{"id":13690,"date":"2021-07-05T20:27:37","date_gmt":"2021-07-06T03:27:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/?p=13690"},"modified":"2021-07-05T20:27:37","modified_gmt":"2021-07-06T03:27:37","slug":"the-genesis-of-our-american-collective-meltdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-genesis-of-our-american-collective-meltdown\/","title":{"rendered":"The Genesis of our American Collective Meltdown"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ <em>American Greatness<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This Fourth of July holiday we might pause for a moment from our festivities to ask how we collectively lost our minds over the last 15 months\u2014and are we yet regaining any semblance of our sanity?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A pandemic caused by the leak of a Chinese-engineered virus and its coverup was cause enough for nationwide madness. But the spread of COVID-19 was followed by a nationalized and often politicized \u201cflatten-the-curve\u201d quarantine that soon ensured a stir-crazy nation. Tens of millions saw no people, and heard nothing human other than what was fed to them through television and computers. No wonder they grew paranoid, conspiratorial, and angry, and soon forgot the therapeutic nature of personal interaction and the shared humanity of being in the physical presence of others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/amgreatness.com\/2021\/07\/04\/the-genesis-of-our-american-collective-meltdown\/\">CONTINUE READINGS&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ American Greatness This Fourth of July holiday we might pause for a moment from our festivities to ask how we collectively lost our minds over the last 15 months\u2014and are we yet regaining any semblance of our sanity?&nbsp; A pandemic caused by the leak of a Chinese-engineered virus and its coverup [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-3yO","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1329,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/oil-rich-america\/","url_meta":{"origin":13690,"position":0},"title":"Oil-Rich America?","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 12, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services There is a revolution going on in America. But it is not part of the Tea Party or the loud Occupy Wall Street protests. Instead, massive new reserves of gas, oil, and coal are being discovered almost everywhere in the United States, due\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Energy&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Energy","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/energy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7749,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-end-of-nato\/","url_meta":{"origin":13690,"position":1},"title":"The End of NATO?","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 7, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Major existential problems mean the organization may soon unravel. by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review Online Istanbul\u00a0\u2014 April marked the 65th birthday of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, formed at the height of the Cold War to stop the huge post-war Red Army from overrunning Western Europe. NATO in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;The World&quot;","block_context":{"text":"The World","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/pic_giant_080714_SM_NATO-Flag-DT-500x291.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13624,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-cruel-progressive-creed-undoing-civilization\/","url_meta":{"origin":13690,"position":2},"title":"The Cruel Progressive Creed Undoing Civilization","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 28, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ American Greatness Debt is suffocating us. Our currency is on its way to being Lebanonized.\u00a0 Most major American cities are broke, dirty, unsafe, and run by either corrupt incumbents, neo-Marxists, or both. The law is optional,\u00a0 and applied asymmetrically on the basis of race and ideology.\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-cruel-progressive-creed-undoing-civilization\/#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13803,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/chinas-greater-east-asia-co-prosperity-sphere\/","url_meta":{"origin":13690,"position":3},"title":"China&#8217;s Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 26, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ American Greatness Stonewalling investigations into the origins of COVID-19 in Wuhan? A hundred new hardened intercontinental nuclear missiles silos? Dressing down U.S. diplomats on purported American racism?\u00a0 Braggadocio about nuking non-nuclear and once-nuked Japan, if need be? Winks and nods that Taiwan will soon be Hong-Kongized?\u00a0\u00a0\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 2 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 2 comments","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/chinas-greater-east-asia-co-prosperity-sphere\/#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Flag_of_the_Peoples_Republic_of_China.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Flag_of_the_Peoples_Republic_of_China.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Flag_of_the_Peoples_Republic_of_China.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Flag_of_the_Peoples_Republic_of_China.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1502,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/american-decline-is-a-state-of-mind\/","url_meta":{"origin":13690,"position":4},"title":"American Decline Is a State of Mind","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 15, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services We are hearing of all sorts of reasons why the United States is doomed to decline. After all, America is piling up deficits at a record rate of about $1.5 trillion a year while other countries are slashing their spending. The national debt\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;July 2010&quot;","block_context":{"text":"July 2010","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2010\/july-2010\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4118,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-american-21st-century\/","url_meta":{"origin":13690,"position":5},"title":"The American 21st Century","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 2, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online The current debt, recession, wars, and political infighting have depressed Americans into thinking their country soon will be overtaken by more vigorous rivals abroad. Yet this is an American fear as old as it is improbable. In the 1930s, the Great Depression supposedly\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;America's Future&quot;","block_context":{"text":"America's Future","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/americas-future\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13690"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13690"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13690\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13691,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13690\/revisions\/13691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}