Subject:
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Re: One nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Wed, 3 Jul 2002 01:36:45 GMT
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Viewed:
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4085 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, John Neal writes:
> But show me I'm wrong. I know this is coming off as a lot of flag-waving and
> Patriotic rhetoric, but try to see beyond that and really take a look at what
> this country has done in 200ish short years. It's downright remarkable. And
> then try and *explain* the US's success. And try not to conclude with "dumb
> luck":-)
Really, read Stephanson. A large part of it *was* dumb luck, combined
with lasseiz-faire attitudes (more out of a realization that the center
could not control the edges than anything else) and a cultural touchpoint
with the world's preeminent naval and financial power (the UK) without
whose acquiescence all our declarations before the 1890s meant exactly
nothing (e.g., the Monroe Doctrine).
The "dumb luck" is the fate of the native population, and the fact that
they lived in a preindustrial society and therefore didn't exploit the
mineral resources that states like China have. In a sense, it's like
the bankers all died and left the vaults open. We've parleyed our good
fortune into a destinarian rhetoric--God smiles upon us, God gave us
this, therefore we are blessed by God and know best for the world--
but it's coming back and biting us in the rear because of the bad things
we *do* support and allow to continue that keep 75% of the world's people
in a state of perpetual poverty (in all senses of the word), providing
us with the labor that our own country couldn't afford to support at
US-mandated prices.
So yeah, it's not just dumb luck, but the dumb luck was a necessary
prerequisite. I have titles if you want to see them, but it's pretty
incontravertible that Europe and the United States got their wealth
through dumb biological luck and desperate greed. We're only in this
century coming to terms with the ultimate effects of the second
component (though the United States still hasn't dealt with it--
our arrogance is still unchecked among the general populace).
I think the US is clearly the best nation on the globe today to live
in, but that's only if you live within it *and* speak English. We've
still got a long way to go before we actually live up to the high
ideals we've set out for ourselves the last 226 years, and that
hypocrisy is one of the biggest dead skunks the world lays at our
feet.
best
LFB
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