Thoughts from the Memory Hole

The Catholic Thing · Jul 17, 2026 · 7m

By Francis X. Maier Americans don't suffer from amnesia. We prefer it. Memory shapes who we are as individuals, a nation, and a culture. But we define ourselves as a "new order of ages." Those words are stamped directly on America's Great Seal. Thus, Americans dislike the past. And since the 1960s, Europeans have followed suit. The reason is simple. History as it really happened is inconvenient baggage. We ignore or reinvent it, the better to reinvent ourselves. And this is exactly how the modern spirit (see here and here) treats our civilization's Christian roots. The term "Middle Ages," for…