I encountered this saying long ago and regarded it as a put-down by some humorist, perhaps Mark Twain, of preoccupation with the past. Maybe I missed some hidden wisdom after all.
History, of course, does not and cannot repeat itself. …
Clyde Wilson
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Might Have Been
Might Have Been by Clyde N. Wilson • September 13, 2010 • Printer-friendly
President George W. Bush addresses the American people on September 13, 2001
My fellow Americans,
As the whole world is now aware, we have suffered the most …
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Just Asking Some More
Just Asking Some More by Clyde N. Wilson • September 9, 2010 • Printer-friendly
Does it matter whether Obama is a Muslim or not? Would it make any difference? Is there any evidence that he has any religion at all? …
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Just Asking
Just Asking by Clyde N. Wilson • September 8, 2010 • Printer-friendly
Does it really make much difference whether Barack Hussein Obama (or anybody else) was actually born in the United States or not?
Is the conquest and permanent occupation …
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Those Were the Days
Those Were the Days by Clyde N. Wilson • August 10, 2010 • Printer-friendly
Things I miss:
Boys who carried paper routes and mowed lawns.
Women and girls in actual dresses.
When you seldom had to call up a corporation, …
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Strange Words for Strange Days
Strange Words for Strange Days by Clyde N. Wilson • June 28, 2010 • Printer-friendly
Charity.
Old version: Open-handedness toward our neighbour in need.
New version: Getting the government to spend other people’s money on politically favoured groups, …
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Devil’s Brew in Dixie
Devil’s Brew in Dixie by Clyde N. Wilson • June 17, 2010 • Printer-friendly
The Dutch Fork of South Carolina
Our small but proud State can’t seem to stay out of the political spotlight. We had barely recovered from the …
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Call Me Simple . . . (2)
Call Me Simple . . . (2) by Clyde N. Wilson • May 13, 2010 • Printer-friendly
But I don’t understand:
How all those “experts” who are always mouthing off in the media and who are not really experts manage …
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Call Me Simple . . .
Call Me Simple . . . by Clyde N. Wilson • May 11, 2010 • Printer-friendly
But I don’t understand:
Why the government spends billions on welfare but people keep saying hunger is a big problem.
Why the government spends …
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Bring on the GOP!
Bring on the GOP! by Clyde N. Wilson • April 13, 2010 • Printer-friendly
The awful Obama is pushing terrible things on our country like socialised medicine, big spending, corporate bailouts, affirmative action, and amnesty for illegal aliens. He must …
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War Movies and the Human Heart
War Movies and the Human Heart by Clyde N. Wilson • September 25, 2009 • Printer-friendly
In a previous contribution to Chronicles‘ Filmlog, “Three for the Resistance,” I discussed movies portraying the plight of small nations—Norway, the Netherlands, and …
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Three for the Resistance
Three for the Resistance by Clyde N. Wilson • September 22, 2009 • Printer-friendly
World War II has provided a vast amount of material for cinema in Europe, America, and Japan. Some if this is superb. Much of it is …
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The Way We Are, No. 5
The Way We Are, No. 5 by Clyde N. Wilson • May 27, 2009 • Printer-friendly
Your republic will be as fearfully plundered and laid waste by barbarians in the twentieth century as the Roman Empire was in the fifth; …
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Politics and Economics in America
Politics and Economics in America by Clyde N. Wilson • April 16, 2009 • Printer-friendly
All things at Rome are for sale.
—Juvenal
Thomas Jefferson has left us an account of a supper-table conversation in the very earliest days of …
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It Can’t Be Repeated Too Often (Until It Sinks In), Again
It Can’t Be Repeated Too Often (Until It Sinks In), Again by Clyde N. Wilson • March 12, 2009 • Printer-friendly
“To see what is in front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle.” —Orwell
(Things that are known but …
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Lincoln Follies
Lincoln Follies by Clyde N. Wilson • February 16, 2009 • Printer-friendly
A few of us now decrepit pre-Reagan “conservatives” can remember the brief flicker of hope of saving the republic that we had around 1980. Around about that time …
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The Treasury of Counterfeit Virtue
The Treasury of Counterfeit Virtue by Clyde N. Wilson • February 12, 2009 • Printer-friendly
“O wad some Pow’r the giftie gie us
To see oursels as others see us!”
