Fingerspitzengefuhl.  There is no equivalent word in English.  Expertise doesn't quite fit.  Know-how comes closer.  Literally, the German word means "fingertip-feeling."  The sense of the word is an intuition, both deep and broad, about the nature of things.  Such intuition comes from hands-on experience of what works and what doesn't work.  For convenience, we will refer to the German word as gefuhl. For centuries, our nation's rapid ascendency has been because of the plentiful gefuhl in America.  Much of it was brought to our shores by technically skilled immigrants – many from Germany.  More than that, Americans, of pioneering necessity, became practical people, taking pride in know-how.  Gefuhl best describes the original American practical culture. No more.  Today the elitist media, academic, and political culture is more comfortable with airy abstractions.  Real-world experience is...(Read Full Article)