I agree with you, but if you really practice what you preach, then you know how difficult what you're suggesting can be on the individual level, never mind the group level. It's painful to sit with unvarnished reality and analyze it, analyze yourself, and try to think from new perspectives. Most people probably could do it if they tried for long enough, but it's too difficult and sometimes painful to maintain under times of great stress.
In the national case, you also have to have each subsequent generation share your conviction, and any break in that will taint the record.
sure, it's a limit we will probably never achieve, but we should at least try to do so, not because it's easy, but because it's right thing to do (damn, now i sound like some sort of preacher)
In the national case, you also have to have each subsequent generation share your conviction, and any break in that will taint the record.