That seems to me the great American danger we're all in, that we'll bargain away the experience of being alive for the appearance of it.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Americans' great and secret fear is that America may turn out to be a phenomenon rather than a civilization.
You're not supposed to risk your life just for the physical safety of American citizens - you're supposed to risk your life for American ideals as well.
Americans have discovered the fragility of life, that ominous fragility that the rest of the world either already experienced or is experiencing now with terrible intensity.
The mind of America is seized by a fatal dry rot - and it's only a question of time before all that the mind controls will run amuck in a frenzy of stupid, impotent fear.
We all have to be concerned about the world being very dangerous.
The present danger which this country faces is at least as great as the danger which we faced during the war with Germany and Japan. Briefly stated, it is the very real danger that this country, as we know it, may cease to exist.
There's an appeal to the American sense of exceptionalism, that we're morally superior, as way to not be self-critical. I think that's a bit dangerous.
To be alive at all involves some risk.
The decision to put American lives at risk is a decision that has a very high hurdle to pass.
Great tragedy has come to us, and we are meeting it with the best that is in our country, with courage and concern for others because this is America. This is who we are.