This will arguably be the third great revolution of America, if we can prove that we literally can live without having a dominant European culture.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the significance of American cultural independence from European influences.
William J. Clinton's quote reflects on the potential for a cultural revolution in America, suggesting that true progress lies in the ability to establish a distinct identity free from the historical dominance of European culture. It speaks to the importance of recognizing and embracing the unique aspects of American culture, thereby fostering a sense of autonomy and pride in a diverse national identity.
In practice
In a discussion about the importance of cultural diversity in a presentation on American history.
You know, there was a recent poll which said that young people in the generation of the students here felt it was far more likely that they would see a UFO than that they would draw Social Security... It's very important you understand this. Once you understand this, you realize this is not an episode from the X Files, and you're not more likely to see a UFO if you do certain specific things.
When we got organized as a country, [and] wrote a fairly radical Constitution, with a radical Bill of Rights, giving radical amounts of freedom to Americans, it was assumed that Americans who had that freedom would use it responsibly...When personal freedom is being abused, you have to move to limit it.
For too long we've been told about 'us' and 'them.' Each and every election we see a new slate of arguments and ads telling us that 'they' are the problem, not 'us.' But there can be no 'them' in America. There's only us.
There is a huge body of business evidence now showing that energy savings give better service at lower cost with higher profit. We have to tear down barriers to successful markets and we have to create incentives to enter them.
Demand that your government pays more attention. It's immoral that people in Africa die like flies of diseases that no one dies of in the United States. And the more disease there is, the more political unrest there will be, leading to more Darfurs, which the U.S. will have to pay to fix.
I was not elected to produce a pile of vetoes.
The roots of India's soft power run deep. India's is a civilization that, over millennia, has offered refuge and, more importantly, religious and cultural freedom, to Jews, Parsis, several varieties of Christians, and Muslims.
Bengalis love to celebrate their language, their culture, their politics, their fierce attachment to a city that has been famously dying for more than a century. They resent with equal ferocity the reflex stereotyping that labels any civic dysfunction anywhere in the world 'another Calcutta.'
Well, one hopes that if you're really related to the core of your particular culture, you have profound commitments to it, and that you are aware of how much you can strain it before you do violence to its essential nature.
Culture relates to objects and is a phenomenon of the world; entertainment relates to people and is a phenomenon of life.
Get the culture right, and everything else just falls into place.
A Nation's character is typified by its dancers.
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