"Wherefore Wisdom"

 While I will invade your in-box tomorrow with a book review, it is short (approximately 500 words) and I promise to stay away for the next few days. The below is something to munch on as you prepare your stomach for Thursday.

 

The owl symbolizes all that I wish for our country.

 

Sydney M. Williams

 

Thought of the Day

“Wherefore Wisdom?”

November 21, 2025

 

“...the most complicated fabric of the most perfect form of government” resulted

from a “great measure of accident” plus “a small ingredient of wisdom and foresight.”[1]

                                                                                                                David Hume (1711-1776)

                                                                                                                Scottish philosopher

                                                                                                                The History of England, 1754

 

“Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

                                                                                                                Professor George Santayana (1863-1952)

                                                                                                                Reason in Common Sense

                                                                                                                Vol I of The Life of Reason, 1905

 

Across most cultures there are certain values that are ancient, universal and enduring. In the Judeo-Christian world there are the Ten Commandments, especially those that command us to honor our parents, to not kill, steal, bear false witness, commit adultery, or covet our neighbor’s spouse or goods, and there are lessons from Aesop about the value of work, the importance of skepticism, and the detriment of envy – all embedded in his Fables: “The Ant and the Grasshopper,” “The Fox and the Crow,” and “The Fox and the Grapes.” 

 

I have been thinking of these issues as I recently read C.S. Lewis’ 1942 book, The Screwtape Letters and Joseph Ellis’ recent history The Great Contradiction[2].  Lewis’ book is a series of letters from Screwtape to his nephew Wormwood, a “novice demon.” It speaks to the temptations of the devil. Ellis discusses the inherent contradiction between the words in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, and slavery and the forced removal of Native Americans from their historic lands.  

 

The abolitionist and Unitarian minister, Theodore Parker sermonized in 1853: “I do not pretend to understand the moral universe; the arc is a long one...But from what I see it bends toward justice.” The study of history is important as Professor Santayana makes clear in an epithet that heads this essay, to understand how, despite abiding values embedded in culture, practices change; evil is ubiquitous and often arrives disguised. It is important that we each learn the ancient lessons of the Ten Commandments and the morals of Aesop, so that we behave civilly and accept responsibility. 

 

It may be that every generation judges past ones based on current standards. Certainly, ours does. Feeling smug and complacent, too many of us spend time judging the ethical shortcomings of past generations, rather than focusing on the failings of our own. It explains the popularity of Nicole Hannah-Jones’ The 1619 Project, made worse by a focus on identity – that people are either victims or oppressors. It may make us feel better to cast blame on those long dead, but history, like evolution, is a continuum. And it moves slowly, as Reverend Parker intimated. According to Google’s AI, modern humans first evolved in Africa more than 300,000 years ago. But it was only five to six thousand years ago that humans formed civil societies. And consider how recently it was that women were allowed to vote!

 

Tribal wars and slavery were common in much of the world into the early 19^th Century. Such conflicts, fueled by political power struggles, resources and historical grievances, are still common in places like the Sudan, Somalia, Nigeria and the Central African Republic. If one includes forced labor, debt bondage, forced marriage and human trafficking an estimated 50 million people today are slaves. And we cannot forget That the 20^th Century was the bloodiest on record – that it gave rise to both Nazism on the right and Communism on the left. Combined, they enslaved an estimated 50 million people and killed double that number. Even today, according to Freedom House, only about 20% of the world’s population live in countries where political rights and civil liberties are protected. Evil persists. We can point to the civil war in Sudan, the conflicts in Myanmar and Syria, the killing of Christians in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly Nigeria, the brutal fight in Ukraine, and Israel’s continued existential wars, but individually we would be wise to search our own souls, to cleanse ourselves of the hatred that too often rises to the surface – to consider the words of David Hume in the epithet above. Wisdom has been AWOL.

 

The recent decline in morals that have guided us over many years is not limited to acts of violence. The recent admission by the BBC that they had doctored a January 6, 2021 speech by then President Trump to make it appear he had instigated the attack on the Capitol later that day was a deliberate act of malfeasance. Their decision implied a lack of faith in the ability of their viewers to fairly consider facts and respond appropriately. The same could be said of those who pushed the Russian collusion story of 2016.

