The Delicate Arts

TBogg links to Peggy Nooners latest presription drug induced column, in which she writes something quite startling:

The rise of England’s acting class the past century seems to coincide perfectly with the fall of its power as a wealthy and powerful nation that made a difference in the world–an exploring nation, a conquering one.

I wondered if the loss of a kind of national manliness, or force, tends to coincide in modern nations with a rise in expertise in the delicate arts. Then I thought: I wonder if in general one can say of Western nations that the loss of one tends to be accompanied by a rise in the other. In the case of England I think that is so.

But, what do you suppose it means when the national manliness, or “force” is embodied by someone who, although he has a lovely foot and makes the dolphins sing with joy, was a practitioner of the delicate art for more than 40 years?

Can it be that it was Ronald Reagan’s terrible acting that actually led to the end of the cold war?

Food for thought, Peg. (Pass me one of those little blue babies while you’re at it.)