When does a powerful nation lose its spirit?
And after a country’s sense of self goes adrift, can it be recovered?
In the twentieth century, the gold standard of drift followed by recovery was Great Britain.
More than 700,000 British soldiers were killed during WWI, roughly ten percent of all who served.
Following the Treaty of Versailles, the British thought they had put war behind them. Certainly, when Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain signed the Munich Agreement in 1938, it seemed to signify that Great Britain had lost its grit.
Far from it, as Winston Churchill firmly demonstrated. The government was in disarray when he became the prime minister in 1940.
Yet such was the underlying spirit of the people that there was scant fuss when over thirty million gas masks were distributed to protect against an expected barrage of poison gas bombs, as had happened in the trenches a scant two decades earlier.
Churchill’s rhetoric reflected his determined spirit: “We shall not fail or falter; we shall not weaken or tire.” The English people responded. During the blitz of 1941, 29,000 citizens of London were killed. The historian Erik Larson referred to “the ambient courage of London” that Londoners showed during that carnage.
And what of the ambient courage of Washington?
In his address to Congress, Joe Biden said, “the most lethal terrorist threat to the homeland today is from white supremacist terrorism.”
Hmm. Somehow the FBI is not arresting or shooting it out daily with those terrorists and the mainstream press is not reporting terrorist acts.
Our country’s sense of self has gone adrift.
https://www.hoover.org/research/drift
And after a country’s sense of self goes adrift, can it be recovered?
In the twentieth century, the gold standard of drift followed by recovery was Great Britain.
More than 700,000 British soldiers were killed during WWI, roughly ten percent of all who served.
Following the Treaty of Versailles, the British thought they had put war behind them. Certainly, when Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain signed the Munich Agreement in 1938, it seemed to signify that Great Britain had lost its grit.
Far from it, as Winston Churchill firmly demonstrated. The government was in disarray when he became the prime minister in 1940.
Yet such was the underlying spirit of the people that there was scant fuss when over thirty million gas masks were distributed to protect against an expected barrage of poison gas bombs, as had happened in the trenches a scant two decades earlier.
Churchill’s rhetoric reflected his determined spirit: “We shall not fail or falter; we shall not weaken or tire.” The English people responded. During the blitz of 1941, 29,000 citizens of London were killed. The historian Erik Larson referred to “the ambient courage of London” that Londoners showed during that carnage.
And what of the ambient courage of Washington?
In his address to Congress, Joe Biden said, “the most lethal terrorist threat to the homeland today is from white supremacist terrorism.”
Hmm. Somehow the FBI is not arresting or shooting it out daily with those terrorists and the mainstream press is not reporting terrorist acts.
Our country’s sense of self has gone adrift.
https://www.hoover.org/research/drift
