Was Lincoln Overrated?

A prophet is not welcome in their own hometown

Abraham Lincoln — I would imagine our view of historic and pivotal figures is colored by how much effort we exert to learn about them. There are ample opportunities to learn more with Honest Abe.

A deadline shifted my Substack till noon — lunchtime reading?

One Part Belief, One Part Fear

An older post was about Supernovas but it started with Oppenheimer. Nothing makes me happier in my book club or movie viewing than when people have great differences of opinion. I loved the movie. I also enjoyed the humorous take that it was a three-hour movie about a security clearance. While I think a lot of people will enjoy the movie, I am not hearing a lot of people who reduced it to what I thought it was about.

Iron Deficiency

While a lot of important cultural and technological advancements occurred in Europe from the 1400s forward, my opinion is a major development was centered upon three monotheistic religions — Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

While they all have Abraham in common, you’d never know it in the way they treat each other. Many years ago a good friend recommended a book. It was a short read but has stayed with me, for now, twenty years. It was simply titled “Abraham” and was written by Bruce Feiler. It was an eloquent explanation of what might unite so many of us rather than the path we have taken. As a lover of history, it is hard to miss or ignore the profound role of anti-Semitism that shaped Europe and its ex-pats. The role of Christianity and Islam in this smoldering hatred is hard to ignore.

Part of the story of “Oppenheimer” is everyone did all they could to ignore the contributions to understanding our world as particle physics emerged. The United States was not profoundly tolerant of the Jews, they were simply less oppressive than the places many of the scientists fled. By the time of the war, Jews had largely been herded into Poland or confined in Russia. There were more Jews in Poland than in ALL OF WESTERN & SOUTHERN EUROPE combined. For centuries, abject hatred and animus had played a terrible role. Everywhere else they had been ostracized for centuries. For me, the broader story of Oppenheimer was that their contributions were tolerated but the celebration was simply impossible for American culture. At some level the persecution and the emergence of the Communist witch hunt was inevitable.

I am an optimist and believe life improves. I also believe there is a way to go. The emergence of Neo-Nazis coming out of the woodwork is a story of PROFOUND ignorance over the last 20 years in America and Europe. It is depressing to me. There seem to be apologists at the ready after all these years. For frequent readers, my favorite shorthand that bothers me is the tendency of people to know something is wrong but fall back on “yeah but” to protect their tribe. Amongst lawyers as the joke goes, this is simply pounding the table. We can be better. When I began voting in 1980 I never dreamed that things like the Confederate flag or Neo-Nazi mentality would become a minority component of a major party coalition. I can only assume many in such a party (the overwhelming majority I hope) simply have figured out how to say “yeah but” look at the other guys and consider that enough. For me, these ideologies are deal-breakers. I respect but fear that for many, “yeah but” is a better rationalization. Mine is just an opinion. If we meet IRL, I hope we avoid “yeah but”.

What’s The Macro Result?

Google Search transformed the world. Sure there are other search engines. Russians use Yandex and the Chinese use Baidu. It is not clear to me that things have changed enough in the 75 years since the end of WW II. I do believe America remains the world’s best hope. I believe people vote with their feet. It is the reason America remains the destination. What does this have to do with Google? Look up Sergei Brin. Understand the trials for his family. How did he end up at Stanford? Bring me your tired, your poor, your oppressed minorities. Understand why they never gave up hope to get here. Another Jewish ex-pat who managed to make a difference. The brain drain in Russia is palpable. The brain drain in Europe was profound during the 19th and 20th Century. History can continue to repeat itself if we can resist “yeah but”.

Over the next twenty years, the same thing will happen in China. Families that have the means will get their children here for a better life. A master race of Han Chinese and a top-down what you should think mentality (bias reinforcement) has led to a profound and ongoing genocide in Western China near the Gobi Desert. What is the crime of the Uighurs? They are not “real Chinese”. Did you know that China is “encouraging” Han relocation to dilute the Uighur gene pool? It is profoundly disturbing and reminiscent of racial purity NONSENSE we have witnessed before. Everyone could use the reminder of where it leads. Humans from anywhere on this planet share 99.6% of their base-pair DNA. Stop saying and thinking stupid s#$%. Most of all, if something dumb trickles into your head, resist the urge to say “yeah but”. The next time you see neo-Nazis carrying tastefully modified American flags and chanting “The Jews will not replace us”, please realize that supporting such a movement AND the party that accommodates them, is a far cry beyond “yeah but”. I’ve had people I know well refer to all of this as “just mean Tweets”. All of us, in our hearts, know it is much more than this.

The better angel in all of us needs to believe this movement can be squashed. What nearly 80 years since the end of World War II also advises is passivity and tolerance are not the answer. The lesser angel in all of us believes there is no consequence to who we choose to represent us. As a lover of history, I believe it is instructional. I believe that history teaches us is decisions we make collectively have consequences. I do not believe when we go to the polls we have any sense of the consequences. We vote on our hunches. Save for Jesus Christ, more books have been written about Abraham Lincoln than anyone who ever walked the earth. Abraham Lincoln in the election of 1860 lost the vote in his home county. He is the only President in our history that was not welcome in his hometown. [now the subtitle of this post might make sense]

What is the lesson of history and the consequences of decisions at some moment in time? I read a whitepaper a long time ago about the angst in the US State Department when nations reach a crossroads. The expression that focuses their concern is “One person, one vote, one time”. The gist is whatever a culture might feel is its essence will sometimes be at stake when we least expect it. Long after I read the whitepaper, I saw the expression appear in the news as elections approached in Iraq and later Afghanistan. I doubt that people when they voted in 1860 saw the election as existential. The US is the most amazing of experiments. We were founded out of conflict with England. Nearly 100 years later, Lincoln presided over the execution of war over America’s original sin. As a young five or so, much of America burned almost 100 years later as we navigated the cashing of the check written on the blood of the Civil War. Almost fifty years later, (1) mass shootings in a Synagogue in Pittsburgh (2) Neo-Nazis marching in Virginia to the din of “the Jews will not replace us”. It is inconceivable to me at least that many don’t realize the gamble they face as America faces a pivot again. Sometimes the election is not about what your marginal tax rate might be.

The Poll & Music

With the awareness the only constant is change, I realize I, like many, suffer from recency bias. Not every decision is pivotal. Some just feel larger than others. Mostly, when I am not sure of myself, I examine how reversible a decision might be and what are the consequences. I feel we are amidst big decisions with big consequences.