Past Tense--- "Our Squandered Inheritance of Freedom"

This was originally published in a Newspaper Column on the Eve of World War II, June 22, 1940. I discovered this Essay in one of the many old Books in My Father's Library, an old American Lit textbook called "The American Tradition" published in 1943 to be exact. I believe It quite accurately illustrates the cyclical Nature of our American History, and that every old Crisis is new yet again. One can only hope that We faire as well as Our Predecessors during Our own Hour of Trial.--- SD

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Our Squandered inheritance of Freedom

By Walter Lippmann

UPON the standard to which the Wise and Honest will now Repair It is written: "You have lived The easy Way; henceforth You will live the hard Way."

It is written: " You came into a great Heritage made by the Insight and Sweat and the Blood of The Inspired and Devoted and Courageous Men; thoughtlessly and in utmost Self-Indulgence You have all but squandered this Inheritance. Nwo only by the heroic Virtues which made this Inheritance can You restore It again."

It is written: "You took the good Things for granted. Now You must earn Them again."

It is written: "For every Right you cherish You have a Duty You must Fulfill." For every Hope You entertain You have a Task You must perform. For every Goode You wish to preserve You will have to sacrifice Your Comfort and Your Ease. There is Nothing for Nothing any longer."

For Twenty Years the free Peoples of the Western World have taken the easy Way, Ourselves more lightheartedly than any Others. That is why the Defenses of Western Civilization have crumbled. That is why We find Ourselves Tonight knowing that We here in American may be the last Stronghold of Our Civilization-- the isolated and beleaguered Citadel of Law and Liberty, of Mercy and Charity, of Justice among Men, and of Love and Good Will.

We mean to defend that Citadel.; We mean, I believe, to make It the ultimate Centre to Resistance to the Evil which is devastating the World, and, more than That, more than the Centre of Resistance, We mean to make It the Centre of the Resurrection, the Source of the Energies by which the Men who believe as We do might be liberated, and the Lands that are subjugated redeemed, and the World We live in purified and pacified once more. This is the American Destiny, and unless We fulfill that Destiny, We shall make Our own Future meaningless, chaotic, and low.

But We shall not resist the Evil that has come into the World, not prepare the Resurrection in which We believe, IF We continue to take as We have so persistently the easy Way in all Things. Let Us remind Ourselves in these Twenty Years We have at the critical Junctures taken always the Road of least Effort and the Method of the cheapest Solution and of the greatest Self-Indulgence.

We participated in a War which ended in the victory of the Free Peoples. It was hard to make a goode and magnanimous Peace. It was easier to make a bad and unworkable Peace. We took the easiest Way.

Having sacrificed Blood and Treasure to Win the War, having failed to establish quickly at the first Stroke a goode and lasting Peace, It was too hard, it was too much Trouble, to keep on trying. We gave up. We took the easy Way, the Way that required Us to do Nothing, and We passed Resolutions and made pious Declarations that there was not going to be anymore War, that War was henceforth Outlawed.

Thus We entered the Twenties, refusing to organize the Peace of the World, because it was too much Trouble, believing, because that was no Trouble at all, that Peace would last by declaring It ought to last. So though the World was disorganized and in Anarchy, We decided to disarm Ourselves and the Other Democracies. That was also the easy Way. It saved Money. It saved Effort.

In this mood We faced the Problems of Reconstruction from the other War. It was too much Trouble to make a workable settlement of Reparations and of the War Debts. It was easier to let Them break down and wreck the Finances of the World. We took the easier Way. It was too much Trouble to work out Arrangements for the Resumption of Trade because it was too much Trouble to deal with the vested Interests of the Lobbyists and the Politicians. It was easier to let the Trade of the World be strangled by Tariffs, Quotas, and Exchange Controls. And We took the easy Way. It was easier to trade based upon the exchange of Goodes. We indulged Ourselves in the inflationary Boom and let It run because It was too much Trouble to check It, that threw about 25 Million Here and Abroad out of Work and destroyed the Savings of a large part of the People of all Countries.

Having got to That, It was hard to liquidate the Inflation. It was easier to cover the Inflation up and pretend that It did not Exist. So We took the easier way, We maintained the Tariffs, We maintained the Wage Rates, We maintained the Costs and Expenditures of the Boom, thus made it impossible to recover from the Crash. And the Failure of the Recovery produced at the Foundations of Western Civilization a revolutionary Discontent. So We were properly frightened. But It was hard to make the Effort and the Sacrifice to Remedy the Discontent. And, because it as hard, We did not do It. All that We did was to accuse One Another of being economic royalists on the one Hand, and economic lunatics on the Other. It was easier to call Names than do Anything Else, so We called Names.

Then, out of this Discontent there was bred in the Heart of Europe from the Rhine to the Urals and organized Rebellion against the whole Heritage of Western Civilization. It was easy to Disapprove, and We Disapproved. It was hard to organize and prepare the Resistance: that would have required Money and Effort and Sacrifice and Discipline and Courage. We watched the Rebellion grow.We heard It threaten the Things We believe in. We saw It commit, Year after Year, savage Crimes. We disliked It all. But we liked better our easygoing Ways, Our Jobs, Our Profits, Our Pleasures so We said It is bad, but It won't last; It is dangerous, but It can't cross the Ocean, It is Evil, but if We armed Ourselves and disciplined Ourselves, and acted with other Free Peoples to contain It and hold It back, We should be giving up Our Ease and Comfort, We should be taking Risks, and that is more Trouble than We care to take.

So We are where We are Today. We are where We are because whenever We had a Choice to make, We have chosen the alternative that required the least Effort at the moment. There is organized mechanized Evil loose in the World. But what has made possible Its Victories is the lazy, self-indulgent, Materialism, the Amiable, lackadaisical, footless, confused, Complacency of the Free Nations of the World. They have dissipated, like Wastrels and Drunkards the Inheritance of Freedom and Order that came to Them from thrifty, faithful, hard-working, believing, and brave Men. The Disaster in the midst of which We are living is a disaster in the Character of Men. It is a Catastrophe of the Soul of a whole Generation which had forgotten, had lost, had renounced, the imperative and indispensable Virtues of laborious, heroic, and honourable Men.

To these Virtues We shall return the Ordeal through which We must now pass, or all that still remains will be lost, and all that We attempt, in order to defend It, will be in Vain. We shall turn from the soft Vices in which a Civilization decays; We shall return to the stern Virtues by which a Civilization is made; We shall do this because, at long last, We know that We must, because finally, We begin to see that the hard Way is the only enduring Way.