"Our surest protection against assault from abroad has been not all our guards, gates and guns, or even our two oceans, but our essential goodness as a people. Our richest asset has been not our material wealth but our values"
About this Quote
A lawyer’s patriotism, sharpened into an argument: Sorensen flips the usual national-security script by demoting hardware and geography to supporting characters. “Guards, gates and guns” is a deliberately clunky alliteration, a pile-up of nouns that sounds like an inventory list. It’s meant to feel insufficient. Even “our two oceans,” the old smug comfort of American exceptionalism-by-coastline, gets waved off. The pivot lands on a surprising claim for a Cold War-era wordsmith: the real deterrent isn’t force, it’s moral credibility.
Sorensen’s specific intent is persuasive and preventative. He’s not merely praising “goodness”; he’s trying to discipline policy. The subtext is that a nation can’t bomb or blockade its way into safety if its conduct corrodes the very reputation that keeps alliances intact and enemies cautious. “Essential goodness” functions like strategic capital: it’s soft power before the term became a consultancy cliché. It implies that abuses, secrecy, and cynical realpolitik don’t just raise ethical questions; they create tangible vulnerabilities by draining trust abroad and cohesion at home.
Context matters: Sorensen wasn’t a preacher but a Kennedy-era legal mind steeped in rhetoric and statecraft. Read that way, “values” is not a greeting-card abstraction but a warning label. He’s arguing that democratic legitimacy is a defense system, one that can’t be manufactured quickly when crises hit. The line quietly challenges the reflex to equate strength with armament, insisting that the most expensive thing a superpower can waste is its character.
Sorensen’s specific intent is persuasive and preventative. He’s not merely praising “goodness”; he’s trying to discipline policy. The subtext is that a nation can’t bomb or blockade its way into safety if its conduct corrodes the very reputation that keeps alliances intact and enemies cautious. “Essential goodness” functions like strategic capital: it’s soft power before the term became a consultancy cliché. It implies that abuses, secrecy, and cynical realpolitik don’t just raise ethical questions; they create tangible vulnerabilities by draining trust abroad and cohesion at home.
Context matters: Sorensen wasn’t a preacher but a Kennedy-era legal mind steeped in rhetoric and statecraft. Read that way, “values” is not a greeting-card abstraction but a warning label. He’s arguing that democratic legitimacy is a defense system, one that can’t be manufactured quickly when crises hit. The line quietly challenges the reflex to equate strength with armament, insisting that the most expensive thing a superpower can waste is its character.
Quote Details
| Topic | Ethics & Morality |
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