true greatness of a nation
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“Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does. “
—
William James
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So.
Every time I see a television these days there seems to be someone telling me what I am supposed to think is happening in my country and what I should think is right or wrong about my country <mostly wrong it appears like>. but maybe the part that sticks in my craw the most is how they deign to tell me, to define for me, what ‘greatness’ or exceptionalism, is.
It aggravates me because as I listen to these people speak …. these people who desire to influence the minds and thinking of millions of people say they make a difference but act in ways that make me think they do not understand their responsibility with regard to making a difference.
But.
It mostly aggravates me because I don’t think they get it right … how they speak about greatness … but then I wondered if would I be able to get it right. I know I have struggled to figure out what the “best version, a nobler version of I” is and could be.
Then I remembered a quote I had saved. A quote from a guy named LE Blaze who was a Sri Lankan educationist and the founder of Kingswood College <originally a high school for boys in Sri Lanka> and received the Order of the British Empire.
Let’s just say he was most likely really smart but most of us have never heard of him.
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“The true greatness of a nation is not measured by the vastness of its territory, or by the multitude of its people, or by the profusion of its exports and imports; but by the extent to which it has contributed to the life and thought and progress of the world.
A man’s greatness is not estimated by the size of his body or of his purse; not by his family connections or social position, however high these may be. He may bulk large in public estimation today, but tomorrow he will be forgotten like a dream, and his very servants may secure a higher position and a name lasting possibly a little longer.
A man’s greatness is estimated by his influence, not over the votes and empty cheers of a changing and passing crowd, but by his abiding, inspiring influence in their bidden thoughts, upon their ways of thinking, and consequently of acting.
That is why the Wycliffes, Shakespeares, Miltons, Newtons, Wesleys, and Gladstones of English history live, and will live, in everlasting memory, while lesser men are remembered only through them, and the crowd of demagogues, pretenders, and self-seekers are named, if ever named, only to “point a moral, or adorn a tale.”
So with nations.
A great nation is not one which, like Russia, has an enormous territory ; or, like China, has an enormous population. It is the nation which gives mankind new modes of thought, new ideals of life, new hopes, new aspirations; which lifts the world out of the rut, and sets it going on a cleaner and brighter road.”
–
L. E. Blaze, Lecture at the D. B. U. Hall, November 26, 1926
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<Sigh>
I want to hear more of this on our television and out of the mouths of leaders.
This is the nation I want to live in and hear people talking about on television, in coffee shops, in schools, on the streets and in the home:
“It is the nation which gives mankind new modes of thought, new ideals of life, new hopes, new aspirations; which lifts the world out of the rut, and sets it going on a cleaner and brighter road.”
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Written by Bruce
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