It has all been said before. Historian Barbara Tuchman,
still hopeful, laid it out. ‘In the United States we have a society pervaded
from top to bottom by contempt for the law. Government — including the agencies
of law enforcement — business, labor, students, the military, the poor no less
than the rich, outdo each other in breaking the rules and violating the ethics
that society has established for its protection. The average citizen … is daily
knocked over by incoming waves of venality, vulgarity, irresponsibility,
ignorance, ugliness and trash in all senses of the word.’[1] This view was arrived at
in 1976.
Her
comprehension of history as cyclical serves as hope and warning. We’ve lived
through this before. One of my history professors (an Englishman) remarked
unforgettably that the United States was by far the most lawless country in the
world. And the role of President is not that of Sun King, although Tuchman
believed it bewitched its occupants and dazzled the public.
I
doubt that Australia needs a Presidential republic. I wonder who is fit to be
head of state?
[1] Barbara
Tuchman, “On Our Birthday — America As Idea,” in Practising History: Selected Essays by Barbara Tuchman (London:
Macmillan, 1983), p.305.
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