George Weigel observes:
“the deepest currents of history are spiritual and cultural, rather than political and economic…history is not simply the by-product of the contest for power in the world — although power plays an important role…And history is certainly not the exhaust fumes produced by the means of production, as the Marxists taught. Rather, history is driven, over the long haul, by culture — sby what men and women honor, cherish, worship; by what societies deem to be true and good and noble; by the expressions they give to those convictions in language, literature, and the arts; by what individuals and societies are willing to stake their lives on.”
In other words, regardless of how you understand it or express it — whether you even acknowledge it or not — our national fortunes depend upon the spiritual choices we make. Staying alive to those choices and making them with courage are the measure of a nation’s place in history.
Happy Fourth…
George Weigel, The Cube and the Cathedral, Europe, America, and Politics without God (New York: Basic Books, 2005): 30.