As the saying goes, "pride goeth before the fall.
" I think most of us would agree that as far as economic issues go, we're tumbling.
Peggy Noonan, a very respected journalist with the Wall Street Journal wrote on Oct 30: "When I see those in government, both locally and in Washington, spend and tax and come up each day with new ways to spend and tax-health care, cap and trade, etc.
-I think: Why aren't they worried about the impact of what they're doing? Why do they think America is so strong it can take endless abuse? I think I know part of the answer.
It is that they've never seen things go dark.
They came of age during the great abundance, circa 1980-2008 (or 1950-2008, take your pick), and they don't have the habit of worry.
They talk about their "concerns"-they're big on that word.
But they're not really concerned.
They think America is the goose that lays the golden egg.
Why not? She laid it in their laps.
She laid it in grandpa's lap.
They don't feel anxious, because they never had anything to be anxious about.
They grew up in an America surrounded by phrases-"strongest nation in the world," "indispensable nation," "unipolar power," "highest standard of living"-and are not bright enough, or serious enough, to imagine that they can damage that, hurt it, even fatally.
We are governed at all levels by America's luckiest children, sons and daughters of the abundance, and they call themselves optimists but they're not optimists-they're unimaginative.
They don't have faith, they've just never been foreclosed on.
They are stupid and they are callous, and they don't mind it when people become disheartened.
They don't even notice.
" I never imagined when I began my novel, The Last Waltz, in my twenties that when I reached my sixties and finally published it, that it would be news to anyone.
But, from the standpoint of Ms.
Noonan, I can see that it is extremely important for people to read or at least be informed of the history it contains.
The Austrian Empire had existed much longer than America has.
For half a millennium it had been the largest empire in Europe.
It had the pageantry and the ingrained tradition and rigid class structure to prove it.
At the time of the First World War, it was the center of European art, music, science, medicine, and architecture.
There was no hint that it would "grow dark" in a few short years, after the most brutal war in European history.
Now, the what is left of Austria is the size of Maine, and the rising generation has absolutely no idea of what the Austrian Empire once was.
When I was in college in the 'sixties, people knew about Austria's past.
Just last night, I was involved in a podcast during which we discussed my book.
Not one of the women interviewing me had ever even heard of the Austrian Empire before they read The Last Waltz.
In connection with what I read by Ms.
Noonan, this was very disheartening.
I don't bring this up to depress people, but to emphasize how important the lessons of history are.
Before it "grows dark" in our nation, we must understand what has made it great in the first place, and rekindle those virtues.
We are not invincible.