plus ça change, etc.

[rone]

Braggadocio, in the 100% American [man] — "we won the war," "it is our duty to lead the world," and so on — is probably no more than a protective mechanism erected to conceal an inescapable sense of inferiority.

        - H. L. Mencken, 1923

Comments

[littleamerica.livejournal.com]

This is kind of a disappointing quote. When he says "probably" he's giving up the high ground, and it's like he's saying something caustic just for the sake of being unpleasant, without actually having gone out and spoken to any of the people he's criticizing. That being said, I'd say two things:

I've never heard the only World War II veteran I know say anything about "how we won the war."

I'm at a loss for a better explanation of why anyone speaks in the first person plural about a group the speaker doesn't actually belong to, as in "we won the World Series" or "if we have a good draft we'll be better next year." Although I probably wouldn't use the word "inferiority," necessarily.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Yes, the 'probably' does feel like a limp-handshake sort of dodge, but i think that the possibility exists that such braggadocio is the result of patriotic faith and not a sense of inferiority.