PrintSeptember 15, 2013
The Myth of the Incorrigible American Genius
If I'm to concede a point to the advocates of diversity, it is that having multiple perspectives on certain practical matters is greatly beneficial. Men, who can confuse custom for righteousness, are oftentimes so blind to the unreasonableness of their own traditions and the possibility of better paths, that they frequently ostracize and persecute the greatest of visionaries and prophets, and stagnate in cesspools of their own willful ignorance.
To put this another way, to think forwardly is to think things that others have either forgotten or things they have never thought, but it is always certainly to think things that nobody else is comfortable thinking. To believe the things we believe today, we had to stop believing the things we believed yesterday. To believe the things we will believe tomorrow, we will have to cease believing some things we believe today.
True genius, in other words, is simply individualized thought -- and if it was not individual,...(Read Full Article)
