Fischer on American Culture

From The Claremont Review of Books of Claude S. Fischer's "Made in America":

As this summary implies, Fischer has very little use for narratives of decline or nostalgia about the past. He frequently enjoins the reader to be careful in distinguishing actual cultural change from changes in the ways intellectuals talk about culture, a skepticism that seems to me entirely prudent and well-justified. But neither is he a Pollyanna for whom everything is steadily getting better in every way, and the only ones doing the complaining are the toad-like "enemies of the future." He acknowledges the possibility of profoundly ironic results arising even out of the most straightforward and incontestable of improvements, such as the progress made in rendering our lives more predictable and less precarious.

To make this last point vivid, he cites the example of Abraham Lincoln, "the most powerful man in the Western Hemisphere" in early 1865—and yet a man who had lost his grandfather (killed by Indians), lost his mother when he was ten, lost his older sister when 19, lost his special friend Ann Rutledge to typhoid, buried two of his four sons before they were 12, and a third at 18—not to mention having an emotionally unstable wife, suffering from depression himself, and coming to a violent end. Lincoln's entire life was enveloped in a sense of fragility and danger that we would find almost inconceivable today. And yet, Fischer acknowledges, our much greater security today has not translated into an equivalent loss of anxiety. As he observes, it may be that "reducing the mundane risks of life made the remaining risks or emerging ones more fearsome."

Limiting Governmental Power

And speaking of freedom and governmental power, notice the way a panel responds to George Will's question of whether Congress would have the power to mandate that obese Americans enroll in WeightWatchers. Wow.

[HT: Instapundit.com]

Independence Day: Would You Have Signed?

I wrote this several years ago and post it each 4th of July:

The document is on the table.

Although some of your colleagues are making jokes, each one knows that the signature places the signer's head in a hangman's noose. To sign means you will be regarded as a traitor by the nation that has held your loyalty since birth. Your livelihood may be destroyed and your family doomed to a life of isolation and poverty. Many of your friends and associates will be under suspicion. Others will shun you. Your side, which has feeble and poorly-trained forces, will be fighting the greatest military power in the world. Despite all of the grand talk, the odds of success are small. Even if your side is successful, your new nation will be vulnerable to internal disputes and attacks from predatory powers. This theory of self-government, however attractive, might not work.

It's your turn. Will you sign?

Quote of the Day

It may be laid as a universal rule that a government which attempts more than it ought will perform less.

- Thomas Babington Macaulay

Rhapsody in Blue: An Experiment in Modern Music

It may be difficult to read the story behind Rhapsody in Blue without wondering what it was like to be in the audience for its first performance in 1924.

Leonard Bernstein conducts and plays:

Part One

Part Two

Miscellaneous and Fast

Worth a look: Michael J. Totten on his Just Journalism interview.
FutureLawyer on the perils of posting on Facebook.
Anderson Layman's Blog discusses Eaters and Bakers.
Mona Charen on the marriage debate.
"The Stunt Man": The trailer.

Inspiration

At Eclecticity: Another classic Calvin & Hobbes.

"We Cannot Escape History."

Semper Fi: The United States Marine Band and Lincoln historian Allen Guelzo with Aaron Copland's "Lincoln Portrait."

Freedom

Cultural Offering has an excellent collection of thoughts on freedom.

Hit the Beach

Cell phone off. Comfortable clothes. No e-mail. No deadlines. Nothing heavy to lift or read. At least one day a month to de-compress and have something called "fun." You remember that, don't you?