Greg. Your scholarship is incredible! I can’t thank you enough for the continuing education you provide. Appreciate you so much. I even like the music. BillSerle .com.
Powerful piece Greg. We are indeed at an inflection point. Are we destined to see history repeat itself? I sincerely hope not. Thanks for the thought provoking read with coffee this morning.
Thanks for saying what I was thinking as I was reading Greg’s newsletter. I’ve lived a long time so have seen much in all the years past. It’s almost as if we are two legged lemmings just searching for a cliff to run off of.
Thanks, Rick. There does seem to be something hardwired into some people that want to be ruled by authoritarians. Is it, for them, a cycle of abusive fathers that hasn't stopped for generations? I wish I knew.
If you haven't read any of Alice Miller's work on Hitler (and Stalin) you might be interested in what she has to say. Also, Dr. Bandy Lee is keeping up her kick-ass commentary on "Trump Contagion" going world-wide!
Lost generations. What does the expression really mean? In substance it can apply to any group who has lost that which was available to a previous generation. Are Millennials a new lost generation? The economic benefits enjoyed by their parents and grandparents are certainly lost to them. It is hard to relate the aftermath of two world wars to finding it hard to get a well paying job. Should we better describe Hemingway, Fitzgerald and Millennials as part of the "Woe is me" generation? For me the last of these deserves this moniker.
More importantly did one or a small group of people create a lost generation? Hitler and Mussolini certainly played outsized roles. Yet the architects of the grossly harsh Treaty of Versailles are culpable. During a visit to St. Petersburg, our excellent guide Aleksandr talked of his grandmother's longing for the days of the Tsar to escape Putinism. Go figure! Certainly Vlad Putin fits the mold of a figure creating a lost generation. His raison detre, different than that of Hitler is manufactured, indeed Hitler persuaded a nation he was right, Vlad forced a nation into submission.
This brings me to 45. Should, horrors of horror 45 be reelected, do all Americans become the newest version of the lost generation, having forgone democracy for autocracy, good versus evil? Is his raison detre Hitler or Putin like? Frankly neither! His existence is the gullibility of a too large segment of voters. Hitler played to the actual submission forced on the German people by the Treaty of Versailles and its administrators. Putin stole a nation's riches for personal gain, then repressed any form of push back, citizens were denied any real ability to protest. 45 lies, creates a feeling of repression that is based in the flimsyest of reality. Perhaps the creation of reality TV serves him well, internet gaming dulls the brain and aids his spiel, X helps. There is no substance to anything spouting from his cocaine fueled rants (sniff, sniff).
We must, if 45 is back in the Oval accept that a new lost generation has not been created, rather a very gullible generation exists, the shared blame reflects gullibility (believed the madness and unbelievable), laziness (riverboat riders who couldn’t fathom another 45 victory and sat on the sidelines) and the resistance who didn't resist strong enough.
Singular point. Previous lost generations got what they didn't deserve. Our possible lost generation gets what it deserved, a self inflected wound. We lost the We Shall Overcome plot, big time. Vote and encourage like minded folks to vote. Locally stand up to voter repression efforts. Everyone who wants to can find a way to stop 45. Join grass root organizations and support their efforts. Through this we get two things, a We Shall Overcome effort and as Greg says HOPE! Hope is not illusionary, it has to be created.
Thanks for this insightful comment. You're right; Zweig's generation had it all thrust upon them, kings and prime ministers and generals calling shots that killed tens of millions. We are inviting this vampire into the house. Again! It's maddening, and yet we must not lose hope.
Beautiful music! I am continually amazed at how people migrate from country to country. I don't know how much is being reported about migrants being bussed from Texas to Chicago, but I heard of a heartbreaking update this morning. Chicago passed a new ordinance which would fine the bus companies that are dropping migrants off in Chicago without pre-arranged notice. So now the bus drivers are randomly dropping migrants throughout the city with no direction and no one to help them. It was reported on the morning local news that several migrants were made to get off the bus in a random neighborhood and were held up at gunpoint as they wandered through the neighborhood. Lots of problems to address in this situation but without coordination from Texas Gov. Abbott it is turning into a disaster.
I didn't know that. My God. It's like the troika of doom ruling Texas seeks to one-up each other on how to be awful and evil. I don't understand it at all.