 

The values we should return to are simple and ancient ones, ones that have stood the test of time. The world would benefit from a return to those principles laid out in the 10 Commandments, which were delivered over 3,000 years ago. And we would gain from re-reading those tales of the Greek slave Aesop who lived 2,600 years ago. “Wisdom,” Albert Einstein wrote in 1954, “is not a product of schooling but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it.”

 

Like knowledge of history, the values that have guided us over the millennia sometimes fade from our conscience, yet they persevere. The inherent rights of individuals, rule of law, limited government and free markets are the foundation on which our country was created and built. Wherefore wisdom? Wisdom requires we not forget.

"Are Things as Bad as They Seem?"

 

Sydney M. Williams

 

Thought of the Day

“Are Things as Bad as They Seem?”

March 11, 2024

 

“Just when you thought that things couldn’t get any worse, you find out that they’ve

always been a lot worse than you thought they were. And then they get worse.”

                                                                                                                                Philip Kerr (1956-2018)

                                                                                                                                The Pale Criminal, 1990

 

Debt, including unfunded liabilities, threatens to bankrupt us. The southern border has become a porous venue for a record number of illegals and the drugs many bring into this country. An epidemic of crime has transformed our cities. Democrats have weaponized the criminal justice department to go after political opponents. Republicans, in a rush to isolationism, have abandoned global responsibilities – underestimating threats to democratic institutions posed by Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, Kim Jong Un, and Iran’s Mullahs. Color-blind meritocracy and biological sex have given way to harmful fantasies, with preferential treatment for some groups and favored pronouns for others. A desire for clean energy is countered by demand for clean-technology factories and electricity-hungry data centers, “leaving,” as Evan Halper wrote last week in The Washington Post, “utilities and regulators grasping for credible plans to expand the nation’s creaking power grid.” Biden’s mandate that two thirds of all new cars be electric by 2032 will increase the demand for electricity. One asks: is the country witnessing the death of common sense and entering a death spiral? 

 

I suspect everyone, no matter their political preferences, agrees that we live in contentious times – politically, technologically, and culturally. Of the two Presidential candidates, one is visibly senescent and the other is “the crudest trash-talker in politics,” as Barton Swaim wrote in a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed. AI threatens to disrupt our lives in unknown ways. DEI, CRT, gender neutral bathrooms and gendered-altered athletes have turned high schools and universities into places alien to parents and alumni.

 

Perhaps we should step back. “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes” is an aphorism usually attributed to Mark Twain. It suggests that while each era is different, there are recurring themes. And as George Santayana observed, we are disadvantaged regarding the present and the future when we ignore the past. And, while our current situation is unique, the United States has survived bigger schisms – the biggest being the Civil War when eleven southern states seceded from the Union to form the Confederate States of America. That Lincoln was able to prevent England and France from recognizing the Confederacy and keep the Union intact, while abolishing slavery, is something for which every American should be grateful. 

 

While the Civil War created chaos, the two-and-a-half decades leading up to it were unsettled, and not just because of slavery. In the twenty-four years before Abraham Lincoln was elected in a four-way race in 1860, eight men served as President. The three decades leading to the Civil War saw the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution, an event that raised living standards, but that also created winners and losers: Railroads and steamships disrupted traditional means of travel, and the telegraph radicalized the way people communicated. The McCormack reaper increased the value of large Pennsylvania and Ohio farms, while lowering the value of smaller New England farms. The Singer sewing machine revolutionized the clothing industry. All were examples of Joseph Schumpeter’s “creative disruption.” More than a third of the nation’s population increase over the thirty years prior to the Civil War was due to immigrants, mostly from Ireland and Germany. Growth spurts are usually accompanied by hiccups. 

 

Turbulent times continued: Lincoln was assassinated in 1865, and over the next thirty-six years two more Presidents would be assassinated – James Garfield in 1861 and William McKinley in 1901. Native Americans continued to be attacked, captured, and placed on reservations. Black Americans continued to experience bigotry and segregation, and the late 19^th Century saw the birth of the Ku Klux Klan. The Industrial Revolution continued, with electricity, autos, and telephones being introduced, creating dislocations for carriage makers and purveyors of gas lamps, but positively affecting living standards.

