Cultural Suicide Is Painless
American Greatness,
by
Victor Davis Hanson
Original Article
Posted By: earlybird,
8/31/2020 12:57:52 PM
In February, New York was the world’s most dynamic metropolis. By August, the city was more like the ruins of Ephesus. It is not all that hard to blow up a culture. You can do it in a summer if you haven’t much worry about others.
When you loot and burn a Target in an hour, it takes months to realize there are no more neighborhood Target-stocked groceries, toilet paper, and Advil to buy this winter.
You can in a night assault the police, spit at them, hope to infect them with the coronavirus, and even burn them alive. But when you call 911 in a few weeks after your car is
Reply 1 - Posted by:
earlybird 8/31/2020 12:59:16 PM (No. 527025)
Ah, but no it seems Kenosha is full of invaders bussed in from Chicago, and driven in from Minnesota (cars seen parked there in multiples). So, instead of fouled nests we have civil war.
19 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
bad-hair 8/31/2020 1:02:41 PM (No. 527030)
I swear to God from here in Texas I feel like I'm outside looking in AND IT HURTS.
At least I'm outside. God Bless the USA and MAGA.
26 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
bad-hair 8/31/2020 1:14:38 PM (No. 527042)
Sorry for the double but this might be the best that VDH has ever written.
43 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
Maggie2u 8/31/2020 1:31:55 PM (No. 527055)
One of his best, scariest, articles.
FTA...'To venture into San Francisco is to return in a time machine to 1855, a boomtown based on silicon chips, not gold dust, but one likewise lawless, fetid, and safe only for those with private security guards.'
And in 1855, no one would deny ANYONE the right to carry arms to defend themselves, unlike today those who do have security guards are demanding that we lose that right.
26 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
foxglove 8/31/2020 1:38:17 PM (No. 527058)
Excellent thinking and writing as always VDH. It is very sad to know this is what we have come. Miles from “content of character” to “you didn’t build that”. The only way out is to value freedom and live truly principled lives. I hope it isn’t too late.
20 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
seamusm 8/31/2020 1:40:44 PM (No. 527061)
I'd ordinarily have some sympathy for the innocent. But NY and NYC voters are directly responsible for electing Dem party hacks and so I will not shed a single tear except for those families who have lost loved ones. Personal responsibility means even most of those poor families should point their fingers at themselves - and vote DIFFERENTLY next time.
24 people like this.
FTA, "The NBA, we are told, is a woke industry.
But it’s also the strangest, most nondiverse, right-wing, money-obsessed woke institution in America. More than three-quarters of the multimillionaire players are African-American. Over 90 percent of the billionaire team owners are white."
NBA is right-wing? I don't think so, VDH.
15 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
DVC 8/31/2020 2:18:56 PM (No. 527090)
NYC going down doesn't concern me in the least. Sorry.
11 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
Strike3 8/31/2020 2:22:04 PM (No. 527093)
VDH is right on target, using especially heavy ordinance on Professional Sports Goons and our failing institutions of higher learning. The representatives of each of these institutions blew it big time. The stupidity of the rioters who burned their own neighborhoods was expected and they have set themselves back by decades. How is that diversity thing looking now? How far do you have to walk now for your next Big Mac or chicken dinner? We out here in flyover country may sympathize a little but mostly we just shake our heads.
14 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
Harriwolf 8/31/2020 2:28:03 PM (No. 527100)
In mentioning the lawlessness in San Francisco in 1855, is VDH dropping a hint that Committees of Vigilance need to be established to deal with the problem as San Francisco citizens did in the 1850's??
8 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
Jesuslover54 8/31/2020 2:39:51 PM (No. 527109)
I pray to G-d that for once VDH is wrong.
3 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
YorkieMom 8/31/2020 2:39:52 PM (No. 527110)
VDH is head and shoulders above everyone else in commentary. I try to read everything he writes, and I love hearing him speak when he’s on TV. If only liberals were smart enough to read and understand his words, but that will never happen.
