Jobs

One wonders about legacies and what they mean. Virtually every native passer-by in Rome can give some explanation of the art of the town. Among the Germans it's the composers, not the philosophers. The English revere their political leaders who forged their legal system. In Russia, even Lenin had to deal with Tolstoy. Civilized nations/cultures seem to want a personification, a symbolic representative of what is best in them. And those nations without a symbolic heritage seem sad indeed.

So what about the Americans? Washington? Jefferson? Lincoln? All strong, principled visionaries who changed their nation and the world--and practical men, not abstract and elusive academics who, in a hailstorm of opinions, were occasionally right.

There is another element, though: The innovator. Edison, Ford and now Jobs--men who knew their field, dominated it, and initiated and developed changes that improved the nation and the world. Competence, integrity, privacy without the need for the public arena. Greek heroes in every way but violence.

Not America's creators but their legacy.