Democracy, America, and the World: An Introduction
The United States of America has become the most powerful country in the history of the world. Only history can tell us why, however. For history is not only the study of the past, but the present and future as well. History can never end, and therefore we are living it right now. The decisions of our policymakers and the events that shake the world today will become yet another chapter in the evolution of mankind.That is my task. I am going to write a series of posts looking back in history with an American perspective and analyzing domestic and international events to understand why things are the way they are. My ultimate goal is to explain the past with an eye on the present so when I finish my brief history of America (brief not meaning I won’t write a lot, but brief meaning not all-inclusive), you, the reader, will have a better idea of my views so that you can understand my view of the present, which history shows isn’t quite as rosy as the first sentence of this post may lead you to believe.
If we can’t understand the past, we can’t understand the present. And if we can’t understand the present, the future looks ever more troubling. It is hard to understand 2005 without understanding 1776, and that is where I will begin.
posted by Anonymous @ 10:39 AM
1 comments
1 Comments:
I may be able to help you out with a short history lesson to show you that 1776-1824 may not have been much different then 1976-2005, at least politically speaking... I will try and find it and post it later... but until then, digest this....
Billy Joel wrote in his song Summer, Highland Falls the following:
They say that these are not the best of times,
But they're the only times I've ever known,
And I believe there is a time for meditation in cathedrals of our own.
Now I have seen that sad surrender in my lover's eyes,
And I can only stand apart and sympathize.
For we are always what our situations hand us...
It's either sadness or euphoria.
And so we argue and we compromise,
and realize that nothing's ever changed,
For all our mutual experience, our seperate conclusions are the same.
Now we are forced to recognize our inhumanity,
Our reason co-exists with our insanity.
And though we choose between reality and madness...
It's either sadness or euphoria.
How thoughtlessly we dissipate our energies
Perhaps we don't fulfill each other's fantasies.
And so we'll stand upon the ledges of our lives,
With our respective similarities...
It's either sadness or euphoria.
okay... i copied the whole lyric. It is powerful when you examine the sound bites in it. This lyric has a lot of sentiment that exists today... and yet, it was written over 30 years ago. You will find much of our history 200 years ago, especially politically, is still the same.... we are just playing with more sophisticated weapons.
Remember this... and I am not quoting exactly but close enough... Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
Unfortunately, they forget to tell you, human nature never gets considered as part of history... and you have to realize that emotion dictates behavior. These people are playing a high stakes game of poker with high emotions and even bigger ego's. That is how we became the most powerful country in the world.... Bravado!
To quote an old Clint Eastwood movie, you take "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly"... in the end, you hope and pray that human nature will do away with the bad and the ugly... but opinions are like anal orifices; everyone has one and they usually stink. And the more opinions you have, the more Bad and Ugly you have...just look at the 527s... they divide everyone instead of help.
But I surmise this might happen:
And so we argue and we compromise,
and realize that nothing's ever changed,
For all our mutual experience, our seperate conclusions are the same.
Keep up the good work!
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