Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/06/11
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Marc, That's a pretty nicely put description of our citizenry in this regard. I remember on my first trip to Europe, the other young folks just couldn't believe I didn't know currency exchange rates, which I image played a role in their everyday spending power (I guess this is no longer true with the Euro). I had just never even thought of the issue before at that time. But there are all sorts funny corrolaries of the US being a big, rich but geographically isolated country. Scott Marc James Small wrote: >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! > > > > >_______________________________________________ >Leica Users Group. >See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information > > -- Pics @ http://www.adrenaline.com/snaps Leica M6TTL, Bessa R, Nikon FM3a, Nikon D70, Rollei AFM35 (Jihad Sigint NSA FBI Patriot Act)