by Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n
National Review Online<\/em><\/p>\n T<\/span>he nature of American technology and confidence in it are now such that our own astounding achievements sometimes insulate us from the unforgiving laws of the natural world that will not go away. What brought down theColumbia<\/i>\u00a0over Texas was not, as our enemies in Iraq claim, an angry god, nor, as pessimists allege, nemesis for our imperial hubris \u2014 but physics itself and the fact we are quite puny humans after all. After over a decade and a half of nearly 100 routine flights, Americans had almost forgotten the near impossibility of missions that send men and women of mere flesh reentering through the sky 200,000 feet above earth’s surface, in thin metal heated to 3,000 degrees, and at Mach-18 speeds.<\/p>\n What is surprising is not just that it is done, but that it has been done so frequently, routinely, and professionally by those who do not just endure it but welcome the ordeal. These are uncertain times when what we once thought were natural things \u2014 like twin 1,000-foot towers projecting into the sky and manned projectiles zooming in from outer space \u2014 have suddenly been proven to be unnatural and thus dangerous after all. They most certainly are \u2014 which is all the more remarkable when we know that just as the towers will rise again, so too the shuttles will once more take off. Such are the expectations of the American people of their natural elite who do such things that most of us cannot. I don’t know whether this American frontier audacity is always sober or wise, but it is a critical part of who we are \u2014 and the world, I think, is a far better place for it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a92004 Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Who we are. by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online The nature of American technology and confidence in it are now such that our own astounding achievements sometimes insulate us from the unforgiving laws of the natural world that will not go away.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","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":[818],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-1hY","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":13332,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-mythical-in-american-politics-what-is-to-be-done-vdhanson-hooverinst\/","url_meta":{"origin":4958,"position":0},"title":"The mythical in American politics; & What is to be done? @VDHanson @HooverInst","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 7, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11187,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/why-trump-is-a-president-like-no-other\/","url_meta":{"origin":4958,"position":1},"title":"Why Trump Is A President Like No Other","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 15, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ American Greatness Conrad Black\u2019s\u00a0erudite biography\u00a0of Donald J. Trump is different from the usual\u00a0in mediis rebus\u00a0accounts of first-year presidents. He avoids the Bob Woodward fly-on-the-wall unattributed anecdote, and \u201cthey say\u201d gossip mongering. Nor is the book a rush-to-publish product from former insiders of the Trump campaign or\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Donald Trump"","block_context":{"text":"Donald Trump","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/donald-trump\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4934,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-american-war-of-war\/","url_meta":{"origin":4958,"position":2},"title":"The American War of War","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 1, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"It's not quite what we've been told. by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online (1)\u00a0In this new age the American military does not like fascists, and it thus will unleash horrific power to eliminate autocrats like Noriega, Milosevic, the Taliban, and Saddam Hussein. (2) It is as difficult to provoke\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "April 2003"","block_context":{"text":"April 2003","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2003\/april-2003\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4051,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-lost-art\/","url_meta":{"origin":4958,"position":3},"title":"The Lost Art","author":"victorhanson","date":"March 13, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"The apology used to show character. by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services Americans have lost the art of saying \"I am sorry.\" Take outgoing Harvard President Larry Summers, who in the past year has apologized repeatedly. His crime? Saying that institutionalized bias might not completely explain the dearth of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "March 2006"","block_context":{"text":"March 2006","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2006\/march-2006\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12130,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/angry-reader-01-09-2020\/","url_meta":{"origin":4958,"position":4},"title":"Angry Reader 01-09-2020","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 9, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"From An Angry Reader: Subject: The Dangers of\u2026YOU Mr. Hanson, It appears that they let just about anyone submit an opinion even a Stanford grad. I guess you didn\u2019t have what it takes to get into Harvard. You are obviously a Republican and that is not a good thing right\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5016,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/so-far-so-good\/","url_meta":{"origin":4958,"position":5},"title":"So Far, So Good?","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 16, 2002","format":false,"excerpt":"Where are all the purported American blunders? by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online It is hard to fathom why the United States has been the subject of such vituperation from Europe and the purported moderate Middle Eastern states. 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