In this weekend episode, Victor Davis Hanson talks with cohost Sami Winc about right and left politics and politicians in the US, the nature of war in our Civil War, and current military promotions stalled by Sen. Tuberville.
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We must remember that in a democracy or a state governed by the rule of law, there are ways and means available to each and every to defend themselves and to express their agreements and disagreements. Let’s use these channels and abandon the others!
All hail the mighty VDH! You are our Delphi oracle. Sami is the priestess. Tell us: will the great influx of aliens become our conscripts for WWIII?
Re: the appeal of Southern gentility vs Northern neuroses. (Don’t fall down the woke rabbit hole of seeing all thru slavery.) Consider the agricultural basis of one culture versus the industrial basis of the other. To work on an assembly line of mindless repetition with deafening machinery in a suffocating enclosure is diabolical torture. To till the earth, breath air under the great blue sky and, albeit damn hard work, to harvest the abundance of nature, yes, is to be near God. Many in the boss class in either culture were equally inhuman for obviously different reasons.
The Left, the Right . . so much political tripe! No eagle will fly without both wings.
Re: Sami–optimism and the naked truth
Too much wisdom and prudence bring pain, depression, doubt, and lower levels of vitality, whereas foolishness brings people happiness and keeps people vitally active. –re expressed from an online analysis of The Praise of Folly by Erasmus
Or, as some say,”Ignorance is bliss.”
To contemplate our being, or not, that is the challenge,
Jack is better than Sami. Her nervous giggle, her interjections, her shallow questions, all make her sound more like an NPR host. That’s the dilemma with the Sami broadcasts-I want to hear Victor, but I have to listen to her as the host.
Of course we are all entitled to our opinion and welcome it but I’m not in agreement with your statement about Sami. I believe she is respectful of the Professor and his time. Yes, there are times she finds difficulty completing thoughts in questioning VDH and sometimes the Professor talks over her so she concedes but I like the differences between Sami and Jack. Jack has a better voice and appears to have more experience with the platform but he tends to interject his personal ideas more. After all, it is the Professor’s show.
A nation is not a bird.
Although, plenty of turkeys live now in our large cities.
Re: The industrial workers of the mid-1800s, I believe you may be making the mistake of applying our modern sympathies to the historical era over 150 years ago. What choices were available to those workers at the time? People flooded into these factory jobs, as bad as conditions *may* have been, because in their calculations of their economic options, it was better than other alternatives for themselves and to provide for their families. It might make sense if they, say, didn’t relish the idea of subsistence level farming or being at the mercy of the whims of nature. You may wish to read up on the difficulty of farming without modern machinery and chemicals. It seems very short-sighted to pronounce a modern moral judgment on those people without being very familiar with the constraints they had to engage with at the time.
This was an insightful episode on the US civil war, Jim Crow, and the current South. I must have listened and read 50x about Sherman, including reading VDH’s book, Ripple of battles, on the battle of Shiloh. I learn more about Sherman everytime. I thought it was a very powerful reminder that 650,000 Americans died over the slavery issue. That’s roughly 2% of US population at the time!!
I think in a multiracial society, the charge of racism will always be used as a weapon by politicians and opportunists. It is up to us, the American people, to know our history and to defend her. This would be a great stats to memorize and share.
US POPULATION – Study.com:
around 30,800,000 peopleThe population of the United States in 1865 was around 30,800,000 people. In 1860, a census came back of 31,443,321 people, but with about 620,000 deaths occuring during the Civil War between April of 1861 and May of 1865, that number would have dropped.
Good insight that the percentage killed in the Civil War is about 2%.
If the USA population is 340 million today, then 2% lost in battle is 6.8 million dead.
Hello Professor Hanson,
Thanks for creating this podcast as always, really appreciate it! I’m currently a grad student in the US, though I’m originally from Malaysia. As I’m not a US citizen, I don’t want to comment too much on your politics. However, I just wanted to comment a little about the news regarding drugs in the White House – the penalty for drug use & distribution in Malaysia (as well as Singapore) is the death penalty by hanging, perhaps the US could reduce drug use & distribution through even more severe penalties?
Anyways, just wanted to say that I really appreciate you creating this podcast. Thank you, and have a good day!
We’re too soft here, and throughout the West, to implement the death penalty for drug use and distribution. We have trouble justifying using the death penalty for someone convicted of premeditated murder. We’re too squeamish.
Thank you Khai Xuan for sharing about the criminal penalty for drug use and distribution in Malaysia. The death penalty would deter most people from using drugs.
If the drugs found in the White House are from someone who works there or lives there then it is a very poor reflection on American and its government.
Victor – Thank you for sharing about the United States military’s efforts to create a democrat utopia consisting of homosexuals, transvestites, feminists, and racist equity advocates.
It very well may be that the military’s actions are to further a Woke culture and change society.
All our world foes are laughing at us and are eagerly looking forward to decimating us in battle.
Victor – Thanks for teaching about the nature of the American Civil War. General Sherman and General Grant practice of war can be thought to have complemented each other as Grant tied the opposition up in a conventional war which allowed Sherman to execute manuevers to demoralize the South, re-elect Lincoln and win the war.
To avoid war, it seems that the North would need to abide by the rule of law and uphold the Constitution and the decisions of the Supreme Court. Unionists could have worked through the legislative process to attempt to abolish slavery and likely failing, should have turned their efforts into regulating its practice so that it was no longer abusive and unending while negotiating with the South to end its practice entirely.
The Bible offers regulations for the Israelites in how to treat their fellow Jews as slaves. Differences in attitude, practice, and release were prescribed for Israel as it was to enter the Promised Land. There were also guidelines on how to treat slaves of conquered peoples whose nations God meant to judge their sins with death but permitted some to instead become slaves.
If the United States reformed the practice of slavery to make it more humane and implemented freedom after six years of service as the Jews were to do then that would have given the southern slave owner and goverments time to phase slavery out and prevent the war.
Victor – In regards to the North upholding the rule of law even when it is believed to be immoral and inhumane is legalized abortion.
It is estimated that there have been over 60 million infant killings since abortion’s legalization. These babies in the womb were innocent and defenseless. While some suffered horribly in their deaths, others survived their abortions with wounds.
This, too, is a great injustice. May God have mercy on our souls.