#1448 American Narrative

Listening to America

Society & Culture, History

4.6 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 22 June 2021

⏱️ 62 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week, a discussion with President Thomas Jefferson about the American narrative. The conversation was prompted by an article in the Atlantic magazine by George Packer titled "How America Fractured into Four Parts." Jefferson shares his optimism about America's future and explains the fractured American narrative during his own time.

You can order Clay's new book at Amazon, Target, Barnes and Noble, or by contacting your independent bookstore. The Language of Cottonwoods is out now through Koehler Books.

Find this episode, along with recommended reading, on the blog. Support the show by joining the 1776 Club or by donating to the Thomas Jefferson Hour, Inc. You can learn more about Clay's cultural tours and retreats at jeffersonhour.com/tours. Check out our new merch. You can find Clay's publications on our website, along with a list of his favorite books on Jefferson, Lewis and Clark, and other topics. Thomas Jefferson is interpreted by Clay S. Jenkinson.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	good day, Thomas Jefferson, our podcast listeners. We've got, how do I say it's a pretty heavy show
0:07.7	this week. We talked with President Jefferson about an article, Clay, that you sent to me,
0:14.2	afforded me a link, a very lengthy article, and a very good one. And it opened up quite a
0:21.0	discussion with Mr. Jefferson about America's narrative. Maybe you want to tell him about
0:26.1	the author and the article I'm referring to. Yes, so our good friend Rick Kennerley, by the way,
0:32.4	sent me the link. So I opened it up and read it by George Packer. It's in the Atlantic. It's
0:37.1	available free online. And it's called How America Fractured Into Four Parts. And he goes on to
0:42.8	say in the beginning, which really arrested my attention. And I know it did yours, David.
0:47.3	The nations have to have a narrative on that national narratives like personal ones are prone
0:52.1	to sentimentality, grievance, pride, shame, self blindness. There's never just one they compete
0:57.0	and constantly change. And the most durable narratives are not the ones that stand up best to
1:01.8	fact checking. They're the ones that address our deepest needs and desires. And he believes that
1:07.2	we don't have an accepted consensus, common national narrative now. And that's why we're broken.
1:14.4	And so then he pulls this apart into four distinct narratives, which he calls free America,
1:20.4	smart America, real America, and just America. And spent some time explaining each of them and
1:28.8	putting it within the context of politics since about the time of Barry Goldwater. And then he
1:34.4	concludes, as you know, at the end of this, this really extraordinary article that it's not
1:41.6	clear how this gets worked out that we're in a cold civil war. That term has been bandied about,
1:48.0	but it appears to be true. And we've had a little hot civil war. We had a little hot civil war
1:53.7	around the time of the election. And again, on January 6th, then it's not altogether clear that
1:58.0	there isn't more coming. But his view is that we really are a broken country and why? Because we
2:04.7	don't agree on who we are anymore. That it's not just the left and the right. It's not just the
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Listening to America, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Listening to America and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.