Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
Quote of the Day: We Don’t Have to be Perfect to be Good
“Refusing to stand during the national anthem is not and should not be illegal. But such blanket rejection of American customs is admittedly now a collective narcissistic tic — and hardly sustainable for the nation’s privileged to sit in disgust for a flag that their betters raised under fire on Iwo Jima for others not yet born. Sometimes citizens can do as much harm to their commonwealth by violating customs and traditions as by breaking laws.
“Instead, freedom requires constant reinvestment in and replenishment of a nation’s traditions and ideals. Self-criticism of one’s country is salutary to ensure needed changes, but only if Americans accept that an innately self-correcting United States does not have to be perfect to be good – and especially when, in a world of innately flawed humans and failed states, it remains far better than any of the alternatives abroad.”
—Victor Davis Hanson
The tragedy of the Left is that it mainly lives in ignorance. Its true believers see darkness and emptiness everywhere. They accuse everyone who doesn’t follow their dogma as racists, white supremacists, capitalists, and Nazis. For them, there is no release from their own misery, and they remind all of us that we have no right to be happy and satisfied. Our achievements rest on their desolation, and we must pay for it—forever.
As a result, they don’t know the rewards of gratitude—gratitude for living in a country where they can be as miserable as they wish—and as joyful as they choose. Gratitude for limitless opportunities for rewarding work and a peaceful existence. Gratitude has disappeared from their lives, because there is no room for it; they only have room for criticizing our imperfect yet glorious nation; they prefer to be unhappy than to seek out those chances to grow, learn and prosper. Their positions are unrealistic and their lives destined for disappointment.
For those of us who know that VDH is correct, we don’t expect a perfect country that is, after all, managed by flawed human beings. We take responsibility for pursuing self-reflection and for reviewing our goals as a country, and trying to determine where and how we can improve. Our criticisms at times may be brutal, but they are offered out of patriotism, our allegiance to the country, and to each other. We know our country’s existence is fragile, particularly when others attack America out of ignorance, misplaced expectations, and failed dreams. But the rest of us will persist in saving her, in preserving her foundations, in making her even better.
We must never give up.
Published in Group Writing
Yeah I know Saddam did it too. If Saddam jumped off a three storey building…
Unless you are prepared to defend Saddam, perhaps that is not the path you wish to go down. I’m no expert, but I know that we thought he was a bad man who abused people inside and outside his country, and not in arguable ways.
He also sponsored and paid for terrorist acts.
I just don’t think ‘Saddam killed people too’ would be really persuasive on a day when Iraq was being bombed. Also, kind of a low bar? Or did I misunderstand your point?
And in their ignorance, they push policies that don’t work, and when called on that, claim “We need more funding.”
For new schools. With new programs. To guarantee that the ignorance perpetuates.
The sorts of sour pusses that affect so much today were always around, but couldn’t influence our lives so easily. Mostly because government was less important, closer to people and influenced by the bottom. The Feds fought wars and defended the border, which always took a bunch of disasters and mistakes when real responsibilities fell on them, but they sorted it out and did what had to be done. Now the top, including the military do what was done by people at the grass roots, no Federal folks defend the border and the military, like the police, are being turned from a defense apparatus, towards a domestic political tool, what that means and what can be done within the three more years they have, is not clear.
I am reminded of this when I read or listen to Ayan Hirsi Ali or a few other immigrants to America.
Looking for more context from @wiesbadenjake I clicked on view comment and just became more confused.
Just pointing out that the Arab unity you seem to imply in your first line quoted here is fairly illusory.
Bob, I am sorry for any confusion I may have caused; I will admit that though I received an A in the course, I was confused by the material we read in copious quantities (Hume, Popper, Dewey, and for the Marxist view, Paulo Freire. The course was entirely online; we would read, write responses to the readings, and respond to other students writing along with traditional paper requirements. I found the writing of the Ukrainian classmate cut through the miasmic verbiage of educationist buzzwords and rang with truth about the reality communist education system experience as opposed to the idealistic view put forth in Freire’s writings in particular. I am not sure this will help or not but I ask your indulgence. Mostly, it was a rare experience in all my years of undergraduate and graduate education to have someone speak boldly of their love for America and offer praise for our founding culture.
Oh my, I apologize. When I went back to your comment I didn’t find the material supposedly copied from there. I know I left that unclear. Did you edit it?
No apology necessary, Bob; but thank you.
There is no Arab unity. Empathy yes, based on language – understanding what people are saying as they pull kids out of bombed buildings inevitably has a greater impact.
Then why don’t Arabs care when they kill more people in a week in Lebanon than multiple Israeli wars? I forget the city in the Lebanese Civil War but why don’t Arabs much care when Arabs kill other Arabs.