Hitler was obviously a "true believer," and I don't think Trump really is. Trump will go whichever way the wind blows him as long as it glorifies him. If things changed in some VERY WEIRD way and suddenly Democrats and liberals found their true voice through Trump, he would be touting pro-choice positions, "one person, one vote" policies, and start working on breaking up corporate monopolies that are hurting Americans. Trump is not the REAL problem; he is only the mouthpiece that wants to be in the news 24/7/365. He is far too self-involved to be anything else.
It's people like Bannon, and to a lesser extent Kash Patel, who are the real danger. The six-minute clip on Media Matters linked in the column above shows what a wild-eyed freak like Bannon WANTS to do in a Trump 2.0 term. In the clip, Patel was referencing a script in front of him, Bannon's words came from his cold, black heart -- no script needed. Bannon has made pronouncements before like this, most famously that he would destroy the "administrative state." He's WAY beyond that now. He's looking forward to prosecutions of politicians, members of the media, and anyone else who gets in his way. I'm sure in the end, Bannon's ultimate goal is executions for "treason" of some of these people. He's extremely dangerous and his liver may not take him out in time. He might actually be able to be a part of a Trump 2.0 term. Secretary of State, maybe? It sounds like Patel will be the Director of the CIA, so he's all set! Stephen Miller, Secretary of Education? Sounds about right.
But when the mouthpiece comes out and starts in with stuff like, “They’re poisoning the blood of our country,” it's time to REALLY pay attention. This kind of statement has not only been said at several rallies but is far beyond references to "vermin." Someone probably told him that "vermin" wasn't quite far enough, "you really should start talking about how the immigrants are poisoning the blood of our country, and sir? Make sure to punch up the idea that they're poisoning the BLOOD of our country."
He's going to keep making these kinds of statements, and although I read "Mein Kamph" years ago (what a fuckin' whiner that Hitler was, just like Trump), I don't remember what else he might pull from it for his use, but I'm sure others in his orbit will find something appropriate as time goes on. And I wonder how long our MSM will continue to report these statements as if they're aberrations, and keep tiptoeing around the Hitler rhetoric? WE ALL KNOW THIS GUY! These are not aberrations; this is well-orchestrated rhetoric meant to be one more thing that we're supposed to normalize. How much longer until we hear, "folks, I've always been right, they DID bring crime and they ARE rapists. I told you that from the first day I ran to be your favorite president. What we need now is a FINAL SOLUTION to the immigrant problem." How much longer? After Iowa? Or will he save it for the summer, so Don Jr will love it? And how many "final solutions" will he end up needing, do you think? Because "we got a lot of problems."
This is no longer a marathon, it's an eleven-month sprint. WE MUST stop this man from ever taking office again. He's the mouthpiece, but he will hold the power if he gets in there, and as the avatar for the farthest of the far-right, they will bring in their own form of Nazism as sure as the sun rises in the east. VOTE because your life depends on it, and if we don't keep him out, it will likely be the last election. Hyperbole? Listen, watch, and think again.
Yes, Trump is amoral, as you point out. A lot of dictators are. Orban was once a liberal, then became a bag man for the Russian mob, and now, this.
It does feel like the media is waking up a bit. Maybe when you start plagiarizing Hitler, almost word for word, they feel like it's ok to call that out.
But the Kagan op-ed in WaPo was scary. He's right that after Trump gets the nomination, the GOP resistance to him, pathetic as it already is, will evaporate. They will all line up behind their king, in the wake of the stink from his diaper, and then what?
The party is dead. It's a corpse. We need Liz Cheney and whoever is left on that side that believes in democracy to start a new party. I'm surprised that hasn't happened yet, TBH.
I saw a few minutes of Nikki Haley on Morning Joe this morning. As much as I detest everything about her, she did make a point. She was calling TFG out but only to a certain point. She rightly claimed that to win the nomination she cannot afford to alienate the MAGAt's. I just realized when I was reading your comment that the way I feel about Haley is the way I used to feel about Liz Cheney. Interesting how standing up for truth can change one's perspective.
That piece left me lost for a long time in a reverie. Generations—my ancestors’, mine, and my grandkids’. Wars—WWI, WWII during my lifetime; too many more. Memories. So many memories. Experiences—the good ones I’ve had, the ones I’ve wished I’d had, the struggles I’ve learned from and grown through. The experiences writers have shared with us. Extreme hardship—the kind that brings someone to end their life. Fascism—then, there, now, and here. Hope. No, I haven’t lost hope. Let me rephrase that. Yes, I still have hope.
