We seem, as it were, to have conquered and peopled half the world in a fit of absence of mind.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I think we were just coming out and being ourselves, instead of operating within boundaries that other people had created. We decided to do away with those boundaries.
We also thought of ourselves in racial and largely ethnic terms.
We have gone through everything as a nation - partition, dictatorship, and even anarchy.
We're a whole culture of people who have a really hard time seeing beyond themselves.
We have a sense that we should be like the mythical cowboy... able to take on and conquer anything and live in the world without the need for other people.
The other half is to dramatize the fact that we still 'are' human beings, now. Or can be.
It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves.
We view ourselves on the eve of battle. We are nerved for the conquest and must conquer or perish. It is vain to look for present aid: None is at hand. We must now act or abandon all hope!
The world survived the fall of the Roman empire and will no doubt outlast our own so much more splendid civilisation.
Conquered, we conquer.