Wednesday, May 14, 2008

The Answer Is Blowing In The Wind

Posted by Zach in News

Churchill, the man whom Mark Helprin considers the reincarnation of King Arthur, was a scrapper. He was sort of a British version of Teddy Roosevelt. As the fencing champion of his school, a formidable polo player, and a descendent of Iroquois Indians, Churchill’s vision of the world glowed with the phosphorescence of conflict. More precisely, his outlook was preoccupied with the necessity to choose the right side and to fight bravely. As he said, “…never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never-in nothing, great or small, large or petty - never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.”

The other day the wind blew severely. It made the leaves on the trees boil and caused a sizzling sound to emanate from all the greenery. Like a frame that sets off a picture, the wind pressed upon the world in such a way as to reveal it’s form and spirit. I was reminded of Mr. Churchill’s words, “Kites rise highest against the wind, not with it.” Some things look much the same in the wind as out of it, but some things, like a general with a cape, a girl with long hair, or a nation’s flag, display such majesty in the wind so as to invoke astonishment. To merely exist in a gale is an act of resistance–an exertion of the will in defiance of the elements. It is the hero’s task.

Opposition chisels us. It defines us. It exposes our character and sharpens our purpose. I’ve recently been working on some videos for a client. Some of the research touches on national and household debt, and of course I’ve come across those statistics that threaten to make one despair. Statistics that say the government has made social security and medicare promises that set the public burden at $400,000 per household. Due to compounding interest, irresponsible attitudes toward debt, and a congress that sees government spending as the quickest route toward re-election, our interest payments on the national debt will consume the nation’s entire Gross Domestic Product by the year 2040. Think tanks who don’t agree on anything else (Heritage Foundation and the Brookings Institute) agree on our fiscal crisis. Days like these make us long for a public leader like Churchill. Instead we’re treated to Presidential candidates across the board that will increase government spending and raise the public debt. But don’t despair. We’re Americans. We’ve gotten out of tighter spots than this, and we’ve payed off debt that hasn’t been quite as much money, but it has been a greater share of our GDP. Crying out loud, we survived the Carter Administration, put a man on the moon, and invented the light bulb!

During WWII when Churchill visited Harrow, his prep-school alma-mater, he heard an additional verse to one of the traditional songs. It began,

“Not less we praise in darker days
The leader of our nation,
And Churchill’s name shall win acclaim
From each new generation.”

When he visited the following year he said:

“You sang here a verse of a School Song: you sang that extra verse written in my honour, which I was very greatly complimented by and which you have repeated today. But there is one word in it I want to alter - I wanted to do so last year, but I did not venture to. It is the line: ‘Not less we praise in darker days.’
“I have obtained the Head Master’s permission to alter darker to sterner. ‘Not less we praise in sterner days.’
“Do not let us speak of darker days: let us speak rather of sterner days. These are not dark days; these are great days - the greatest days our country has ever lived; and we must all thank God that we have been allowed, each of us according to our stations, to play a part in making these days memorable in the history of our race.”

Churchill was British, but he was also half American and his Great Grandfather fought with Washington at Valley Forge, so perhaps it isn’t illegitimate to appropriate his comments to our national problems. These are stern days indeed. The biggest threat to our nation–bigger (if you can believe it) than global warming–is the assurance of national bankruptcy if we don’t change course. Thankfully, we’re a flexible people, an independent people, and the world’s premier source of innovation. So this month, let’s be good with our money. We’ll pay our bills on time, eat out less, buy less junk, and embrace the radical notion that we won’t buy what we can’t pay for. Let’s change our national attitudes toward debt, and turn this ship around. The wind is blowing, and if we catch it right, it will give us a chance to unfurl.

“Meanwhile, never flinch, never weary, never despair.” –Winston Churchill

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