18 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
DVC 8/31/2020 3:11:10 PM (No. 527134)
I have been quite interested in Roman architecture and engineering for decades, since I lived in Italy in the 60s and 70s. Many times I have visited Rome and her ruins, and each time learning more and more about the culture, people, building methods, and the amazing skills that the Romans had. Today you can literally walk on the same large basalt paving stones trod by Julius Caesar, and stand on the spot where Brutus and the others stabbed him to death, a one minute stroll from the front of their Senate building.
And all of it is gone, ruined, collapsed internally. It could happen again, and the fools in charge on the leftist side cannot grasp what they are breaking.
A great little point (among many) from the excellent commentary:
"Nondiverse multimillionaires, working for even less diverse billionaires, finger-pointing at middle-class Americans on the evils of privilege, in the pay of the Chinese Communist Party, is not a way to win back fans."
Yeah, pro sports is pretty much dead.
21 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
clipped wings 8/31/2020 4:15:54 PM (No. 527188)
A great, articulate and grim assessment of today's society in the US. As a former professional soldier I sometimes wondered about how the men of the Roman Legions dealt with the crumbling of their empire. How did they cope with the loss of what they had shed their blood to build. I fear that I may be watching a similar deterioration.
I fear for my sons and even more for my grandsons.
VDH has given us a glimpse into the ruin that greedy, selfish politicians are willing to inflict on our beautiful country in order to gain power.
Yes, professional sports is in a self inflicted state of continuous ruin. One can only marvel at the ignorance of athletes, coaches and owners who callously disregard or openly mock the crowds whose adulation—and dollars—gave them their wealth.
VDH is always worth reading, but this essay is at the pinnacle of his prophetic writing.
8 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
mean Gene 8/31/2020 4:17:30 PM (No. 527189)
I know it's mostly a niche sport, but boxing has avoided all this liberal garbage.
There might be a fighter sporting a robe or shirt with a saying on it, but those come off before the 1st round begins.
My dad loved boxing and it's growing on me.
Plus, I'm getting pointers!
3 people like this.
Well, I guess this quarantine caused us to make our own bread and wean us off the circuses of pro sports.
8 people like this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
moonlightflip 8/31/2020 4:49:34 PM (No. 527219)
Another VDH masterpiece! And alarming...particularly for those of us with children and grand-children. Hell, for anyone with younger loved ones!
5 people like this.
Reply 18 - Posted by:
LonestarM3 8/31/2020 6:07:31 PM (No. 527292)
VDH is again proven the most eloquent commentator out there.
This article would be a fitting funeral oration at the deserved demise of all cities whose residents have
elected Democrat governments for decades.
This November we will learn if the rest of the nation has more sense. If not, perhaps the last few lines of
Kipling's "City of Brass" will be an appropriate epitaph:
.........
The eaters of other men’s bread, the exempted from hardship,
The excusers of impotence fled, abdicating their wardship,
For the hate they had taught through the State brought the State no defender,
And it passed from the roll of the Nations in headlong surrender!
..........
Personally, I believe the overwhelming majority of Americans "hyphenated or not" will vote for freedom over socialism.
6 people like this.
Reply 19 - Posted by:
caljeepgirl 8/31/2020 6:54:35 PM (No. 527332)
I've observed that poor VDH has been pretty depressed lately, and it's not hard to understand why. Anyone steeped in history (as he is) most certainly would be.
4 people like this.
Reply 20 - Posted by:
DVC 8/31/2020 7:01:43 PM (No. 527342)
It's a great poem, #18, but I think Kipling had a time machine.....
They said: “Who has hate in his soul? Who has envied his neighbour?
Let him arise and control both that man and his labour.”
They said: “Who is eaten by sloth? Whose unthrift has destroyed him?
He shall levy a tribute from all because none have employed him.”
They said: “Who hath toiled, who hath striven, and gathered possession?
Let him be spoiled. He hath given full proof of transgression.”
They said: “Who is irked by the Law? Though we may not remove it.
If he lend us his aid in this raid, we will set him above it!
So the robber did judgment again upon such as displeased him,
The slayer, too, boasted his slain, and the judges released him.
Yep, I think he could see where we are now.
2 people like this.
Reply 21 - Posted by:
Lawsy0 8/31/2020 8:08:30 PM (No. 527391)
I enjoy VDH's writings and appearances much much more than I would have enjoyed another year and a half of college. I call it getting my degree a page at a time.
5 people like this.
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