Responses interleaved below.
--- new.morning wrote:
>
> Many TMers, most Ru residents of FF -- past and present - are or have
> been, at times, effected by myths and the lack of critical thinking. ...
Guilty as charged.
>Lincoln is esteemed highly -- yet he plunged the
> nation into a war of aggression
I believe this point of view ^ is non-standard among
Civil War buffs. I've seen a variant of it expressed by
a Southern die-hard in a letter to the editor of Civil
War Times magazine, but that's it. The letter-writer
held that Lincoln conducted a war of aggression
against a sovereign nation, the Confederate States
of America.
> and extensively suspended civil liberties in conducting
> the war.
Not disputed by anyone.
> It was a war of aggression against an idea. (Not
> slavery
How so? I thought it was a conflict between two
very different cultures a different thing from an
attack upon an idea.
> This most bloody war could have been avoided, peacefully.
I have never, ever encountered such an idea. The
prevailing thinking among people in the know is
that the war was inevitable. You are indeed challenging
accepted thought here, new morning.
> Thus, in the FFL spirit of challenging deep unexamined assumptions,
> the iconic and mythical stature of Lincoln in our institutions, hearts
> and minds deserves challenging and critical analysis.
I thought your post highlighted the way widely
held opinions differ from those of people in the
know. For people in the know - historians and
Civil War buffs recognize the cultural conflicts
of the North and South, and admit that the end
of slavery was a side-effect of a larger struggle.
The moral of the story, then, is to recognize that
popular myths ("Lincoln fought to free the slaves")
may be rife with fictions.
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