It’s like blacks don’t care much when they kill their own. What do blacks and Arabs have in common? A penchant for scapegoating. And lately both groups love to blame Israel and/or Jews for their own self-inflicted suffering.
Or applaud when a “martyr” blows up a bus full of commuters.
…new Marvel superhero team The Predictables…
A great quote of the day, one which works in so many contexts** and so very true.
**When Mr. She and I were building our house, we very quickly had to come to terms with our limitations as concrete workers, plumbers, electricians, framers and drywallers. After a while, we coined (I think) the phrase: “Good is good. Perfect is better. Done is best!” And we just kept moving forward.
***
This is the Quote of the Day. November’s sign-up sheet is here. Please sign up today!
If you’re new at this game, it’s a easy way to get your feet wet and start a conversation; if you’re an old-timer, you already know the ropes. Either way, please sign up to speak up.
Another ongoing project to encourage new voices is our Group Writing Project. November’s theme is “Feast, Fast, Famine.” If you’d like to weigh in, please sign up for Group Writing too!
**When Mr. She and I were building our house, we very quickly had to come to terms with our limitations as concrete workers, plumbers, electricians, framers and drywallers. After a while, we coined (I think) the phrase: “Good is good. Perfect is better. Done is best!” And we just kept moving forward.
Or blow up a pizza restaurant full of men, women and children.
Never forget that this sort of anti-Jewish violence is not new–far from it: Anti-Jewish pogroms have been a feature of the Middle East for centuries. And then there is the institutionalized discrimination, exploitation, harassment, and oppression which dates back to the Muslim conquest.
I’ve written several times about current anti-Semitism. People like to get into arguments about whether it is getting worse or not. Lately I’ve tried to point out that isn’t the point: the main point is that it has persisted through the centuries. Oh, but some say, things are so much better. Then I respond, “For whom”? As long as it persists, all Jews should be concerned.
Actually it goes back much farther. Some say that when Abraham overpaid for the burial space for his wife, Sarah, it was an early anti=Semitic act.
Whether it is getting better or worse was not my point. Rather, it was to point out that it is nothing new–and therefore cannot be blamed on the existence of the State of Israel. The “root causes” can be found in the ideology of the conquerors. The mandates and prohibitions of Sharia Law are quite revealing.
Paul, I wasn’t disagreeing with you; I was just expanding on your point.
Which demonstrates once again how easy it is to misunderstand when deprived of the cues of eye, face, body language, and intonation.
People respond to shame more than math. Arabs feel shame when people perceived as foreigners defeat them. For similar reasons, blacks are upset when a white cop kills a criminal because it makes them feel shame for having so many criminals in their community and needing to rely on non-black cops. Chinese feel shame for being defeated by the small country of Japan but Mao made the Chinese feel strong so it didn’t matter so much that he killed more Chinese than Imperial Japan.
Shame is what motivates people more than most anything.
I tend to agree, @henrycastaigne. And its cousin “embarrassment” is right up there, too. I don’t know about your observation about blacks. I don’t believe they are ashamed about their numbers of their own who are killed. That would require a consciousness that I don’t think they are interested in. I think they prefer just being angry at any white, particularly cops, and blaming them for their problems. The MSM makes it easy for them to do that, too, since they rarely if ever talk about black-on-black crime.
To be fair, if black-Americans don’t pay close attention that wouldn’t know the realities of cops and crime.
Frankly, I think one of the greatest losses to America is the great loss of shame. People today are basically shameless. And they have shameless friends and vote for shameless representatives. We are lectured not to fat-shame, slut-shame, shoplift-shame, bankruptcy-shame, shame illegitimacy, or even shame overt hatred. Not that these were spoken out loud fifty years ago, or that people didn’t experience bad life circumstances for these things apart from any shame in itself, but there was a general cultural disapproval that tended to keep these things minimized.
But now they are not only accepted but celebrated. Who in the old days would borrow money to go to college and then protest in the streets for loan forgiveness? Or shout your abortion? The background effect of shame was a quiet but powerful means of ordering society. Now we corporately don’t have any shame (except being white, male, heterosexual, and financially successful). And we see society degenerating.
I sort of think we should bring back the stocks and public corporal punishment.
Added: But that would be cruel and unusual.
Thanks, Flicker. I don’t know if we should go that far, but there was a place for shame. It was one of the many ways of trying to maintain a civil society. Now, anything goes, and if you are critical of anything, you are a racist, white supremacist, etc. I remember when the movement was being pushed to accept out-of-wedlock pregnancy; we didn’t want those girls to feel shame. But there was an important lesson for them to learn (and it wasn’t just taking birth control). Instead we trivialize the human body, and sanctity, modesty and privacy are obsolete ideas. Sigh.