Famous Documentarian Says State of America is 'Equal' to Civil War
As politics and entertainment continue to meld here in the United States, it is becoming difficult to tamp down some of the nation’s more sensational viewpoints.
It feels, at times, as though we are so far down this divisive spiral that the nation, (and the world at large), is now unrecognizable from who we saw it just two years ago.
Now, with Americans increasingly at each other’s throats when it comes to politics, one of the nation’s most notable filmmakers has a dire assessment.
Historian and documentary filmmaker Ken Burns said that the present day is one of the worst times in American history.
Burns made the remark while on the “SmartLess” podcast, hosted by Will Arnett, Jason Bateman, and Sean Hayes, comparing current events with the Civil War, the Depression, and World War II.
“It’s really serious. There are three great crises before this: the Civil War, the Depression, and World War II. This is equal to it,” he said on Monday’s episode when asked about the direction the United States was headed.
And thats’ not all:
The documentarian went on to quote comments made by Abraham Lincolnduring a January 1838 speech to a group in Springfield, Illinois:
From whence shall we expect the approach of danger? Shall some trans-Atlantic military giant step the earth and crush us at a blow? Never. All the armies of Europe, Asia, and Africa could not by force take a drink from the Ohio River or make a track on the Blue Ridge in the trial of a thousand years. No, if destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of free men, we will live forever or die by suicide.
Of course, Burns is an entertainer, and there is great value in such hysteria for those behind the lens.