 

Once again, we live in politically rancorous times, with cultural appropriation in schools, universities, and businesses and disruptive technologies like social media and artificial intelligence. Democrats have what they want in Donald Trump as the presumptive Republican nominee, and Republicans have what they want with Democrats sticking with Joe Biden. Both parties are more interested in attacking their opponent than in promoting their candidate. Neither candidate shows any interest in reconciliation. Trump, in a statement that showed how unhinged he is from reality, claimed to have no need of Nikki Haley’s supporters, Independents, or disgruntled Democrats. In his State of the Union, Biden made no effort to appease Republicans unhappy with Trump. Instead, the speech was, as Ben Domenech wrote in The Spectator, “unhinged…spewing invective at half the country.” – the campaign speech of an angry old man, which served as a preview of the road to November.

 

Unless, unless something changes. Last Friday, No Labels held a virtual 800-delegate meeting, and the members voted, “near unanimously” as NBC put it, to move forward with the process of forming a presidential ticket to run in the 2024 election against Joe Biden and Donald Trump. An official ticket was not put forward, but one is expected. Regardless, given the ages of Biden and Trump and should Robert Kennedy, Jr. and Harvard professor and civil rights activist Cornel West persist in their presidential bids, conventions this summer may be wide-open affairs. 

 

And yet, are things as bad as they seem? No one can see into the future. Classicists remind us that empires end, and so might the United States, a nation that has stood as a defender of freedom for the world’s democracies, and a country that provides hope for the world’s oppressed. But is now that moment? I recall the late 1960s and ‘70s when society was frayed and politics were in disarray, yet we survived. It is possible that the last stanza of Edgar Guest’s (1881-1959) poem published in the March 4, 1921 issue of the Detroit Free Press will prove prescient for today’s over-whelmed American voter:

 

“And you never can tell how close you are,

It may be near when it seems so far,

So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit – 

It’s when things seem worst that you must not quit.”

"First Out, Next In"

 Why would Biden first warn and then give time to our enemies before retaliating for the deaths of three American soldiers? It makes no sense for a Country that has responsibility for maintaining world peace. It is as though we have let our faults govern our goodness and reflects a failure to understand the presence of evil, and that power is an aphrodisiac. From Napoleon to Hitler, from Stalin to Mao, from the Iranian Mullahs to Putin and Xi Jinping individuals have wanted to control the world. The United States and the West have stood in their way. We must stop contemplating our navels and apologizing for past sins, both real and imagined. We cannot hide from our responsibilities. The United States and the nations of the West are not perfect, but they are good and certainly better than the alternatives. 

 

…………………………………………………………………………………….

 

Yesterday would have been my paternal grandfather’s 151^st birthday. Tomorrow is my daughter’s birthday. Birthdays, especially of grandparents we knew well, remind us of the past and bring it forward into the present. They tell us of how life has changed and how young is our country. I loved talking to my grandfather about his youth in Boston. He grew up in a world without cars, at a time when most homes did not have electricity or phones. When he died on February 3, 1963, a day shy of ninety, 98% of homes in the U.S. had electricity and there were almost seventy million cars on American roads. He was thirty years old when the Wright Brothers first flew at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. By the time he died, 58 million Americans were flying annually. Will the sixty years provide as much change? We cannot know, but with advances in technology, especially artificial intelligence, that cannot be ruled out. Medicine, communication, education, and entertainment should all benefit. And of course there will be other changes we cannot conceive. 

 

………………………………………………………………………………………….

 

Apologies for the long preamble. As for this essay, it is a look into the near future, so no more than a hope and a guess. 

 

Sydney M. Williams

www.swtotd.bolgspot.com

 

Thought of the Day

“First Out, Next In”

February 5, 2024

 

“It is really true what philosophy tells us, that life must be understood backwards.

But with this, one forgets the second proposition, that it must be lived forward.”

Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)

Danish theologian and philosopher

Journals, 1843

 

Edward Bellamy’s 1888 utopian novel Looking Backward showed the difficulty of getting the future right, especially when idealism co-opts reason. National socialism proved a disaster to Germany and Italy (and the world), and state ownership of industry deep-sixed the Soviet Union. Kierkegaard suggested in the rubric above, life is best lived with an understanding of history. And as George Santayana famously wrote in Life of Reason: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

 

Divisiveness characterizes our age, like the years leading to the Civil War, the McCarthy era of the early 1950s, or the late 1960s when the Country was divided by the Vietnam War. In last Friday’s The Wall Street Journal Lance Morrow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center wrote: “Exaggeration is the traditional style of American politics, but permanent culture wars, the global pandemic, the agitations of social media and the collapse of party discipline – and, not least, the role modeling of Joe Biden and Donald Trump – have left Americans discontent with mere exaggeration.” We have, he added, “gotten addicted to apocalypse…”

 

Is there a way out? Can reason subsume emotion? Is a middle ground achievable? I think there is, but I don’t believe that either Mr. Biden or Mr. Trump will lead the way. The former is in cognizant decline and the latter has become detached from reality. There are big issues that separate the two parties, but democracy is about debate and compromise, not incoherent brawling, which is what our politics have become.

