A worthy article whose meaning is mostly lost in summary.
The meaning is that "making all the same" ... "leveling", "equality", like all in this mortal coil has it's cost. Man needs his heroes -- and we can see that with the veneration of mere movie stars or athletes. We are so desperate for heroes, that we are drawn to the imaginary -- the "Marvel Universe", and various videogame "realities".
The irony is if course that Churchill himself at the time he authored this was one of the last remaining true heroes ...
No, we must take the loss with the gain. On the uplands there are no fine peaks. We must do without them while we stay there. Of course we could always, if we wished, go down again into the plains and valleys out of which we have climbed. We may even wander thither unwittingly. We may slide there. We may be pushed there. There are still many powerful nations dwelling at these lower levels, some contentedly, some even proudly. They often declare that life in the valleys is preferable. There is, they say, more variety, more beauty, more grace, more dignity, more true health and fertility than upon the arid highlands. They say this middle situation is better suited to human nature. The arts flourish there, and science need not be absent. Moreover, it is pleasing to look back over the plains and morasses through which our path has lain in the past, and remember in tradition the great years of pilgrimage. Then they point to the frowning crag, their venerated El Capitan or Il Duce, casting its majestic shadow in the evening light; and ask whether we have anything like that up there. We certainly have not.
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