Tuesday, July 03, 2007
Another reason to celebrate the Fourth
I think it's safe to say that Howard Zinn, who's long been admired by left-wing nutbuckets the world 'round, won't be celebrating the Fourth of July in any traditional sense.
Steven Hayward - who penned one of my favorite books, the magisterial Age of Reagan, 1964-1980: The Fall of the Old Liberal Order - found this Howard Zinn gem (try saying that ten times really fast) at the Progressive Media Project's Web site:
"Is not nationalism -- that devotion to a flag, an anthem, a boundary so fierce it engenders mass murder -- one of the great evils of our time, along with racism, along with religious hatred? National spirit can be benign in a country that is small and lacking both in military power and a hunger for expansion (Switzerland, Norway, Costa Rica and many more). But in a nation like ours -- huge, possessing thousands of weapons of mass destruction -- what might have been harmless pride becomes an arrogant nationalism dangerous to others and to ourselves."
Hayward then quotes from James Burnham’s Suicide of the West about why liberals hate patriotism:
"The rise of liberalism to predominance in the controlling sectors of American opinion is in almost exact correlation with the decline in the ceremonial celebration of the Fourth of July, traditionally regarded as the nation’s major holiday. To the liberal mind, the patrioic oratory is not only banal but subversive of rational ideals; and judged by liberalism’s humanitarian morality, the enthusiasm and pleasures that simple souls might have got from the fireworks could not compensate the occasional damage to the eye or finger of an unwary youngster. The purer liberals of the Norman Cousins strain, in the tradition of Eleanor Roosevelt, are more likely to celebrate UN Day than the Fourth of July."
Go ahead, folks, and celebrate the Fourth by flying Old Glory ... and keep in mind that you're giving Howard Zinn-style leftists a hearty f-you when you do.
Steven Hayward - who penned one of my favorite books, the magisterial Age of Reagan, 1964-1980: The Fall of the Old Liberal Order - found this Howard Zinn gem (try saying that ten times really fast) at the Progressive Media Project's Web site:
"Is not nationalism -- that devotion to a flag, an anthem, a boundary so fierce it engenders mass murder -- one of the great evils of our time, along with racism, along with religious hatred? National spirit can be benign in a country that is small and lacking both in military power and a hunger for expansion (Switzerland, Norway, Costa Rica and many more). But in a nation like ours -- huge, possessing thousands of weapons of mass destruction -- what might have been harmless pride becomes an arrogant nationalism dangerous to others and to ourselves."
Hayward then quotes from James Burnham’s Suicide of the West about why liberals hate patriotism:
"The rise of liberalism to predominance in the controlling sectors of American opinion is in almost exact correlation with the decline in the ceremonial celebration of the Fourth of July, traditionally regarded as the nation’s major holiday. To the liberal mind, the patrioic oratory is not only banal but subversive of rational ideals; and judged by liberalism’s humanitarian morality, the enthusiasm and pleasures that simple souls might have got from the fireworks could not compensate the occasional damage to the eye or finger of an unwary youngster. The purer liberals of the Norman Cousins strain, in the tradition of Eleanor Roosevelt, are more likely to celebrate UN Day than the Fourth of July."
Go ahead, folks, and celebrate the Fourth by flying Old Glory ... and keep in mind that you're giving Howard Zinn-style leftists a hearty f-you when you do.
# posted by Joltin' Django @ Tuesday, July 03, 2007 