Thanks for that, Earl. I think I have generations on the brain because, at 51 and counting, there are now THREE generations behind mine: Z, Alpha, and whatever the babies being born now are called. There is a certain liberation that comes with age. I know, more than before, how much I don't know. But that itself gives me hope.
Thank you for writing about my homeland and one of its brightest writers so eloquently. Knowing from my own multi-generational family trauma how utterly devastating - long-term - nationalism, fascism and tyranny are, it is indeed harrowing to see us all repeat the same horrors, but with much greater weapons of mass extinction at the disposal of utter sociopaths. I wish we would learn from our tragic history, but we seem, as a species, incapable of doing so.
Thank you. I don't know as much about Austria as I should, as it's a fascinating country, and its history is so intertwined with European and world history, for better and for worse. I'm sorry for your ancestral trauma.
The West has been at peace for eight decades now, notwithstanding proxy wars and some regional conflicts in the Balkans. That has not happened since the reign of Antoninus Pius in the second century. I think that the horrors of WW2 were so obvious and far-reaching that people everywhere did their best to avoid war, and now, the people who lived through that are very old or dead, and the new generations aren't as versed in the horror. I remember Hannity saying that Stalin couldn't have been so bad because he was our ally in WW2, and I wanted to bang my head against a wall.
I hope we are capable of fending off disaster...check that: I KNOW we are capable, but will we?
Dear Greg, thanks for your response! I think you could go down many deep rabbit holes investigating Austria and its insanely influential (seeing what a small country it is, especially post-WW1) impact on world history.
It seems almost everywhere major decisions were made, some Austrian (many exiled) mind was behind them, for good, and more often, for bad. Edward Bernays, Freud, Hayek, Schrödinger, Doppler, Wittgenstein, Hitler, Waldheim, Schubert, Haydn, Mozart, Mahler, Hundertwasser, Jelinek, Strauss, Klimt, Wagner, Bruckner, Herzl, Gregor Mendel, Konrad Lorenz, Karl von Frisch, Maximilian I, Maria Theresia, Marie Antoinette, Leopold II, Franz Ferdinand, Bela Lugosi, Hedi Lamar, Schwarzenegger... music, literature, acting, art, architecture, philosophy, psychology, physics, biology, economics, propaganda, politics (oh so many of the world’s biggest political upheavals were caused by Austria/ns!) - all massively influenced by people from this tiny, ancient fulcrum of a country.
And so many of its people to this day suffer some form of collective, multigenerational trauma from all these events - without ever properly and maturely dealing with them. It is a dark and deeply fascinating place, one I had to leave as soon as I could, as its darkness and conservatism would have destroyed me 😞
Wow, to see it listed like that is really something. It's fascinating to me how certain places are like this while others are not. For example: my ancestors on my father's side are Slovak. I tried, for something I was writing, to make a list of famous, influential Slovaks. There's basically just Andy Warhol.
Yeah it is weird! I got Slovak and Slovene ancestry and there’s just nowhere near the extent of influencers (Melania Trump!? 🤮) - although several of the Austrians mentioned above were born in the Austrian-Hungarian empire outside of its current borders. But most of their work / influence started in Vienna!
Fascinating Sunday piece of historical significance to ponder Greg, Slainte!!
The confluence of amoral vacuousness and willful ignorance are on full display again...much to unpack in the ghetto of global darknesses. Another well crafted masterpiece that will be shared, thanks!
A wonderful essay. You have a gift for writing. An author who can make you "feel" what you are endeavoring to get across has that gift. Many can get the words across, but not the "feeling." Thank you.
Greg.
Greg. Your scholarship is incredible! I can’t thank you enough for the continuing education you provide. Appreciate you so much. I even like the music. BillSerle .com.
Thanks so much, Bill! I'm glad you like the song, too.
Powerful piece Greg. We are indeed at an inflection point. Are we destined to see history repeat itself? I sincerely hope not. Thanks for the thought provoking read with coffee this morning.
I don't think we are, I think we're smarter than that, but it's certainly more possible than I would like.
Great piece
Thanks, Cal.
Thank you, Greg. Lots to think about. But first, Happy Sunday!
Thanks, Lynell.
Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness...-Martin Luther King, Jr.
We must try to hang on to ALL hope.
Great article. Happy Sunday, Greg.
Thanks, Cathy. That's a great quote! I didn't know that one.
After thousands of years, humans still haven't learned how to live with the complexity that life is.
"It's all too complicated and confusing; somebody tell me how to think and what to do!!!"
In step the authoritarians. "Only I can save you."