 

The title of this essay stems from my belief that the first of the two main contenders to drop out of the race for President (as unlikely as that now seems) will assure that his Party wins November’s Presidential election. At this point there is no sign that such a possibility is being considered. Neither candidate is widely admired, let alone respected, yet both appear likely to secure their Party’s nomination. In a head-to-head race, polls have them pretty much divided. As for losers, if either were to win, that would be the American public. The likelihood of a Biden-Trump rematch makes this an intractable problem for a majority of voters, as forever Trumpers battle imperious Progressives. 

 

As an amateur observer of the political scene, it seems to me that the first to drop out would likely be Mr. Biden. His lack of mental acuity becomes more visible every day, and Democrats are the more disciplined of the two Parties. Their leaders, no matter what they now say, know that Mr. Biden’s health will continue to deteriorate and that Vice President Kamala Harris is not a viable candidate to lead the world’s most powerful nation. Mainstream media, which serves as their propaganda arm, is beginning to suggest a change would be in the Party’s best interest. On the Republican side, M.A.G.A. Republicans remain vehement defenders of a man they feel has been treated badly. But the conservative media is mixed. While Fox News and Epoch Timesare all-in in their support for Mr. Trump, The Wall Street Journal takes a more muted approach, as do The New York Sun, National Review and The Spectator. And we have both the Biden and Trump nominations being supported by mainstream media. Biden’s support stems from his identity politics and his preference for Washington’s Woke bureaucracy. In contrast, mainstream media would prefer the “deplorable,” but nationally unelectable, Mr. Trump over the electable Nikki Haley.  

 

Will either man drop out of the race? I suspect not willingly. But control of the White House reaps enormous benefits – the coattail effect of elections, control over the political direction of the country and the world, and the direct appointment of thousands of jobs. Democrats, as mentioned above, are more methodical, more controlling than Republicans; they appeal to the group, not the individual. While they have extremists, like the “Squad,” the entire Party has moved left since the Obama Presidency. On the other hand, Republicans have always been a Party of individuals, of oners, where the group is less important than the person. However, “Forever Trumpers” have changed the calculus. Their backing of Trump is less about policies and more about anger as to how he and they have been belittled. To borrow an Obama line, they believe that having Trump in their corner is like bringing a gun to a knife fight. As Hoover Institute senior fellow John H. Cochrane wrote in Saturday’s The Wall Street Journal: “…there is no better way to stick it to the elites than to vote for the man who drives them most crazy.” 

 

For a conservative like me, these are sad days. This should be a Republican cycle given Mr. Biden’s low polling numbers, our moral decay, and our decline in the eyes of the world. Consider: the Country faces an out-of-control immigration crisis; a war in the Middle East that is spreading; a Russia intent on reclaiming its past empire; a China insistent on controlling the South China Sea and its trade routes; an Iran on the cusp of becoming a nuclear power; overwhelming debt and deficits; the lingering effects of inflation; and a focus on identity that has worsened race relations. There is no question of the fervor of Mr. Trump’s followers, but, as we saw in 2018, 2020, and 2020, he has no coattails. Control of the White House without control of Congress means we tread water. Difficult problems do not get resolved.

 

Predicting the future is a fool’s game, yet as the Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard wrote life must be lived forward. So, using the past as guide we make predictions. As I wrote earlier, I believe there is a chance Mr. Biden will be persuaded to give up his quest. But for Mr. Trump to do likewise is unlikely. If Republicans want a dog fight, they should go with Mr. Trump. But the best shot for Republicans to keep the House, take back the Senate and the White House is to support Nikki Haley in the upcoming primaries. She is Republicans’ best hope for victory, and for America to take back our values, families, schools, and cities.

"It Can Happen Here, But Not for the Reasons You Might Think"

 

Sydney M. Williams

www.swtotd.blogspot.com

 

Thought of the Day

“It Can Happen Here, But Not for the Reasons You Might Think”

January 13. 2022

 

“History balances the frustration of ‘how far we have to go,’ with the satisfaction

of ‘how far we have to come.’ It teaches us tolerance for the human shortcomings

and imperfections, which are not uniquely of our generation, but of all time.”

