You know, I was wondering to myself today if it’s just because I’ve been a fan of yours for a long time that my mind doesn’t wonder when I read your writing. All of your points seem to lead inevitably to your conclusion.
I suspect the stats around coffee versus tea consumption would be similar here in New Zealand and also Australia, even though we’re more British, and we didn’t have any tea party. That’s because of the post war flood of Italian immigrants into Australia (my grandmother being one), who knew how to make decent coffee, unlike most British and Americans.
Having Italians make coffee for you would definitely have an impact. The dark days of American coffee drinking in the middle of the 20th Century were sharply turned around by the rise of Italian-style espresso coffee shops in the 1990s.
I'm wondering though, if the debate around whether America is an 'idea' or whether it's a set of concrete practices and traditions is a false dichotomy. In a similar way to whether history is moved by ideas (top down) or by concrete events and individual behaviour (bottom up) is a false dichotomy. Can't we just say they're both symbiotic and reinforce each other? An idea without concrete application is a floating abstraction, and a concrete practice that develops independent of any ideas is directionless or destructive. In that sense, perhaps inadvertently, is JD Vance correct when he said "America is not 'just' an idea"?
Maybe it is just the contrarian in me, I mean distinction a distinction without a difference, but to Witt, America was founded on a belief, not an idea. Like the Band of Blood Brothers decreed in the earth shattering Declaration of [War!] Independence, the Holy Trinity of unalienable rights is self evident.
But i gotta tell you Robert, just as I have always hated and thought Rich Lowery and that now Frrr Carlson where the kids on the bus that sat up front to be good little boys, with signed copies of the preppy handbook under their arms…and as I have always been bothered that W.F.B. chose [his fellow Christian] Richie Rich to be his heir apparent over the far superior intellectual and hilarious genius Jonah…to call his speech to his fellow dweebs at the rat con convention “awful” is without the substance..just admit it, like Witt, you don’t like the guy either. 🤪✌️🍺. Gotta run on. Thanks for taking my rant An Atheist that still reads The Holy Bible. Peace through superior mental firepower
P.S. One of the many reasons I shudder to think of what has become of National Review is Ashli Babbitt still cannot be reached for comment and Trump is still a freeman.
Thanks so much for writing this. You once again addressed one of my concerns in this dark time. This "Blood and Soil" mentality seems like part of the simplistic "Tough-Guyism" we see in half the country. Vance really upset me with his statement that America is not an idea. Why would you go out of your way to say that? What scares me about him is that he's intellectually smarter than Trump--smart enough to encapsulate Tough-Guyism into an actual philosophy. The type of pablum that the masses can be spoon fed. He is the Saruman to Trump's Sauron. :-) (Geek alert!) I used to think of Trump as a possible Aaron Burr (or Mussollini, Hitler, Mao, Stalin, etc.). But Burr was way smarter than Trump. Now I guess Trump is more like Stalin in my mind and Vance is like Aaron Burr. :-) Very nice piece.
They don't even know that it is there own 'ideas' about tradition, the past and how they 'think' people should live that drive them to their own positions. We are human beings, so ideas are all we've got to deal with reality. It behooves us to come up with the best ones we can to deal with that reality.
You know, I was wondering to myself today if it’s just because I’ve been a fan of yours for a long time that my mind doesn’t wonder when I read your writing. All of your points seem to lead inevitably to your conclusion.
Thanks! I have worked very hard over the years specifically to achieve that kind of result.
Ack! that should be wander not wonder
I suspect the stats around coffee versus tea consumption would be similar here in New Zealand and also Australia, even though we’re more British, and we didn’t have any tea party. That’s because of the post war flood of Italian immigrants into Australia (my grandmother being one), who knew how to make decent coffee, unlike most British and Americans.
Having Italians make coffee for you would definitely have an impact. The dark days of American coffee drinking in the middle of the 20th Century were sharply turned around by the rise of Italian-style espresso coffee shops in the 1990s.
I'm wondering though, if the debate around whether America is an 'idea' or whether it's a set of concrete practices and traditions is a false dichotomy. In a similar way to whether history is moved by ideas (top down) or by concrete events and individual behaviour (bottom up) is a false dichotomy. Can't we just say they're both symbiotic and reinforce each other? An idea without concrete application is a floating abstraction, and a concrete practice that develops independent of any ideas is directionless or destructive. In that sense, perhaps inadvertently, is JD Vance correct when he said "America is not 'just' an idea"?
Maybe it is just the contrarian in me, I mean distinction a distinction without a difference, but to Witt, America was founded on a belief, not an idea. Like the Band of Blood Brothers decreed in the earth shattering Declaration of [War!] Independence, the Holy Trinity of unalienable rights is self evident.
But i gotta tell you Robert, just as I have always hated and thought Rich Lowery and that now Frrr Carlson where the kids on the bus that sat up front to be good little boys, with signed copies of the preppy handbook under their arms…and as I have always been bothered that W.F.B. chose [his fellow Christian] Richie Rich to be his heir apparent over the far superior intellectual and hilarious genius Jonah…to call his speech to his fellow dweebs at the rat con convention “awful” is without the substance..just admit it, like Witt, you don’t like the guy either. 🤪✌️🍺. Gotta run on. Thanks for taking my rant An Atheist that still reads The Holy Bible. Peace through superior mental firepower
P.S. One of the many reasons I shudder to think of what has become of National Review is Ashli Babbitt still cannot be reached for comment and Trump is still a freeman.
Thanks so much for writing this. You once again addressed one of my concerns in this dark time. This "Blood and Soil" mentality seems like part of the simplistic "Tough-Guyism" we see in half the country. Vance really upset me with his statement that America is not an idea. Why would you go out of your way to say that? What scares me about him is that he's intellectually smarter than Trump--smart enough to encapsulate Tough-Guyism into an actual philosophy. The type of pablum that the masses can be spoon fed. He is the Saruman to Trump's Sauron. :-) (Geek alert!) I used to think of Trump as a possible Aaron Burr (or Mussollini, Hitler, Mao, Stalin, etc.). But Burr was way smarter than Trump. Now I guess Trump is more like Stalin in my mind and Vance is like Aaron Burr. :-) Very nice piece.
They don't even know that it is there own 'ideas' about tradition, the past and how they 'think' people should live that drive them to their own positions. We are human beings, so ideas are all we've got to deal with reality. It behooves us to come up with the best ones we can to deal with that reality.