Unfortunately "The World of Yesterday" is the world we're still living in. Great post!
Thanks for saying what I was thinking as I was reading Greg’s newsletter. I’ve lived a long time so have seen much in all the years past. It’s almost as if we are two legged lemmings just searching for a cliff to run off of.
"But all the other lemmings are doing it! It must be great!"
Thanks, Rick. There does seem to be something hardwired into some people that want to be ruled by authoritarians. Is it, for them, a cycle of abusive fathers that hasn't stopped for generations? I wish I knew.
If you haven't read any of Alice Miller's work on Hitler (and Stalin) you might be interested in what she has to say. Also, Dr. Bandy Lee is keeping up her kick-ass commentary on "Trump Contagion" going world-wide!
And still there are way too many people who believe the 90 year old myth that "It can't happen here."
"Denial is not a river in Egypt." Just sayin'.
The echoes of Weimar are as eerie as they are terrifying. Fortunately, the inflation they were all predicting didn't happen.
Delusional MAGAs believe it did happen, that inflation is rampant, and it's all Biden's fault. Their minds, such as they are, are made up.
Lost generations. What does the expression really mean? In substance it can apply to any group who has lost that which was available to a previous generation. Are Millennials a new lost generation? The economic benefits enjoyed by their parents and grandparents are certainly lost to them. It is hard to relate the aftermath of two world wars to finding it hard to get a well paying job. Should we better describe Hemingway, Fitzgerald and Millennials as part of the "Woe is me" generation? For me the last of these deserves this moniker.
More importantly did one or a small group of people create a lost generation? Hitler and Mussolini certainly played outsized roles. Yet the architects of the grossly harsh Treaty of Versailles are culpable. During a visit to St. Petersburg, our excellent guide Aleksandr talked of his grandmother's longing for the days of the Tsar to escape Putinism. Go figure! Certainly Vlad Putin fits the mold of a figure creating a lost generation. His raison detre, different than that of Hitler is manufactured, indeed Hitler persuaded a nation he was right, Vlad forced a nation into submission.
This brings me to 45. Should, horrors of horror 45 be reelected, do all Americans become the newest version of the lost generation, having forgone democracy for autocracy, good versus evil? Is his raison detre Hitler or Putin like? Frankly neither! His existence is the gullibility of a too large segment of voters. Hitler played to the actual submission forced on the German people by the Treaty of Versailles and its administrators. Putin stole a nation's riches for personal gain, then repressed any form of push back, citizens were denied any real ability to protest. 45 lies, creates a feeling of repression that is based in the flimsyest of reality. Perhaps the creation of reality TV serves him well, internet gaming dulls the brain and aids his spiel, X helps. There is no substance to anything spouting from his cocaine fueled rants (sniff, sniff).
We must, if 45 is back in the Oval accept that a new lost generation has not been created, rather a very gullible generation exists, the shared blame reflects gullibility (believed the madness and unbelievable), laziness (riverboat riders who couldn’t fathom another 45 victory and sat on the sidelines) and the resistance who didn't resist strong enough.
Singular point. Previous lost generations got what they didn't deserve. Our possible lost generation gets what it deserved, a self inflected wound. We lost the We Shall Overcome plot, big time. Vote and encourage like minded folks to vote. Locally stand up to voter repression efforts. Everyone who wants to can find a way to stop 45. Join grass root organizations and support their efforts. Through this we get two things, a We Shall Overcome effort and as Greg says HOPE! Hope is not illusionary, it has to be created.
Thanks for this insightful comment. You're right; Zweig's generation had it all thrust upon them, kings and prime ministers and generals calling shots that killed tens of millions. We are inviting this vampire into the house. Again! It's maddening, and yet we must not lose hope.
Beautiful music! I am continually amazed at how people migrate from country to country. I don't know how much is being reported about migrants being bussed from Texas to Chicago, but I heard of a heartbreaking update this morning. Chicago passed a new ordinance which would fine the bus companies that are dropping migrants off in Chicago without pre-arranged notice. So now the bus drivers are randomly dropping migrants throughout the city with no direction and no one to help them. It was reported on the morning local news that several migrants were made to get off the bus in a random neighborhood and were held up at gunpoint as they wandered through the neighborhood. Lots of problems to address in this situation but without coordination from Texas Gov. Abbott it is turning into a disaster.
Abbott, another of the ignoble poltroons and sadly, example that speaks to the heart of Justice system failures!
Pure evil, that man. Pure, unadulterated evil.
