TWILIGHT OF “KNOW-HOW”

Part Two of a Three-Part Series

The twilight cometh…

By the mid-sixties, ‘know-how’ was outmoded. To mention it was to mark oneself as hopelessly unhip and unaware. The assassination of President Kennedy had soured the nation’s mood, riots tore many of our biggest cities apart, the Vietnam war appeared endless and unwinnable, and street crime was skyrocketing. America’s most cherished institutions were under assault by leading public intellectuals. Talk of ‘know-how’ was out of sync with the national mood.

Events of the seventies generally reinforced this timid, embittered, and cynical spirit. For millions of us, the Watergate Scandal destroyed faith in our government’s essential decency. We questioned its regard for the well-being of the people. Double-digit inflation, repeated recessions, and repeated energy shortages undermined confidence in our material futures. The catastrophic loss in Vietnam, the Iranian Hostage Crisis, and the Soviet Empire’s seemingly unstoppable advances cast a shadow over the future of America itself. The country seemed to be in its twilight.

Many of us took refuge in unrestrained hedonism. We dosed ourselves with psychoactive drugs, entertained multiple lovers, spent inordinate amounts of time in recreational activities, and avoided work when we could. The period was called the “Me Decade” for a reason.

We’ve gone through numerous twists and turns since then, our cultural competence and self-confidence waxing and waning by turns.

In early 2016, we seem to be in another trough. Our largest political parties are discredited. Republicans exhibit pathetic and inexplicable weakness. Democrats appall us with their excessive ambition, the social disruption inherent in their embrace of identity politics, and the moral bankruptcy of their governing model. Our military forces, despite overwhelmingly superior training and weaponry, face defeat after defeat at the hands of barely organized bands of savages. Our national government is mired in seemingly unpayable debt, and few of our leaders even bother to ask how we’re going to deal with it.

How did this happen?  How could ‘know-how’ have slipped through our fingers? Can we recover it?

We believe there is a way back. But it will not be easy.

The Twilight of “Know-How” to be continued…

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