—Robert Burns
A few years ago, a well-known conservative historian …
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It Can’t Be Repeated Too Often (Until It Sinks In), Cont’d
It Can’t Be Repeated Too Often (Until It Sinks In), Cont’d by Clyde N. Wilson • February 10, 2009 • Printer-friendly
The American educational system at every level is an immensely expensive obstacle to culture and learning.
America is not …
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It Can’t Be Repeated Too Often (Until It Sinks In)
It Can’t Be Repeated Too Often (Until It Sinks In) by Clyde N. Wilson • February 9, 2009 • Printer-friendly
The purpose of Political Correctness is to suppress true ideas. Its proponents have no interest in suppressing falsehood.
You cannot …
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Goodbye, George
Goodbye, George by Clyde N. Wilson • January 13, 2009 • Printer-friendly
An American president can wreck his country and blow up the world, but he cannot recreate either of them. —Chilton Williamson
A recent book on the George …
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Call Me Simple
Call me simple, but I just can’t understand why I have to pay the banks’ losses but I don’t get a share of their profits.
I know that the music business is very profitable, but I am still cautious about …
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What Is History? Part 14
The collective knowledge gained over time includes an awareness of mankind’s tendency to miscalculate. —Wiley Sword
History tells us where we have been. Our minds define where we are going. —Wiley Sword
In every economic boom and bust there …
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Further on the Way We Are Now
I find that local radio gives me a good view of the state of American consciousness, or unconsciousness.
Just today I learned that the government is studying how to help “ailing mortgages.” Defaulters, it seems, have been struck by an …
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The Way We Are Now—Continued
“In the name of God, whom we all revere, in the name of liberty we hold so dear, in the name of decency, which we all cherish—what is happening in America?” —Gov. Orval Faubus, broadcast to the people fifty years …
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Democrats and Republicans: An Election Meditation
Earnest readers want to know what the difference is between the two major political parties. I have tried to provide some helpful guidance.
Democrat. Someone who believes that when people who have enjoyed a wealthy life but behaved badly get …
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On and On With the Way We Are Now
When it comes to be once understood that politics is a game; that those who are engaged in it but act a part; that they make this or that profession, not from honest conviction or intent to fulfill it, but …
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The Way We Are Now—Coming to a Bad End?
The Way We Are Now—Coming to a Bad End? by Clyde N. Wilson • September 26, 2008 • Printer-friendly
It looks like the economy is in for hard times and that we plain folks are facing a decline in our …
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More Observations and Lamentations on the Way We Are Now
Are you enjoying your New American Century?
You may as well enjoy it. It is all you are getting instead of your “peace dividend.”
Justice Ginsberg has recently invoked the laws of some foreign states in justification of her Supreme …
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Observations and Lamentations on the Way We Are Now
Evil rulers then are a sign that God is wroth and angry with us. —William Tyndale
Though there is little personal likeness, the President that Junior Bush most resembles in actions and conduct in office is Grant—incompetent, corrupt, clueless, easily …
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Not to Worry
Me seemes the world is runne quite out of sqaure
From the first point of his appointed sourse,
And being once amisse, growes daily wourse and wourse.
—Spenser, The Faerie Queene
It looks like the economy is going bad, but …
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Even More Great American Inventions
Plastic grocery bags guaranteed to spill or break.
Mass telephoning of recorded sales messages (at suppertime).
A minority group endowed with large, unprecedented privileges by law, that continues to complain of oppression by the “privileged” majority.
Advertising and government spending …
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More Great American Inventions
The Book of Moroni.
Replacing the White Man’s Burden with the Multicultural Gender-Neutral Burden.
The Lincoln cult.
Politicians and journalists guaranteed to have integrity—they tell you so themselves.
Deification of “education.” Along with the belief that all students are, or …
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Great American Inventions
Decaffeinated coffee. (What’s the point?)
