You know the story of the ant and the grasshopper? The ant is disciplined, the grasshopper parties as if the good times will last forever—but then winter descends; the ant was correct. Americans were always energetic grasshoppers as well as energetic ants, a sui generis crossbreed, which is why we have been so successful as a nation. Our moxie always came in the two basic types. We possessed the unexciting virtues embodied by the Puritans and their secular descendants like Ben Franklin: steady hard work, frugality, sobriety, and common sense. And then there’s our wilder, faster, and looser
...more
