I Do Think We're On The Edge

All Modern U.s. Presidents Are Perforce Politicians, Prisoners Of Their Past Pronouncements, Their Party, Their Constituency, And Their Colleagues.

My Generation Those Who Were Students In The Late 60s Was Always, In The Words Of The Who, Talking About Our Generation. That's What We Thought Of Ourselves, As The Most Important Thing Since Sliced Bread. And The "we" That We Meant Was Really The Western Europeans And American Generation. And As I Think Back I Suppose I Have A Sense Of Guilt On Behalf Of My Generation, A Sense That We Were Terribly Provincial And Didn't Understand The Really Important Stuff That Was Going On In Eastern Europe.

Yugoslavia Served As A Reminder That The Lessons Of World War Two Were Only Partially Learned. There's A Great Line Someone Wrote In The Middle Of The 1990s, At The Time When Clinton Was Agonizing About Whether Or Not To Go Into Bosnia: "everyone Says, 'never Again. Never Again.' But All They Really Mean Is Never Again Will Germans Kill Jews In The Streets Of Warsaw".

We Know What Things Cost But Have No Idea What They Are Worth.

I Do Think We're On The Edge Of A Terrifying World, And That Many Young People Know That But Don't Know How To Talk About It.