The Un-Strenuous Life

I was reading a review of American Speeches: Political Oratory from the Revolution to the Civil War on Claremont Review of Books (a fantastic website and an amazing publication, by the way) when I ran across the following quote from Teddy Roosevelt, from his speech The Strenuous Life.

When men fear work or fear righteous war, when women fear motherhood, they tremble on the brink of doom; and well it is that they should vanish from the earth, where they are fit subjects for the scorn of all men and women who are themselves strong and brave and high-minded.

Is this not a perfect description of the Liberal society? Of Europe, of New York City, of San Francisco, of Berkeley, of every corner of Blue America?

Men do fear work. Many American men are obsessed not with work, but with play — sports, movies, and entertainment. Liberals view work as something to be avoided, and the free market as something to be viewed with suspicion. And of course, motherhood is simply a symbol of phallocentric sexist society seeking to oppress women. Europe is already there, with their six weeks of paid vacation, inflexible labor policy, and 1.3 births per woman. Parts of the liberal Northeast are on their way to matching France and Belgium and Spain.

No wonder then that our enemies from Bin Laden to Ahmadinejad to Hugo Chavez believe that we are weak, a mere paper tiger, whose will can easily be broken.

But continue reading the speech and more comes to light. Imagine listening to Roosevelt as he thundered:

Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat. If in 1861 the men who loved the Union had believed that peace was the end of all things, and war and strife the worst of all things, and had acted up to their belief, we would have saved hundreds of thousands of lives, we would have saved hundreds of millions of dollars. Moreover, besides saving all the blood and treasure we then lavished, we would have prevented the heartbreak of many women, the dissolution of many homes, and we would have spared the country those months of gloom and shame when it seemed as if our armies marched only to defeat. We could have avoided all this suffering simply by shrinking from strife. And if we had thus avoided it, we would have shown that we were weaklings, and that we were unfit to stand among the great nations of the earth. (emphasis added)

His words ring so true to the present conflict in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Iran, in Syria, and elsewhere around the world where freedom and liberty are under assault.  The Dhimmicrats in Congress are still striving for retreat and withdrawal from Iraq.  Perhaps some of them believe that peace is the end of all things, and war and strike the worst of all things.  They act out of conscience and principle.  Some may act out of genuine compassion for the families of soldiers, wives who have lost their husbands, children who have lost their father or mother, those who grieve.  Some may call for peace — or worse still, a “peace process” — instead of robust war out of genuine concern for the hundreds of billions being spent on weapons and things that kill and destroy, as well as the tens of thousands of young men and women being sent to kill and to die in the sands of Iraq.

We will avoid all this suffering simply by shrinking from strife.  This is true.  And if we do thus avoid war, if we do thus bring our men and women home, if we do thus avoid strife with Iran, if we do thus allow the mullahs to acquire nuclear weapons, if we do thus abandon the millions of Iraqi men, women and children to civil war brought on by Al Qaeda… then we will show that we are indeed weaklings, and that we are unfit to stand among the great nations of the earth.

-TS