Quote of the Day (Ralph Ellison, on Americans’ ‘Limited Attention to History’)

“At best Americans give but a limited attention to history. Too much happens too rapidly, and before we can evaluate it, or exhaust its meaning or pleasure, there is something new to concern us. Ours is the tempo of the motion picture, not that of the still camera, and we waste experience as we wasted the forest.” —American novelist and essayist Ralph Ellison (1913-1994), Shadow and Act (1964)

Ours is no longer “the tempo of the motion picture,” or even the 24/7 news cycle, but instead TikTok. Fear for any nation that not only no longer remembers the past but isn’t even inclined to learn about it.