I came across this reference in an interview of Ken Burns, who has made the excellent oral history on WWII: http://www.bu.edu/washjocenter/newswire_pg/fall2006/nh/Burnsstory.htm Looking up the original Lincoln speech, it seems almost prophetic.
It's true, we can't be defeated by an external enemy, only by ourselves, from within by abandoning the principles of our founding documents.
Suicide. Losing your life by your own free action. I forget who it was that said the greatest enemy America faces is within. Lincoln's speech says something to that effect. America will last long as people are willing to fight for it. There are also the indirect methods of self-destruction. Willful ignorance, unhealthy consumption, giving no value to life...
Sure it is. Sam hates America and Americans, so anything that says even the slightest thing bad about either, he/she will post it and hope for sympathetic views to justify her own hatred. Baron Max
Lincoln and many contemporaries over-estimated the value of Nationalism. All things come to an end. Mostly I think he just forsaw that no foreign nation would be able to contend with the U.S, because of individual freedoms it allowed companied by the ability to be self-sufficient. Only another civilwar or internal strife could bring it down. Well he is probably right. Geographically alone, it is an easy guess.
It means that Lincoln had a crystal ball and could see into the future, and see all that could possibly happen to the USA ....and so he wrote his speech to warn the USA about Iran, Iraq, Muslims, Afghanistanis, Taliban, al-Queda, ......., and all of the things that's happening to us today. Damn, his crystal ball was pretty good, huh? Why didn't he give it to the next president so he could see so perfectly into the future? Baron Max
That's right, he did warn us about abandoning our principles out of fear, such as what occurred with the Patriot Act, warrantless wiretapping, rendition and torture, robbing citizens of rights by declaring them an "enemy combatant", etc...
And yet, during the Civil War, Lincoln and his war cabinet and his generals did far, far worse to the people of the south, didn't he? Baron Max
There is great fear here, S.A.M. These American neighbors of mine are not alone. There are many who would rather give over to our national suicide, that they might blame it on our neighbors abroad. I picked up a copy of American Libre this weekend. Author Raul Ramos y Sanchez took pains to craft conflict vectors within and between characters, and between characters and situations. As Ramos y Sanchez has noted: What tears apart the nation in Ramos' nightmare novel are, essentially, a series of unfortunate events and the responses thereunto. Those responses, instead of being crafted of wisdom and justice, were instead put forth for convenience and political ambition. And this is the central danger, that we Americans have become so resentful of the burdens of liberty that we would give them up. What we Americans have demands a daily price, and for some reason many Americans have convinced themselves that the toll should be paid exclusively by others.
tiassa: Could you perhaps explain this concept of Ken Burns? I'm not sure I understand how he connects this observation to Lincoln's quote
He's speaking of the well known American trait of rugged (and stubborn) individualism and self-reliance. It applies as well to the nation as a whole. Do we, as individuals, tend to act as a cohesive team? Do we, as a nation among nations tend to support a cohesive whole? No, you say? I think you're right. We don't. And in so doing (or not doing) we will surely invoke the wrath of groups within our own borders and without, thus committing mindless, unintentional national suicide. Fuck. Now I'm depressed.
