Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/06/11
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]We should all bear in mind that the US is a remarkably isolationist nation which would prefer to have as little as possible to do with the rest of the World. Most USians have never travelled outside of the US save for a quick trip to Mexico or Barbados or the like, if that. This control is controlled by the middle classes, and most of these are descended from ancestors who came over here centuries ago, so contact, cultural or family, with the old country has been lost. In my own case, my most recent immigrant was a Rothrock who came over from the Palatinate in 1846, and this person provides the only link I have with the Old World, as I am in sporadic contact with a very distant cousin in Worms. William Small came here in 1829. Thomas Riley was born in Hampshire County, Virginia, in 1794. And my other ancestors sprinkled into the colonies from the 1600's onwards. In otherwards, other than that very distant cousin in Worms, I have no direct connection with my antecedents. I do know a bit about my Scottish roots, as William Small lived until 1898, and my Grandfather, who lived until 1977, knew him well and bought his schoolback at the estate sale, which he later passed to me. But that is a very tenuous connection though I do know that two of my fourth-great-uncles died at Culloden as kilted campaigners for the Bonnie Prince; they had held their younger brother back due to his age, and thank heavens they did so, as I am descended from him. The poiint I am making is that most of those who determine policy in this nation have little feel or regard for the larger world. Few of them travel abroad and if they do so, they take the sort of "if this is Tuesday, this must be Belgium" guided tour which protects them from any real feel for the lands they are visiting. This is a huge and varied land and most of us never even get to see much of the US, much less travel abroad. Few USians speak a foreign tongue, few follow foreign events, and only a minute number read, say, THE ECONOMIST or THE TIMES or, heaven forfend!, a French or German or Italian journal, even when an English-language edition is available. You might condemn the citizens of the US for being smug, but we are effectively sheltered by geography and an abundance of resources from having to need much interplay with foreign lands. (Oil is the one exception, and we have bolluxed that one royally, but that is the only thing which we have to import other than kippered herring, Bass Ale, and Guiness Stout, to make our lives complete. We even blend our own Latakia pipe mixtures as good as anything I've ever gotten in the British Isles, all from US-grown tobaccos.) We are a wealthy nation confident in our own abilities and aware of the blessings "Providence" has given us. Yes, we are ignorant and uncaring of the larger world, and, yes, we are smug. So be it. Russia is in much the same situation, and so is China. But these are right now nations much poorer than the US. Walt keeps reminding the LUG that the US is the 900-pound gorilla in the parlor, and so we are but there might well come a time when these nations -- or, say, Brazil -- might be in our position. Part of the problem in the US is that we have a pretty sophisticated managing elite making the policy decisions, and these guys, for hte most part, are world-wise and well-travelled. The average USian middle-class type allows them to call the shots, precisely as is the case in, say, the UK or France or Germany or Italy. We are allowed to persist in our smugness precisely because we have no reason to abandon this. (The US dominated Europe in 1945, but this would never have happened had not Germany declared war on the US, as Congress warned the President, after Pearl Harbor, to limit his request for a Declaration of War to Japan, as Congress would not have passed a Declaration against Germany and Italy under the circumstances. Had Hitler not been so stupid as to declare war on the US, the US would probably have clobberated Japan by late 1943 or early 1944, and would then have ended up in an icy cold war with Nazi Germany. There was no way the Germans could have defeated the UK, so it would have been a war of the UK and Germany, with Germany making its infinite mistakes in fightting the USSR, while the US stood on the sidelines as a rooter for the British, and the Soveits kept on grinding down the Nazis.) I have been impressed that many of the Antipoldeans and Canadians of UK descent seem to return to the British Isles every decade or so. Perhaps the US should pass a law mandating that all US citizens pick a nation of one of their ancestors and spend a fortnight every decade in that country. <he grins> I suspect that Brian is about to toss this topic into the Outer Darkness of the LUGFORUM, to which I do not belong. Marc msmall@aya.yale.edu Cha robh b?s fir gun ghr?s fir!