Thanks for listening to the song!
I didn't know that. My God. It's like the troika of doom ruling Texas seeks to one-up each other on how to be awful and evil. I don't understand it at all.
Hitler was obviously a "true believer," and I don't think Trump really is. Trump will go whichever way the wind blows him as long as it glorifies him. If things changed in some VERY WEIRD way and suddenly Democrats and liberals found their true voice through Trump, he would be touting pro-choice positions, "one person, one vote" policies, and start working on breaking up corporate monopolies that are hurting Americans. Trump is not the REAL problem; he is only the mouthpiece that wants to be in the news 24/7/365. He is far too self-involved to be anything else.
It's people like Bannon, and to a lesser extent Kash Patel, who are the real danger. The six-minute clip on Media Matters linked in the column above shows what a wild-eyed freak like Bannon WANTS to do in a Trump 2.0 term. In the clip, Patel was referencing a script in front of him, Bannon's words came from his cold, black heart -- no script needed. Bannon has made pronouncements before like this, most famously that he would destroy the "administrative state." He's WAY beyond that now. He's looking forward to prosecutions of politicians, members of the media, and anyone else who gets in his way. I'm sure in the end, Bannon's ultimate goal is executions for "treason" of some of these people. He's extremely dangerous and his liver may not take him out in time. He might actually be able to be a part of a Trump 2.0 term. Secretary of State, maybe? It sounds like Patel will be the Director of the CIA, so he's all set! Stephen Miller, Secretary of Education? Sounds about right.
But when the mouthpiece comes out and starts in with stuff like, “They’re poisoning the blood of our country,” it's time to REALLY pay attention. This kind of statement has not only been said at several rallies but is far beyond references to "vermin." Someone probably told him that "vermin" wasn't quite far enough, "you really should start talking about how the immigrants are poisoning the blood of our country, and sir? Make sure to punch up the idea that they're poisoning the BLOOD of our country."
He's going to keep making these kinds of statements, and although I read "Mein Kamph" years ago (what a fuckin' whiner that Hitler was, just like Trump), I don't remember what else he might pull from it for his use, but I'm sure others in his orbit will find something appropriate as time goes on. And I wonder how long our MSM will continue to report these statements as if they're aberrations, and keep tiptoeing around the Hitler rhetoric? WE ALL KNOW THIS GUY! These are not aberrations; this is well-orchestrated rhetoric meant to be one more thing that we're supposed to normalize. How much longer until we hear, "folks, I've always been right, they DID bring crime and they ARE rapists. I told you that from the first day I ran to be your favorite president. What we need now is a FINAL SOLUTION to the immigrant problem." How much longer? After Iowa? Or will he save it for the summer, so Don Jr will love it? And how many "final solutions" will he end up needing, do you think? Because "we got a lot of problems."
This is no longer a marathon, it's an eleven-month sprint. WE MUST stop this man from ever taking office again. He's the mouthpiece, but he will hold the power if he gets in there, and as the avatar for the farthest of the far-right, they will bring in their own form of Nazism as sure as the sun rises in the east. VOTE because your life depends on it, and if we don't keep him out, it will likely be the last election. Hyperbole? Listen, watch, and think again.
A-plus comment, Steve. Thank you.
Yes, Trump is amoral, as you point out. A lot of dictators are. Orban was once a liberal, then became a bag man for the Russian mob, and now, this.
It does feel like the media is waking up a bit. Maybe when you start plagiarizing Hitler, almost word for word, they feel like it's ok to call that out.
But the Kagan op-ed in WaPo was scary. He's right that after Trump gets the nomination, the GOP resistance to him, pathetic as it already is, will evaporate. They will all line up behind their king, in the wake of the stink from his diaper, and then what?
The party is dead. It's a corpse. We need Liz Cheney and whoever is left on that side that believes in democracy to start a new party. I'm surprised that hasn't happened yet, TBH.
I saw a few minutes of Nikki Haley on Morning Joe this morning. As much as I detest everything about her, she did make a point. She was calling TFG out but only to a certain point. She rightly claimed that to win the nomination she cannot afford to alienate the MAGAt's. I just realized when I was reading your comment that the way I feel about Haley is the way I used to feel about Liz Cheney. Interesting how standing up for truth can change one's perspective.
Great piece! I've never connected the Spanish Flu and prohibition with why the expats like the Murphys, Hemingway, etc were in Europe.
Thanks! Me, neither, until I started typing. There were certainly other reasons, but it does make sense.
