The Hoover Dam
We went and saw the Hoover dam yesterday. It's really quite amazing- built in four years during the Great Depression. It was about pulling together, brilliance of engineering, and a national agenda that pushed forward such mind blowing projects.
Here's my question- if we, as a country, could do it then, why can't we do it now?
Here's my question- if we, as a country, could do it then, why can't we do it now?
posted by Sara at 9:56 AM
7 Comments:
Today, too many individuals only wish to imbibe in "pulling together" if there is something directly in it for them. Our American society as a whole has become so narccistic they do not understand the term "cause and effect" or "indirect payback". We first practiced this on our wildlife and environment; and now, we are aniliated ourselves out of fear and greed.
lots of reasons, I've heard. we have too many regulations now, need too many permissions just to start. too much chance of liability. they've also said that there's no way we could repeat the Apollo program again.
it's really kind of sad - it's like we're some sort of crippled, aged country, unable to do things like we used to do in our youth.
Changes in American society. People use to have class, charisma and genuine concern for each other. Nowadays most people are greedy, spoiled, sue-happy, lazy and would throw you end the bus for a nickel.
Great question. About 25 years ago, before the USSR tore down the Berlin wall, I read something that said neither communism nor capitalism was the answer but to my great relief, capitalism was closer to it than communism. What was implied however, was that values from each ideology was right formula.
In a conversation with the brightest person I've ever personally known, we debated this. We came to the conclusion (I, more reluctantly than he) that capitalism would falter too, we just didn't know when.
Well it seems that "when" has arrived for many of the reasons stated in the previous comments Fear. Greed(WIIFM - what's in it for me?). Ego.
I hold that we can find it within us again to find our best selves and evolve out of this disastrous period but I suspect that things still need to get worse before they get better. And I think it will take a long, long time.
I don't want to be pessimistic but this is my hunch. I trust that we will witness stories of inspiration like what took place these past two weeks at Beth Israel Deaconness hospital. The sooner we can build upon examples like these, the better.
When AIG helped bail out Goldman Sachs, Goldman Sachs started shorting AIG.
Capitalism will eat itself as soon as the MSM hucksters ignore the stupid bonuses and say the magic word: "stockholders." That's the word that breaks the spell.
Back to the important stuff: are you having fun? Did you find the statue of Moe Green?
My older son called to say my nieces in law are getting confirmed, and he wants some help rubbing out the heads of the Five Families.
I hope we will. I hope this direction [Obama] leads us towards even more mind-blowing, hard-working, American feats of perseverance.
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