"History reminds us: America is and always has been a freak show. We
should accept this in ourselves more, that it is in our nature as a
people. When the floodwaters receded and camp towns sprang up, the
region’s prostitutes came in, followed by the ladies of the Christian Temperance Union. We are cantankerous. When strangers who had survived overnight in an attic saw that a stone church next door had broken the
wall of water, someone said, “The Methodist church saved us.” Within seconds a voice shot out: “Only the Catholic Church can save!”
We did something nobody ever tried before, to fill a continent with
people from every country in the world, and ask them to come, build
something, get along, and invent an arrangement of rules and rights by
which they could operate together. It produced a dazzling, strange and
gifted nation, a freak show, and a fabulous one.
To read our history is to say, “We got through that.”
We’ve got through a lot. Whatever’s coming, immediately and further out, we’ll likely get through that, too."
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/what-a-deadly-flood-revealed-about-america-history-natural-disasters-16905344
Unfortunately, no one could objectively nail down the "likely". And realistically speaking, the US will never be as target rich as before.
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