Victor Davis Hanson, an historian, professor (with a Ph.D. in
Classics) and esteemed author, was the honored guest speaker for the
Philadelphia Freedom Center Speaker Series on the evening of December
11, 2012.
Held
at the Philadelphia Ritz-Carlton, we came together for a wonderful
dinner, after which the Philadelphia Freedom Center's, Craig Snider,
introduced Dr. Hanson. The main topic of the evening was, "American
Exceptionalism".
Victor
Davis Hanson, while discussing "American Exceptionalism", assessed the
failure of other cultures and redistributive economies including Rome,
Sicily, North Africa and the Pharaohs, who ruined Egyptian agriculture.
VDH
mentioned that the original urge of civilizations to protect property
lead the way to a constitutional government. Other topics were amnesty,
immigration, Obama, unions, economic strikes, and the NEW Mason-Dixon
Line (250-250-250 aka $250,00) that has arbitrarily been used to
demonize economic success.
And ENVY, that can also be seen as "a
positive" emotion. Not all envy means you want to steal from the
successful, it can merely motivate one to pursue one's own success.
Then, back to Athens, the Persians and Hannibal; Rome and the Goths;
France; Russia, Germany and Japan; the Nationalizing of the British
Heath-Care and Steel Industry and the economic devastation of what had been a successful economy. In terms of success that
was lost and gained, examples were given of Liverpool and Detroit VS
Nagasaki and Hiroshima....
Amazing how many areas VDH was able to touch upon as he examined "American Exceptionalism".
Finally,
the Q and A with questions about the fiscal cliff, voting and
entitlements, qualifications or LACK-of in those who seek or ARE
President of the U.S. And his very astute assessment of human nature and
it's need to WIN. To be on the winning side is more important that what
the issue may be, even in America. If we start to lose we tend to turn
against the cause (as in Iraq)
Hope you enjoy the video. (Please watch the video in HD for best quality)
A perfect end to the evening was a book signing before Dr. Hanson called it a night.
From Wikipedia :
Victor Davis Hanson is an American military historian, columnist,
political essayist and former classics professor, a scholar of ancient
warfare. He has been a commentator on modern warfare and contemporary
politics for
National Review and other media outlets. He was for
many years a professor of classics at California State University,
Fresno, and is currently the Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow at
Stanford University's Hoover Institution. Hanson is currently a Senior
Fellow at the Hoover Institution and Fellow in California Studies at the
Claremont Institute.
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