Katherine

by Katherine

The writer I feel like quoting in my belated Fourth of July post isn’t Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson, Douglass, or King. It’s an aristocratic, 19th century Russian socialist who never set foot in America:

I don’t like prophesying. The future does not exist; it is created by the combination of a thousand causes, some necessary, some accidental, plus human will, which adds unexpected dramatic denouements and coups de theatre. History improvises, she rarely repeats herself…she uses every chance, ever coincidence, she knocks simultaneously at a thousand gates…Who knows which may open?….

[T]here is no libretto. If there were a libretto, history would lose all interest….all is improvisation, all is will, all is ex tempore; there are no frontiers, no itineraries. There exist conditions, sacred discontent; the flame of life and the eternal challenge to the fighters to try their strength, to go where they will, where there is a road; and where there is none, genius will blast a path.  –Alexander Herzen, From The Other Shore

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by Katherine

Ezra Klein’s essay on ‘American values’ reminded me of a famous quotation from Ernest Hemingway, in A Farewell to Arms:

There were many words that you could not stand to hear and finally only the names of places had dignity. Certain numbers were the same way and certain dates and these with the name of the places were all you could say and have them mean anything.

Abstract words such as glory, honour, courage, or hallow were obscene beside the concrete names of villages, the numbers of roads, the names of rivers, the numbers of regiments and the dates.

I know exactly what he means. Watch:

America’s vital interests and our deepest beliefs are now one. From the day of our Founding, we have proclaimed that every man and woman on this earth has rights, and dignity, and matchless value, because they bear the image of the Maker of Heaven and earth. Across the generations we have proclaimed the imperative of self-government, because no one is fit to be a master, and no one deserves to be a slave. Advancing these ideals is the mission that created our Nation. It is the honorable achievement of our fathers. Now it is the urgent requirement of our nation’s security, and the calling of our time.

So it is the policy of the United States to seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world….

Our country has accepted obligations that are difficult to fulfill, and would be dishonorable to abandon. Yet because we have acted in the great liberating tradition of this nation, tens of millions have achieved their freedom. And as hope kindles hope, millions more will find it. By our efforts, we have lit a fire as well – a fire in the minds of men. It warms those who feel its power, it burns those who fight its progress, and one day this untamed fire of freedom will reach the darkest corners of our world. — President George W. Bush, Second Inaugural Address.

Abu Ghraib. Guantanamo. Haditha. Bagram. The Salt Pit. The Dark Prison. The Kandahar Airport. The Palestine Branch. Masra Torah. Camp NAMA. FOB Mercury. FOB Tiger. Camp Diamondback and Camp Glory. The Tigris River. Balad. Dover Air Force Base. Walter Reed Army Medical Center. A trailer near the Baghdad Airport. New Prague, Minnesota. Baghdad. Baghdad. Baghdad. Baghdad. Baghdad. Baghdad.  Baghdad. Baghdad.

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