Winning, Losing, and Timing

Yes, I love your Morton quotation about needing a lapse of time before making sense of historical events.  I read 50 years; 100 years is better, especially for recent events like the World Wars.  You cannot speak objectively about such events when people's emotions are still raw.  As we winter here in the old Confederacy, I more and more come to see the US Civil War as a first-class disaster.  The old Chinese saying is, who is winning and losing depends on the time you ask the question.  Those who think they are winning may in fact be losing in the long run.  Given the destruction of the Industrial Age central government in this land the Internet Age logic of decentralization - the logic of the Confederacy - makes sense.  Moreover, the US Civil War cost 1 million lives!  I cannot justify that when slavery was outmoded already and on its way out due to mechanization.  In short, it was about Wall Street bankers (the real power here) hammering southern agricultural trade.  They dressed it up as some moral crusade.  Rubbish.  Under the surface at times resentment lingers here about us Yankees.  Of course, the war was fought mainly down here, so memories of it have deeper emotional roots here.  Yes, it takes time to make sense of events, or nonsense too.  Take care.  Paul