Final Word from Wednesday, August 11, 2021
In his inaugural address 60 years ago, John F. Kennedy famously stated, "And so, my fellow Americans: Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: Ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man." In the blurb for John le Carré's Silverview, which comes out on Oct. 14, the publisher writes: "In this last complete masterwork from the greatest chronicler of our age, John le Carré asks what you owe to your country when you no longer recognize it." Le Carré's story about a changed United Kingdom presumably has something to do with Brexit, given his treatment of it in A Legacy of Spies in 2017. For many others, covid is the game changer that makes their country unrecognizable. For others, it might be oligarchy. Is it too much for Czech voters to expect a leader to step forward in these elections and to explain to them why they will soon recognize their world again? [ Czech Republic coronavirus president United States covid-19 ]
Glossary of difficult words
blurb - a short description of a book, film or other product written for promotional purposes;
chronicler - a person who writes accounts of important or historical events;
game changer - an event, idea or procedure that effects a significant shift in the current way of doing or thinking about something.