                                                                                                                Lewis F. Powell, Jr. (1907-1998)

                                                                                                               Associate Justice, Supreme Court, 1971-1987

 

In 1935, while Nazism and Fascism swept across Europe, Sinclair Lewis published a novel, “It Can’t Happen Here.” The story was based on Huey Long, then governor of Louisiana. It tells the story of how “Buzz” Windrip, running on a populist platform and portraying himself as a champion of traditional values, defeats FDR at the Democratic convention and then goes on to win the 1936 election for President. He soon takes complete control of government and, with a paramilitary force, like that of Hitler’s and Mussolini’s, he imposes totalitarian rule.

 

Is Lewis’ story a lesson for today? Despite accusations from Democrats, I suspect the threat to democracy is more likely to emerge from left field. As Gerard Baker put it in Tuesday’s The Wall Street Journal, regarding Democrats’ desire to preserve political power as we head toward the mid-terms: “…the identification of the domestic opposition as a seditious enemy may be their last, best hope of salvaging something.” After a failed start to his Presidency, it is all Mr. Biden has left.

 

There is a natural tendency to look to the past as a guide for dealing with today and tomorrow. Professor George Santayana (1863-1952), in his 1905 book Reason in Common Sense, warned: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Wise advice, but perspective is also needed. Politics is a competitive sport, appealing to many who make it their life’s work. Power, prestige and money are on the line. It was unsurprising when outsider Donald Trump, acting as a populist and portraying himself as a patriot and champion of middle-American values, was deemed a threat to democracy. He was narcissistic and loose with facts, and he fed off the resentment of many middle-Americans toward coastal elitists who dominate Washington’s bureaucracies, especially its intelligence agencies, run universities, manage media and entertainment companies, professional sports, Wall Street and Silicon Valley. But was Trump a threat to our democratic system? I think not. Too many forces were assembled against him.

 

While history teaches us what did happen, it is not a fool-proof forecaster of what is to come. Evil does not always appear in the same guise or enter through the same gate. Threats to democracy can come from other directions. An (unintended?) consequence of today’s schools and colleges emphasis on pedagogy, rather than creating a foundation for students based on the classics, civics, literature and history, is that teachers, professors and administrators have actively censored conservative thought, while they have instilled left-wing propaganda. Democracy is best defended when schools and universities encourage open debate, sprinkled with skepticism while encouraging individual thought. “Blind belief in authority,” wrote Albert Einstein in a 1901 letter, “is the greatest enemy of truth.”

 

Ours is the world’s oldest constitutional democracy. We have lasted because diversity of opinions had been allowed in our schools, colleges and legislative bodies. We remained strong because of the founders’ emphasis on debate and restraint, rather than on mandates and self-indulgence. We became wealthy because free markets rewarded merit, rather than connections. Today, with conformity in and disagreements out, opinions that do not hew to a prescribed agenda are denied. Merit has been replaced with quotas. The use of Executive Orders has surged, with the pandemic as justification, and some Democrats want to kill the filibuster, do away with the Electoral College, pack the Supreme Court and they question the Constitutional requirement that all states, regardless of size, have an equal number of U.S. Senators. In the lexicon of the woke, diversity is defined as race, ethnicity and gender. Equity refers to equivalence in outcomes, not opportunities, and inclusion means racial and gender balance. 

 

Democrat leadership have been telling us that the Republican Party has become radicalized against democracy, yet the ramparts are well-manned against right-wing uprisings – by our Constitution, the military and mainstream media. Instead, real risks to democracy are more subtle. They stem from the growth of the administrative state, where Congress has delegated legislative powers to agencies populated with unelected bureaucrats. Risks are fueled by social media platforms that cancel the accounts of those they dislike and result from military officers who, against convention and rules, side with political parties. Risks come from open borders that let in those who come not for opportunity, but for the freebies the U.S. offers. Risks to democracy come from the erosion of individual rights and from the tribal desire to segregate people by race and gender, and from a growing dependency on the state. It is this doctrinal, religious-like allegiance to woke beliefs that threatens our democracy. And mainstream media is silent.