Me neither, but your piece convinced me in "aHa!" moment after "aHa" moment! Thank You, Greg.
That piece left me lost for a long time in a reverie. Generations—my ancestors’, mine, and my grandkids’. Wars—WWI, WWII during my lifetime; too many more. Memories. So many memories. Experiences—the good ones I’ve had, the ones I’ve wished I’d had, the struggles I’ve learned from and grown through. The experiences writers have shared with us. Extreme hardship—the kind that brings someone to end their life. Fascism—then, there, now, and here. Hope. No, I haven’t lost hope. Let me rephrase that. Yes, I still have hope.
Thanks for that, Earl. I think I have generations on the brain because, at 51 and counting, there are now THREE generations behind mine: Z, Alpha, and whatever the babies being born now are called. There is a certain liberation that comes with age. I know, more than before, how much I don't know. But that itself gives me hope.
Thank you for writing about my homeland and one of its brightest writers so eloquently. Knowing from my own multi-generational family trauma how utterly devastating - long-term - nationalism, fascism and tyranny are, it is indeed harrowing to see us all repeat the same horrors, but with much greater weapons of mass extinction at the disposal of utter sociopaths. I wish we would learn from our tragic history, but we seem, as a species, incapable of doing so.
Human animals are the new kid in town and still a work in progress. Next step will be to evolve from human to kind. 💕
Evolution is painful, alas.
Thank you. I don't know as much about Austria as I should, as it's a fascinating country, and its history is so intertwined with European and world history, for better and for worse. I'm sorry for your ancestral trauma.
The West has been at peace for eight decades now, notwithstanding proxy wars and some regional conflicts in the Balkans. That has not happened since the reign of Antoninus Pius in the second century. I think that the horrors of WW2 were so obvious and far-reaching that people everywhere did their best to avoid war, and now, the people who lived through that are very old or dead, and the new generations aren't as versed in the horror. I remember Hannity saying that Stalin couldn't have been so bad because he was our ally in WW2, and I wanted to bang my head against a wall.
I hope we are capable of fending off disaster...check that: I KNOW we are capable, but will we?
Dear Greg, thanks for your response! I think you could go down many deep rabbit holes investigating Austria and its insanely influential (seeing what a small country it is, especially post-WW1) impact on world history.
It seems almost everywhere major decisions were made, some Austrian (many exiled) mind was behind them, for good, and more often, for bad. Edward Bernays, Freud, Hayek, Schrödinger, Doppler, Wittgenstein, Hitler, Waldheim, Schubert, Haydn, Mozart, Mahler, Hundertwasser, Jelinek, Strauss, Klimt, Wagner, Bruckner, Herzl, Gregor Mendel, Konrad Lorenz, Karl von Frisch, Maximilian I, Maria Theresia, Marie Antoinette, Leopold II, Franz Ferdinand, Bela Lugosi, Hedi Lamar, Schwarzenegger... music, literature, acting, art, architecture, philosophy, psychology, physics, biology, economics, propaganda, politics (oh so many of the world’s biggest political upheavals were caused by Austria/ns!) - all massively influenced by people from this tiny, ancient fulcrum of a country.
And so many of its people to this day suffer some form of collective, multigenerational trauma from all these events - without ever properly and maturely dealing with them. It is a dark and deeply fascinating place, one I had to leave as soon as I could, as its darkness and conservatism would have destroyed me 😞
Wow, to see it listed like that is really something. It's fascinating to me how certain places are like this while others are not. For example: my ancestors on my father's side are Slovak. I tried, for something I was writing, to make a list of famous, influential Slovaks. There's basically just Andy Warhol.
Yeah it is weird! I got Slovak and Slovene ancestry and there’s just nowhere near the extent of influencers (Melania Trump!? 🤮) - although several of the Austrians mentioned above were born in the Austrian-Hungarian empire outside of its current borders. But most of their work / influence started in Vienna!
As Jamie Raskin’s father, Marcus said … When everything looks hopeless, you are the hope.
Great quote!
Fascinating Sunday piece of historical significance to ponder Greg, Slainte!!
The confluence of amoral vacuousness and willful ignorance are on full display again...much to unpack in the ghetto of global darknesses. Another well crafted masterpiece that will be shared, thanks!
Thanks, Patrick! Much appreciated.
A wonderful essay. You have a gift for writing. An author who can make you "feel" what you are endeavoring to get across has that gift. Many can get the words across, but not the "feeling." Thank you.