The hula hoop.
Political nominating conventions.
Criminal athletes.
The Celebrity, a meritless and insignificant person famous for being famous.
The Celebrity as a political force.
Purposeless voting.
Patriotic balloons.
Carnival tent religion.
Mass-produced food and …
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Questions! Questions! Ever More Questions About the Way We Are Now
“You can’t make a republic without republicans.” —Stendhal
Just asking—
What happens to a “service economy” when people no longer have the money to pay for service?
What happens when “precision” bombs and missiles are not really as precise as …
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Mission Impossible
Persuading a libertarian that a negotiation between one worker and a huge corporation is not a simple free market transaction.
Persuading a libertarian that the Lord gave us the earth for our use, not for our maximum exploitation.
Persuading a …
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Honestly, Abe!
“A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid.” —Matthew 5:14
How many Americans are aware that Abraham Lincoln was well known for telling dirty stories, engaged in antics (like playing with his feet) when he did not …
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Even More Questions About the Way We Are Now
If you were a patriotic “American” of Mideast origin, wouldn’t you willingly cooperate with “ethnic profiling” since it would help to save the lives of your “fellow” citizens?
Want to know how many traffic deaths in my State last year …
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Hitler, Churchill, and Reagan
What an orgy of Churchill and Britain bashing we have had of late! One would almost begin to think that the Brits bear most of the blame for World War II and all its attendant horrors. (Actually there is nothing …
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Looking for the Hen’s Tooth
“Politics is too serious a matter to be left to politicians.” —De Gaulle
Some things are, as they say, harder to find than a hen’s tooth:
An American college without a commercial sports program.
A Republican politician who really believes …
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Questions About the Way We Are Now
“American culture is an infinite regression to moronic vulgarity.” —Thomas Fleming
Napoleon famously called the English “a nation of shopkeepers.” Can we say that Americans are a non-nation of shoppers?
Are you ready for our first Luo-American president?
Are you …
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What Is History? Part 12
What Is History? Part 12 by Clyde N. Wilson • June 2, 2008 • Printer-friendly
Revolutions turn into institutions; revolts that renew the youth of old societies in their turn grow old; and the past, which was full of new …
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Inquiring Minds Want to Know II
Inquiring Minds Want to Know II by Clyde N. Wilson • May 21, 2008 • Printer-friendly
If Obama is not elected will there be riots?
If Obama is elected, will there be riots?
Are Americans capable of recognising and electing …
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What Is History? Part 11
The great events of the world take place in the brain. —Oscar Wilde
A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul. —G.B. Shaw
. . . a brave nation fights only …
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What Is History? Part 9
What Is History? Part 9 by Clyde N. Wilson • March 27, 2008 • Printer-friendly
Truth does not reside in a collection of facts; truth is shown by the form of their presentation, once their significance has been seized on. …
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American Delusions
“And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie . . .” —2 Thessalonians 2:11
American public life thrives on delusions treated as facts:
*That you can have a First World economy and …
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The Way We Are Now—The Campaign
The Way We Are Now—The Campaign by Clyde N. Wilson • February 28, 2008 • Printer-friendly
A strongly shared sense of right and wrong has maintained a working peace and harmony within many societies over long periods. This is probably …
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What Is History? Part 4B
American Views: The North
The Lord made use of my Pen to write many Books for the advancement of His Kingdome; Yea, and had strangely encouraged and fortified my Serviceableness, by such Marks of Respect from other Parts of the …
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Cassandra’s Lament
In a previous column I expressed irritation at those numerous folks who confess to having voted for George W. Bush in 2000 (and even 2004) because they were deceived into believing he was a “conservative.” For anyone believing that Bush …
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History Is . . . ?
What is History? What do historians claim to be doing? What is it that historians are actually doing? What is it that historians should be doing?
My desire is rather to provoke discussion than to lay down the law. —Sir …
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“American” Movies
” . . . the play’s the thing . . . “ —Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
In a recent outing on this site I gave as an example of the emptiness of American culture the fact that American movies today …