Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Jonah Goldberg: Against Despair

Maybe things will work out better than I expect with another four years of Barack Obama in the White House. Crazier things have happened.

But that’s not how I’d bet.

My only real counsel for the moment is against despair. Despair is the gateway drug to cynicism and Nockian indifference. Our problems are too great and our cause too just for that. There is time to take a time out and have a drink (or fifty). But it’s worth remembering that the cause is only lost if you leave it and choose to never find it again. “Never despair,” Edmund Burke allegedly said, “but if you do, work in despair.” I don’t know that Burke actually said that, but whoever did was right.

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