Silly Little Country

A Sorry Decline

I have struggled myself a bit with my reactions to Barack Obama's 'race' speech (stirring and off the mark) but Christopher Hitchens lets go, reasonably, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King's assassination. It is truly sad how we have sunk since then.

When Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered, I was 19 years old and fancifully considered myself to be far to the left of him. Notwithstanding that, he felt to me like one of my moral elders and tutors (as he still does).

To my surprise, the Dude was my age at the time!

Later in 1968, Bobby Kennedy would be killed. This left Ted, whose performance at the David Petraeus hearings today was a solid reminder of how limited the Kennedy magic was and is. Rambling and ridiculous, clearly working off notes, and still incoherent.

It was not so clear in 1968 how much we had lost, though it was devastating at the time.

The political choices in 1968 wound up being awful, and I fear we are back there again now.

Labels: sixties politics decadence

posted by Alan Adamson @ 6:46 PM