Thanksgiving Thanks 2021
My Fleming Foundation article
As I usually do this time of year, I toss up a couple things to be thankful for at Thanksgiving. It’s been quite a year. For me, this is Day 8 of having COVID. Fortunately, it’s a been mild, and today I am appreciably better. I got the Regeneron at the Emergency Room and I think it helped.
Here are some things to be thankful for, beginning with what’s left of the Constitution, now that Freedom of Assembly has been destroyed by the recent Charlottesville Show Trial and the ongoing 1/6 Show Trial.
1. Trial by jury. At least Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted in Wisconsin. But in Virginia, the trial of the Unite the Right jerks ended with a conviction in a civil case that was the height of absurdity. Only Antifa rioters now have the right to assemble; and, in their case, destroy.
2. The right to keep and bear Arms. Still pretty solid, as l’affaire Rittenhouse also showed. This fall the Supreme Court might strengthen the Second Amendment right to carry a weapon. As I like to say: Second Amendment, First Freedom. Because if you can’t defend your freedoms with a gun, then you’re not really free.
3. Freedom of speech. Although freedom of assembly is gone, freedom of speech remains more robust than last year. Censorship by Facebook, Twitter, etc. only has aided the expansion of such alternatives as Gab.com. And the continued lies of the media have shifted Americans to alternative news and opinion sites such as this one.
4. Not living in one of the so-called Free Countries in Europe or the Pacific who have imposed excessive COVID impositions. In Australia, they’re even putting people in concentration camps. Austria is beginning to resemble what it was after that psycho with the Charlie Chaplin moustache invaded in 1938.
5. Getting out of Afghanistan. Biden botched the withdrawal. But as I have said on this site, at least he got us out of a pointless war. When was the last time that happened?
6. No new wars. We’re still involved in numerous other wars, as in the Sudan and Yemen, not to mention meddling in Ukraine and Taiwan. But at least Biden hasn’t started another war. Maybe he learned something seeing not only the Afghanistan debacle, but the destruction of Libya in 2011 and the coup against Ukraine’s democratic government in 2014 when he was vice president.
7. Turkey. I’m self-isolating. But friends will be bringing me turkey, stuffing, gravy, etc.
8. Learning new things at age 66. I’ve always been of the Thomist-Analytical persuasion in philosophy; say, G.E.M. Anscombe. But I’ve been reading Hegel’s “Lectures on the Philosophy of World History.” Interesting. Although dense, he is a compelling writer.
9. Learning more about World War II. Best book I’ve ever read on the global conflict is “How the War Was Won” by Phillips Payson O’Brien. He makes a strong case for how the real battlefields were the vast air and sea campaigns by the U.S. and UK against Germany and Japan, and the Axis’ response. More important even than the Soviet operations on the Eastern Front.
And the biggest factor in these campaigns was high investment in developing new technologies, such as radar, sonar, fighters, anti-aircraft systems and, especially, the long-range bombers: the Lancaster for the UK, the B-17, B-26 and later the B-29 for the U.S.
10. Americans are waking up. Floating through my head is the Russian of a Pushkin poem from when I learned the language in the U.S. Army 40 years ago, “To Chaadaev.” I’ll substitute America for Russia:
America will rouse herself from slumber,
And on the rubble of despotism
Our names will be inscribed!
John Seiler blogs at johnseiler.substack.com