

-- Henry Kissinger

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Henry Kissinger,as he approaches his 99th birthday, remains a sought-after political analyst who is both respected and despised. As first National Security Advisor and then Secretary of State under Richard Nixon, Kissinger played an instrumental role on the international stage. He orchestrated rapprochement with China and an end to the Vietnam war, for which he won a Nobel Prize amidst loud criticism. On a personal note, I was in Paris when Nixon resigned in 1973. French students, who were pretty confused by our Puritan approach to lying, asked me "will Henry Kissinger have to resign, too." He was popular around the world. 

 

 

Quote of the Day -- Albert Einstein

I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.

-- Albert Einstein

Quote of the Day -- Ernest Hemingway

Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime.

-- Ernest Hemingway

Quote of the Day -- Rachel Carson

In spite of our rather boastful talk about progress, and our pride in the gadgets of civilization, there is, I think, a growing suspicion — indeed, perhaps an uneasy certainty — that we have been sometimes a little too ingenious for our own good. 

-- Rachel Carson

Quote of the Day -- Seamus Heaney

History says, Don’t hope On this side of the grave. But then, once in a lifetime The longed-for tidal wave Of justice can rise up And hope and history rhyme.

-- Seamus Heaney

Quote of the Day -- Barack Obama

America as an experiment is genuinely important to the world not because of the accidents of history that made us the most powerful nation on Earth, but because America is the first real experiment in building a large multiethnic, multicultural democracy. And we don't know yet if that can hold.

-- Barack Obama

Quote of the Day -- Robert M Hutchins

The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference, and undernourishment.

-- Robert M Hutchins

Quote of the Day -- Alexander Hamilton

Foreign influence is truly the Grecian horse to a republic. We cannot be too careful to exclude its influence.

-- Alexander Hamilton

Quote of the Day -- Franklin D Roosevelt

There are many ways of going forward, but only one way of standing still.

-- Franklin D. Roosevelt

Quote of the Day -- Louis Brandeis

If we desire respect for the law we must first make the law respectable.

 -- Louis Brandeis

Quote of the Day -- Alfred North Whitehead

The art of progress is to reserve order amid change, and to preserve change amid order. 

-- Alfred North Whitehead

Quote of the Day -- Wade Davis

Fluidity of memory and a capacity to forget is perhaps the most haunting trait of our species. As history confirms, it allows us to come to terms with any degree of social, moral, or environmental degradation. 

-- Wade Davis

Quote of the Day -- Joan Wallach Scott

Those who expect moments of change to be comfortable and free of conflict have not learned their history. 

-- Joan Wallach Scott

Quote of the Day -- Oscar Wilde

America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between.

-- Oscar Wilde

Quote of the Day -- Duchess Goldblatt

If you have the education, wits, and leisure time to pursue you own interests, you have it better than 99% of the people who ever lived. 

-- Duchess Goldblatt

Quote of the Day -- Orson Scott Card

It’s called civilization. Women invented it, and every time you men blow it all to bits, we just invent it again. 

-- Orson Scott Card

Quote of the Day -- William Cobbett

Good government is known from bad government by this infallible test: that under the former the labouring people are well fed and well clothed, and under the latter, they are badly fed and badly clothed. 

-- William Cobbett