Posted by
Laura L. Hollis, JD on Tuesday, March 23, 2010 11:56:05 AM
It's an impossible task to pick out the "best" passage in a Mark Steyn piece. But here's a good one:
"Take a city like Vienna. Once upon a time it was an imperial capital. The empire
busted up, but the capital still had magnificent architecture, handsome
palaces, treasure houses of great art, a world-class orchestra, fabulous
restaurants . . . who wouldn’t enjoy such “decline”? You benefit from
all the accumulated capital of the past without being troubled by any of
the tedious responsibilities. Have another coffee and a piece of
strudel and watch the world go by. To be sure, everything new — or, at
any rate, everything new that works — is invented and made elsewhere. But genteel decline from the heights can be eminently civilized,
especially to those of a leftish bent."
Read the
whole thing.