Eisenhower's farewell address (1961)
Eisenhower's farewell address (1961)
I’m not American, so it’s hard for me to judge how famous Eisenhower’s farewell address is in the USA. There are things I probably don’t know about it as well. I just find it fascinating since it warns against a number of threats that have basically materialized.
He warned against:
- the dominance of the arms industry
- being captive of the tech elite
- becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate
The place of religion is interesting as well, as his language is quite pious while being inclusive as well for the time, as he "prays that peoples of all faiths, all races, all nations, may have their great human needs satisfied" and so on.
Anyways, to me it’s interesting to give it a listen in light of how things are today. It’s ~15 minutes and there’s a transcript too.
The extent of my American education on this matter, paraphrased:
"During President Eisenhower's farewell address, he warned the American people against increasing social polarization and the dominance of the military-industrial complex, and then it happened anyway. Ain't that some shit? Write a paper comparing the ways we ignored the warnings in Eisenhower's farewell address against the ways we also ignored the warnings in George Washington's farewell address."
Ike wasn’t perfect, but he was rare in both his perception and his candor. There’s a phrase, “Eisenhower republican,” that’s largely fallen out of use in american political discourse. McCain was seen similarly to some degree, and even lived up to it prior to the 2000 presidential race which I think broke him as a conscientious person. Maybe there’s some senator or governor that would also be similar, but I’m not aware of them and I doubt they could win the presidency at this point in history.