What Is American History?

[Mariel33]

What is your perception of American history? How would you describe it?

[A-wal]

Get kicked out of Europe for being religious nutjobs.
Go to a new continent and take advantage of a far more progressed and spiritually enlightened people with no concept of ownership.
Get rich by stealing other countries resources.
Become fat, lazy and stupid.
Provoke other nations with a ridiculous foreign policy and start lots of wars.
Act all superior to the rest of the world.
Slowly fall into decline.

[Mariel33]

Get kicked out of Europe for being religious nutjobs.

Go to a new continent and take advantage of a far more progressed and spiritually enlightened people with no concept of ownership.

Get rich by stealing other countries resources.

Become fat, lazy and stupid.

Provoke other nations with a ridiculous foreign policy and start lots of wars.

Act all superior to the rest of the world.

Slowly fall into decline.

Thank you. I agree with that description.

 

My own perspective is that American history has been wrong to exist simply because before any of it someone thought about outer space, or had a discussion similar to one on this site. The way I look at life is to question why a bank and a military should exist, when prior to their existence there's human existence, and that's it.

The bank and military that's defined what people understand as American history is wrong, just because they've been preceded by breathing, and seeing and talking.

 

What gets me though is the possibility of whether science, philosophy and human existence outright needs money, and right-wing politics - I doubt there is a dependency, but can it be unequivocally proved that there is no dependency?

[Maine farmer]

Get kicked out of Europe for being religious nutjobs.

Go to a new continent and take advantage of a far more progressed and spiritually enlightened people with no concept of ownership.

Get rich by stealing other countries resources.

Become fat, lazy and stupid.

Provoke other nations with a ridiculous foreign policy and start lots of wars.

Act all superior to the rest of the world.

Slowly fall into decline.

Get kicked out of Europe for  having debt, and for having a different religion than the religious nutjobs that held power in Europe.

 Bring with them the arrogance characteristic of their European heritage, get dragged into wars started by Europeans generations ago.

 Get rich through both deception and innovation, blow the wealth on a military to protect Europe, throw around more wealth trying to buy friends, build roads, schools, and hospitals everywhere on the Globe except at home.

 Bring in immigrants from all over the globe who are trying to escape opresion and genocide

Bring in immigrants who want to get rich

Bring in immigrants seeking liberty.

 

My Father was European.  He was liberated from Nazi Germany by the Americans.  He wanted to be an American thereafter, and he wanted his children to be Americans, and  he wanted the opportunity to own his own farm, something that he couldn't do in Europe.

[A-wal]

You're all immigrants! You have no more freedom than most other countries, arguably less. We can own our own stuff to you know, the world outside of the US isn't one big Nazi Germany. USian warped self image is astounding.

 

He was liberated from Nazi Germany by the Americans.

Spend most of their lives walking around wearing lederhosen and drinking beer.

Win football matches without even having to play particularly well.

Always sound angry.

Wake up at the crack of dawn and place towels over everything.

:)

Edited October 18, 2016 by A-wal

[Maine farmer]

You're all immigrants! You have no more freedom than most other countries, arguably less. We can own our own stuff to you know, the world outside of the US isn't one big Nazi Germany. USian warped self image is astounding.

 

Spend most of their lives walking around wearing lederhosen and drinking beer.

Win football matches without even having to play particularly well.

Always sound angry.

Wake up at the crack of dawn and place towels over everything.

:)

Yes, and I suppose that if Woodrow Wilson had managed to convince the U.S. to join the league of nations, it would have failed miserably.  Oh Wait, what happened with the League?

 

And I suppose Europe would have been better off if the Americans had stayed out of WW II?  

 

You probably would have done just fine after WWII had Harry Truman not sold the U.S. Congress on the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe?

 

Yes, we are a nation of immigrants.  That means whatever country you are in, we got some of your best and some of your worst.  We are you.

 

Yes, my father could have owned stuff if he stayed where he was, but he could not have gotten his own farm.  He came here with almost nothing, worked like hell, made use of opportunities, and lived his life as he wished.

[A-wal]

My initial post was very tongue in cheek but of course their has to be some truth to it to say it.

 

And I suppose Europe would have been better off if the Americans had stayed out of WW II?  

We'd have been better off if you weren't so late! :)

 

Yes, we are a nation of immigrants.  That means whatever country you are in, we got some of your best and some of your worst.  We are you.

I just find it funny and a bit hypocritical when I hear USians moaning about immigration, not that you were moaning.

 

Yes, my father could have owned stuff if he stayed where he was, but he could not have gotten his own farm.  He came here with almost nothing, worked like hell, made use of opportunities, and lived his life as he wished.

You can do that in lots of places. I think what winds people up is the impression within the US that it's the only place where that happens.

[Maine farmer]

My initial post was very tongue in cheek but of course their has to be some truth to it to say it.

 

We'd have been better off if you weren't so late! :)

 

I just find it funny and a bit hypocritical when I hear USians moaning about immigration, not that you were moaning.

 

You can do that in lots of places. I think what winds people up is the impression within the US that it's the only place where that happens.

It may be hypocritical to moan about immigration, but I know that my father followed the letter of the law to get here and attain citizenship, and I know that he faced a certain level of discrimination because he had a funny accent and was a "foreigner" even after he had spent most of his life here.  I also know that for every person who made snide remarks about my father's differences, there were several more who were welcoming and kind.  You hear the moaning everywhere because the complainers are much louder than those who are happy and accepting.  When was the last time you saw an in depth news program about anyone who is happy?

 

As for the impression within the USA that it happens here only, well, just like everyone else, we have our bias.

[Deepwater6]

A talk radio host in my area, who has since passed on described history this way.

 

"History is nothing more than a bunch of lies we all agree on"

 

(Irv Homer)

 

Maybe a little cold, but there is a fair amount of truth to it.

[CraigD]

"History is nothing more than a bunch of lies we all agree on"

I’d call that a culture’s shared mythology, which can be reflected in its political ideologies, but not history.

 

I’ve heard several good definitions of history – one of my favorites is “the study of pattern of human behavior over time” – but the one I like most is that it’s the analysis of a huge, raw body of recorded data.

 

I don’t think historians place high value on reaching consensus agreement. Competing political theories often depend on greatly differing interpretations of the same data.

 

Politics becomes ahistorical and unscientific, I think, when it ignores or fabricates data – that is, when it promotes “a bunch of lies”, by claiming that events that actually happened didn’t, or one that didn’t, did.

[Thoth101]

Well I think Thomas Paine had some enlightening ideas of what America should have been if you take the time to read some of his books and pamphlets written around the 1700's.Most can be read here for free.

https://www.ushistory.org/paine/

 

Government is nothing more than a national association; and the object of this association is the good of all, as well individually as collectively. Every man wishes to pursue his occupation, and to enjoy the fruits of his labours and the produce of his property in peace and safety, and with the least possible expense. When these things are accomplished, all the objects for which government ought to be established are answered.

https://www.ushistory.org/paine/rights/c2-04.htm

 

I think the question should be what happen to the country that was once a Republic? It has placed its war machine on almost every spot on the Earth to spread Democracy which is mob rule. It now has more prisoners in prison then any country in the world. You don't even have the freedom to place certain plants in your body. There are laws for laws for laws and more laws. The medical system makes its people sicker instead of better. Schools don't even teach but train to be obedient workers and not to ask questions. There is no privacy and everything is watched and monitored.Half of the money you make goes for some kind of tax because of how huge and bloated it has become.The once beacon of hope and freedom has become what it was against.

Edited February 7, 2020 by Thoth101