 

Democracy assumes a belief in the collective wisdom of the people, that they are capable of self-government. The United States has the most diverse population, in terms of race and ethnicities, of any country on Earth, with between 350 and 420 languages spoken. Yet, the country has been a melting pot, as millions of immigrants from myriad backgrounds who came her, learned English, assimilated, intermarried and became Americanized. They emigrated to the U.S. because of the freedom and opportunity to better themselves, not to be compartmentalized by racial, ethnic or sexual identity. While they had pride in their heritages, it was their desire to become proud citizens of the most successful country the world has ever seen that made the United States what it is. This we must preserve if we want to save our democracy. Democracy is not meant to be efficient; it is meant to be fair, to offer opportunity to those willing to make the effort and to reward merit. It is a system where character is more important than race. 

 

President Reagan used to warn about the fragility of democracy – of how it could be lost in a generation. And that remains possible, but I believe our democracy is resilient. It has withstood difficult challenges over the course of its first 233 years – from tax rebellions in its early years, to a Civil War, bank runs, two World Wars, the Depression and an attack on its homeland by Muslim Extremists. But that does not mean we can rest on our laurels. Given the woke orthodoxy of Progressives, we must be vigilant. The foundation of our democracy is a universal liberal public-school education that is open to competition and to all opinions. Democracy demands the freedom and self-reliance of the individual, along with the acknowledgement of his God-given rights – it is a system we should cherish, must never forget and certainly not lose.

"Return from Sabbatical"

 

Sydney M. Williams

 

Thought of the Day

“Return from Sabbatical

April 9, 2021

 

“There is a certain clarity on a high roof…One’s perspective, at that altitude, is unusually good.

Who has the longer view of things, anyway, a prime minister in a closet, or a man on a barn roof?”

                                                                                                                                E.B. White (1895-1985)

                                                                                                                                “Clear Days,” October 1938

                                                                                                                                One Man’s Meat, 1942

 

Three months ago, I wrote what was to be my last Thought of the Day. Two reasons were cited: fear that my voice was (or would become) angry, and the necessity of being able to laugh – to put away the mendacity of political commentary for the joy of life. However, I decided cessation need not be permanent. Sabbaticals are healthy. Hiding is not. Sober words, I have been told, are necessary to keep the lamp of liberty lit. 

 

What is concerning is “Woke” culture: an insistence that “equality” refers to outcomes, not opportunities or equal treatment under the law; the “canceling” of history; the rise of Critical Race Theory, with its unintended consequences; and the dismemberment of our Judeo-Christian heritage, which abandons faith and family. It is not politicians I find disquieting – since time immemorial they have always served their self-interests – it is their enablers in the mainstream media and entertainment industries, in churches, schools, universities and corporate board rooms, including Major League Baseball – except, in the latter, racial and gender diversity does not apply to players, where talent still reigns.

 

Why do we insist public schools for the gifted and talented should reflect race, not ability? Why do elite colleges provide different (read higher) standards for Asians than for blacks, Hispanics and whites? Why do corporations, owned by millions of shareholders – usually indirectly through mutual funds, ETFs or pension plans – not want the most able to sit in their boards? Do they really believe that long-term holders of businesses are not aware of all stakeholders when valuing a business? People are not equal in physical attributes, mental abilities, or aspiration. Why the discrimination? Would you attend an NBA game if the team reflected the City’s racial and gender profile instead of its best basketball players? Do you believe pilots should be selected on the basis of ability, or should they reflect the nation’s racial and/or gender make up? Attempts to make equal what can never be equal is not only insulting; it detracts from the far more important mission of providing equal opportunities for all to succeed, in whatever field they choose. Yesterday’s political correctness has worsened into today’s “Wokeness.”

 

In The Life of Reason, George Santayana wrote, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Today, our past is either ignored or condemned as racist, sexist or homophobic. Yet our Founders, for all their faults, produced a nation that became the envy of people everywhere. People across the globe are freer, richer and safer because of the United States. History is a continuum, a work in progress. One can remove statues or destroy textbooks, but that does not change what happened. To best know the past, we should be made to understand what knowledge and moral principles existed at the time. Of course, mistakes were made, especially when measured against today’s values. In The Island of Doctor Moreau, H.G. Wells wrote: “Man is an imperfect animal.” That is true. There have been times when we slid back. But the forward progress has been remarkable, as anyone who has studied the past 2000 or even 200 years knows.

