From: Nick Palmer Subject: OT Re: July 4
RS Macaulay wrote:- <<America is more than a place, a nation, it is a dream understood by all the world. >> <<Flawed as it may be, this nation remains the hope of the world.>> The trouble with many Americans is they have this "dream" of how America is. The American constitution is indeed a fine piece of work but the reality of how America behaves is that it is a bully, imposing its view of the world wherever it sees fit to protect mostly imagined threats to the "American way of life". This might be news to you but, in most of the world, Bush's America is not seen as the "hope of the world" instead it is actually seen as probably the biggest threat to world stability for a long time. Nick Palmer Brit, European, Citizen of the World. ---------------------------------------------- Nick's detached view should include a more complete view of history, including Britain, Europe, and the rest of the world. On my many visits to Britain I have felt at home, soothed by the civility which overlays the very complex reality that one does not forge a global empire by being nice guys all the time. There was a time when Britain stood astride the world and was the target of mixed awe and hatred. And it was the 'madness of King George against which the US colonies revolted. One of the problems which the US has on the world stage is that we have no instinct for Empire, the mandate to conquer, control, and exploit which Britain and the major European powers all did. The ancient tradition that the eldest male inherits all the parent's wealth may have some role in this, leaving the younger males with no choice but to find fortune in the colonies at the expense of the 'natives'. Our news is full of the daily body count in Iraq, fretting over excesses of force, collateral damage, etc. In other times such was merely the price of Empire, glorified in the literature of the European nations, including Britain, by Kipling and others. People emigrated here to escape the millennia of toxic history of Europe, for a chance to start anew. Yes, it was done at the cost of the destruction of the Native American civilizations, in which Britain, France, Spain, and Portugal all participated. That said, English Common Law, beginning with the Magna Carta and perhaps finding its finest flowering in the US Constitution is a gift to mankind which compensates for the excesses which carried these ideas forward. It must be said also that Ghandi's tactics leading to Britain's withdrawal from India would not have worked against any other imperial power, tempered as it had become with a sense of fair play. The 20th century was dominated by the emergence of the US as a world power, and the 21st may be dominated by China's re-emergence as a center of world power. Regardless of the future, it can be fairly said that July 4, 1776 was a pivotal date in world history, from which emerged a nation based on constitutional rule of law. Since then, every nation with any claim to legitimacy has a constitutional foundation, whether observed in practice or not. And as a footnote, it must be acknowledged that the US constitution in turn took many concepts of government from the Iroquois Nations constitution, which was formed centuries before the US. This was formally acknowledged by an act of Congress a few decades ago. It was not the Iroquois alone, British Common Law and Masonic traditions also played a part. Mike Carrell
