World War II made prosperous the United States, which had been undergoing a depression for a dozen years, and made very rich those magnates and their managers who govern the republic - with many a wink - in the people's name.
Interpretation
The quote highlights how World War II economically benefited the United States and its elite while masking the struggles of the general populace.
Gore Vidal's quote reflects on the paradox of World War II, where it acted as a catalyst for economic prosperity in the United States, pulling the nation out of a prolonged depression. However, this wealth seemed to primarily enrich the powerful elite and their managers, suggesting a disconnect between the financial gains experienced at the national level and the reality faced by everyday citizens, as those in power continued to operate under the guise of serving the common good.
In practice
During a discussion on the impact of wars on economies, one might refer to Gore Vidal's insight.
We must declare ourselves, become known; allow the world to discover this subterranean life of ours which connects kings and farm boys, artists and clerks. Let them see that the important thing is not the object of love, but the emotion itself.
American writers want to be not good but great; and so are neither.
Writing fiction has become a priestly business in countries that have lost their faith.
The important thing is not the object of love, but the emotion itself.
For the average American, freedom of speech is simply the freedom to repeat what everyone else is saying and no more.
Ayn Rand's 'philosophy' is nearly perfect in its immorality, which makes the size of her audience all the more ominous and symptomatic as we enter a curious new phase in our society.... To justify and extol human greed and egotism is to my mind not only immoral, but evil.
The silencing of the Haitian Revolution is only a chapter within a narrative of global domination. It is part of the history of the West and it is likely to persist, even in attenuated form, as long as the history of the West is not retold in ways that bring forward the perspective of the world.
An accurate knowledge of the past of a country is necessary for everyone who would understand its present, and who desires to judge of its future.
There's a tendency when we write history to do it with the power of hindsight and then assume almost god-like knowledge that nobody living through history has.
Some of the most moving experiences I've had are just in black churches in the South, during the Civil Rights Movement, where people were getting beaten, killed, really struggling for the most elementary rights.
I cannot write about the past unless I go where history happened. Some make very good armchair historians, I'm not one of them. If you're going to inhabit someone else's world, the very least you can do is to spend a little time in it.
Slavery is the great and foul stain upon the North American Union.
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