The Will of an ‘Unruly Torrent’

Review by Bill Doughty––

Venerable thinker George Will unleashes a storm of opinions in “American Happiness and Discontents: The Unruly Torrent, 2008-2020" (Hachette Books, 2021), proving he is still sharp in his observations while cemented in his positions of right and wrong.

This is a book of nearly two hundred essays about everything from military history and life-and-death issues to Will’s thoughts about the Beach Boys, Baptists, baseball, and blue jeans. (Regarding the latter, he claims to have only one pair, worn only once. He believes men should dress like Fred Astaire, women like Grace Kelly.)

While Will shares some acerbic humor, mostly he offers a ribbon of melancholy that ties these essays together. So many in this collection are devoted to past wars and their aftermath. Others lament culture wars still happening. And a final section, “Farewells, Mostly Fond,” features obituaries, including to fellow conservatives William F. Buckley, Charles Krauthammer, Gerald Ford, and George H.W. Bush, as well as, surprisingly, liberal-of-liberals George McGovern.

The most poignant remembrance is the final essay in the book, written July 6, 2008. Will honors the memory of Army Lieutenant Colonel Jim Walton, killed in Afghanistan. The essay is also a tribute to casualty assistance calls officers, CACOs, including LtCol Walton’s spouse, Sarah, herself a CACO who had to receive the terrible news of her husband’s death.

An epigraph by CACO Maj. Steve Beck, United States Marine Corps, at the beginning of the Walton essay contains a “found haiku”:

...curtains pull away.

They come to the door. And they

know. They always know

George Will concludes his Walton essay –– and his book –– with this:

“When the Army CACOs came to the Arlington door or Sara Walton, my assistant, she was not there. She rarely forgot the rule that a spouse of a soldier in a combat zone is supposed to inform the Army when he or she will be away from home. This time Sarah forgot, so it took the Army awhile to locate her at her parents’ home in Richmond.

“Her husband, Lieutenant Colonel Jim Walton, West Point Class of 1989, was killed in Afghanistan on June 21. This week he will be back in Arlington, among the remains of the more than 300,000 men and women who rest in the more than 600 acres where it is always Memorial Day. This is written in homage to him, and to Sarah, full sharer of his sacrifices.”*

George Will

Sacrifice on behalf of the nation is tied to the ribbon of sadness in the nearly 500 pages of this collection.

Will writes in “A Nation Not Made by Flimsy People” of the grit required to win the Revolutionary War. Readers will be reminded of the great historian David McCullough’s “1776,” one of the first books we featured on Navy Reads.

In “The Somme: The Hinge of World War I, and Hence of Modern History” he contextualizes the “reverberations” of that war. The First World War influences Will’s thinking and inspiration for topics, including in the penultimate essay, “The Last Doughboy.”

In “Haunted by Hue” and “Vietnam: Squandered Valor” he properly acknowledges the sacrifices of brave young Americans, while castigating the mendacity of the power structure that sent them to a war that was ultimately a “tragedy,” including for the people of Vietnam.

Color guard of 442nd in 1944

In “The 442nd,” written in 2010, he pays tribute to the most decorated unit for its size in American history, the Japanese-American soldiers who fought against Fascism and Nazism in Europe in WWII while many of their families were imprisoned in internment camps back in the States. George Will met some of these patriotic veterans.

“Such cheerful men, who helped to lop 988 years off the Thousand Year Reich, are serene reproaches to a nation now simmering with grievance groups that nurse their cherished resentments. The culture of complaint gets no nourishment from men like these who served their country so well while it was treating their families so ignobly. Yet it is a high tribute to this country that it is so loved by men such as these.”

Will has no time for political correctness and what’s now called “cancel culture.” He takes on some of the debates about political and social topics dominating college campuses. On the other hand, he also has no tolerance for racism, terrorism in the name of religion, and attacks on democracy.

He shows how the values of Frederick Douglass won out over Woodrow Wilson's bigotry. But he has little compassion or understanding for renaming professional sports teams such as the former Washington Redskins or for “coercing” bakers who refuse, for religious reasons, to provide a cake for a same-sex wedding. 

He celebrates books and “binge reading” while condemning new technologies and platforms that rewire the brains of young people, shorten attention spans and erode the ability to think critically and independently.

To say George Will is sometimes like the grouchy old man yelling at youngsters to get off his lawn is to state the obvious. But he cares about what he believes in, and he communicates with passion and conviction. His ribbon leads through a pursuit of happiness that ends ultimately to a reward for readers.

*(Lost at first reading is George Will’s epigraph to the entire book: “For Sarah Walton –– To whom I am indebted for her many years of indispensable assistance. And to whom the nation is indebted.”)

Grieving and Honoring

Colin Powell

I finished this book as I heard the news of an icon of conservative leadership passed away: former Secretary of State and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Colin Powell. Flags fly at half staff for the great principled patriot and warrior-diplomat. But General Powell would want us to pay tribute to the person he most looked up to and respected in his life, his wife Alma. Powell told author Bob Woodward that Alma was his moral compass and inspiration.

Alma Powell is sponsor of USS Kearsarge (LHD-3). She is also the namesake of Kearsarge's airfield. 

According to the Navy, "Throughout her life of civic leadership [Alma] Powell has helped young people in need of educational resources for more than four decades. While serving as Chair of the Board of Directors for America’s Promise Alliance, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the education opportunities of disadvantaged children, Ms. Powell helped to lead more than 450 partner network’s efforts to help tens of thousands of young people by connecting them with resources essential for academic success."

Capt. Neil Koprowski, commanding officer of the Wasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge (LHD 3), delivers remarks during an airfield dedication ceremony in honor of Alma J. Powell, May 28, 2021. Alma Powell, Kearsarge’s ship sponsor, is a military spouse, a civic leader and civil rights activist who has advocated for women, children, and minorities for more than four decades, and has helped tens of thousands of disadvantaged people around the world. (MCSN Gwyneth Vandevender)

TOP PHOTO:Gen. Colin L. Powell speaks at the 26th National Memorial Day Concert on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., May 24, 2015.to help unite the country in remembrance and appreciation of the fallen and to serve those who are grieving. (MC1 Daniel Hinton)