Takes about an hour. I post this commentary on the American Nation recognizing that much of the evil in the world is created by those with good intentions, or so they thought; evil being the furthest thing from their minds. Evil and bad judgement knows no national boundaries.
I'm about 22 minutes in. Trees blocking my dtv. It costs me a fortune to watch tv on my computer. I notice it is from the History channel. If I was teaching school that's all we would do is watch the History channel. But so far, it sounds like a very intelligent and entertaining yet another attempt to destroy the American myth that I love so much. Thanks? I'm now looking for similar things to watch when I don't need to watch the mkt. So far Bloomberg radio in the background beats tv. Maybe the best is yet to come. I'll watch some more this afternoon. I sure don't miss the tv ads.
All of us who were raised from early childhood in the U.S. love the American Myth. We'll cling to it all our days and fly the flag on the 4th of July. We become better citizens, however, by learning the history that was omitted from our secondary school history books. Events in history invariably can be viewed with more than one perspective.* This Gore Vidal look-back paints a picture of how we became the most capitalist country on Earth, and how we evolved into today's "corporatism". We learn that capitalism, like all the other "isms," has faults and a dark side as well as its glorious accomplishments that we so proudly point to. This is a skillfully made presentation by one of America's sons, someone deeply familiar with America's history and in particular its Presidents and their contributions of all sorts. Vidal knew the Presidents of his time personally, and was one of Jack Kennedy's confidants. (He shared a step father with Jacqueline and was Oklahoma Senator, Thomas Gore's grandson. His father, Eugene, was the Director of the Air Commerce Bureau during the Roosevelt administration, a bureau that became our present day FAA. Eugene Gore taught the young Gore to fly.) Though well educated (Phillips Exeter) he didn't enroll in college but instead enlisted in the Army (USAAF) and later served as a maritime Warrant Officer during WWII. Gore Vidal bridged politics and the arts and can be truthfully said to have crossed paths with virtually everyone of major importance in both areas of endeavor throughout the Western world. During his time, probably no one was better equipped to tell America's story. Certainly no one could have told this story with greater wit and irony than Gore Vidal, whom we lost a few years back. Even though it may make us cringe to realize we aren't quite so nice as we like to tell ourselves, this presentation still seems oddly appropriate during the time of our 4th of July celebrating. _____________________ *For a perspective different from Gore's on Hiroshima and Nagasaki see the first essay in Paul Fussell's book "Thank God for the Atom Bomb."
He would have objected just on principle, if nothing else. The two of them loved to argue about anything and everything.
If you're a right wing republican nutcase who puts liberals on ignore you can just start with Kennedy who is described as our all time worse president. Left wingers can start with Reagan, who surprised me when he repeated the Kennedy phrase "Our hemisphere." To me, when Kennedy said it I thought he was just talking about Cuba. But Reagan made it very clear that we run the western hemisphere and our enemy/friend is the Eastern Hemisphere. Otherwise, I have to stop kidding about godless communism. When you watch the whole thing the cold war on communism isn't that funny. So, now what?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gore_Vidal Ricter made reference to the Vidal-Buckley feud. In the above wiki article there is a highly entertaining description of it. Also for those whose curiosity is piqued by the Gore Video on the American Presidents I can recommend "Imperial America" as appropriate follow-up reading.