 

According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, Critical Race Theory (CRT) is based on the idea that race, “instead of being biologically grounded and natural, is a socially constructed concept that is used by white people to further their economic and political interests at the expense of people of colour.” It incorporates “the view that the law and legal institutions are inherently racist…” While the United States was built on optimism, CRT reflects pessimism. It suggests that Martin Luther King’s dream of a world where people will be judged by the content of their character, not the color of their skin, will never be realized. It is a theory demeaning to the people it alleges to help. As Jason Riley asked in a recent Wall Street Journal column: “Why treat the black electorate like helpless children?” As a movement, CRT, with its Marxist view of racial/economic division has extended that distinction to women’s and gender issues. While compartmentalization may make for more focused political campaigns, it is degrading to the individuals it claims to help, discourages social and economic mobility, and it is the principal cause of societal unrest.

 

Perspective is needed. What were common values in pre- and post-Revolutionary times? We know about slavery on these shores, but what about slavery as practiced by African slave traders? What about New England abolitionists? What about the Jim Crow era and Reconstruction? Or the treatment of Irish in the late 19^th Century? What about attitudes toward Jews in the 1930s and ‘40s or blacks in the 1950s? What rules of conduct were generally accepted back then? Have we not improved? Do we really believe that Georgia today is “Jim Crow on steroids,” as some have claimed? Can we not be honest? Should we not judge our forefathers by the standards of their day, rather than by those under which we live? Do we want to be judged by our great-grandchildren based on principles a hundred years hence? Has truth been revealed to those who sanctimoniously attack the failings of our ancestors? Are today’s moral values sufficient for all eternity? Also, how does Western culture compare to other cultures? Has any other culture given individuals more freedom and opportunities to advance, offered more prosperity and happiness than our Judeo-Christian one? Do those who criticize the U.S. stand up against slavery where it exists today, in Africa, the Middle East and Asia? Do they protest human trafficking on our southern border, or the treatment of Uighurs by the Chinese Communist Party? Without a knowledge of the past and without seeing the world through a clear lens, how can we be assured that today’s policies will provide a fairer, richer, more equitable society tomorrow?

 

At bottom, it is freedom that concerns us. We should not be ashamed of our faith, dedication, perseverance, hard work, loyalty, generosity and tolerance, characteristics not confined to one race, but qualities that define us as a people and a nation. By definition, the greater the presence of government in our lives, the less individual freedom we have. On the political spectrum that spans from anarchy to totalitarianism, it is the right balance between government control and individual choice we seek. While political ideologies differ, it is the job of elected representatives to find accommodation. But where are we today? Cancelled history and censorship are practiced in schools, colleges and the workplace. Critical Race Theory, with its neo-Marxist façade, divides people into oppressors and oppressed. It is experienced in government and corporate offices. Where are the open forums at universities that once welcomed dissenting opinions? Where is the once-dispassionate newspaper that still carries as its slogan: “All the News That’s Fit to Print?” 

 

E.B. White wrote an essay in June 1940, titled “Freedom,” which was included in One Man’s Meat. It was at a time when German Nazis, a political party birthed in socialism, had, with the exception of Switzerland and Sweden, conquered mainland Europe. England was vulnerable to invasion. White wrote: “The United States, almost alone today, offers the liberties and the privileges and the tools of freedom. In this land the citizens are still invited to write their plays and books, to paint their pictures, to meet for discussion, to dissent as well as to agree, to mount soapboxes in the public square, to enjoy education in all subjects without censorship, to hold one another, to compose music, to talk politics with their neighbors without wondering whether the secret police are listening, to exchange ideas as well as goods, to kid the government when it needs kidding, and to read real news of real events instead of phony news manufactured by a paid agent of the state.” How far we have strayed from that ideal. We must be a nation where such freedoms are encouraged, else the democratic Republic, formed in the crucible of the post-American Revolution, will no longer exist. Talent knows no bounds Whether intellectual, creative or physical, it is not limited by race, sex, gender or ethnicity. A fair society encourages talent wherever and whenever it appears.

 

About fifteen years ago, I started writing Thoughts of the Day. Initially, they were brief comments on markets and came out every day. In time, they morphed into longer, political commentary, with reduced frequency. The past three months have shown me that by avoiding televised news and spending more time reading for pleasure, one may gain clarity without having to climb onto a barn roof. Those of us who like to comment should spend more time in reflection and less time listening to bloviating blowhards on TV. Going forward, I make no promises other than to write whenever events move me. It is likely to be issues rather than personalities that attract my attention.