Revisionist History of the US....:( (fwd)
John Young
jya at pipeline.com
Thu Sep 1 18:29:42 PDT 1994
Responding to msg by chen at intuit.com (Mark Chen) on Thu, 1 Sep
4:47 PM
>This country's
>"progress" is really just a series of grudging
>concessions made by authoritarian power structures to
>various nearly catastrophic crises.
>
>Good observation about periodicity, Jim, but I'd say
>that the typical span is much shorter than 100 years.
Jim and Mark,
Sound remarks about domestic upheavals.
Parallel to these, it should be added that internal strife has
declined as US foreign interventions have increased. From
Teddy Roosevelt forward, whenever domestic strain builds, there
just happens to be an urgent matter somewhere else that needs
patriotic attention to our "national interests".
Soothing, addictive, social and economic bribes flow from
warmaking -- industrial growth, jobs, education, research,
technological advances.
A bitching citizenry is a happy citizenry where domestic
Government affairs are concerned, but the most obedient people
are those united against a foreign foe. Lesson 1 of world
affairs leadership.
John
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