Very nice reply, Lamp! You’re a thoughtful person unlike a few people here. It is no insult to be compared to Gore Vidal on these issues - he was marvelously educated on the subject of the Civil War. He went to war with Norman Podheretz when he suggested that the Civil War meant nothing more to him than the Trojan War. How can an American not feel impacted by this great event, for God’s sake??! It is, after the Revolution, the defining moment in American history?
I’m one of the few people who consistently blame the British for bringing that effen evil institution to our shores. They take no responsibility for it any more than they do their contributions to Africa, India or the Caribbean. And yet, every day, in their newspapers, they bash us for racism!
The very first ship of Africans to arrive in the US was Dutch and they traded their cargo for goods with the original colonists of Hampton Roads, Virginia. Technically, they were indentured servants and not slaves.
While the Brits were dominant in the “triangular trade” the whole of western Europe and the Africans themselves were buyers and sellers.
No roots. Or shallow ones. Not their history. It's similar to why the likes of Nikki Haley will blithely taliban the South of its symbols. They have no interest in it and no respect for it, other than how it can be used for politically acceptable posturing.
Gore Vidal's family goes back on his mother's side, one of the families owning land that became Washington DC.
Norman Podhoretz' parents immigrated to the US.
Well thank you! I try to look at different perspectives with objectivity, and I sometimes falter because of my own biases, but I try to see beyond just what I have been told. I try to be an independent and objective thinker and sometimes I manage it. :)
I’m one of the few people who consistently blame the British for bringing that effen evil institution to our shores. They take no responsibility for it any more than they do their contributions to Africa, India or the Caribbean. And yet, every day, in their newspapers, they bash us for racism!
If one looks at the History of the British with Objectivity, it soon becomes apparent that the British have been some mean F***ing Bastards for quite a long time. They have done quite evil things in their History, but to be fair, they have also done a lot of good things.
They are shrewd, bold and ruthless when the occasion requires it, and I think they have an inherent mean streak that even the modern British still seem to reflect.
Now personally I like @$$holes because they usually have some personality, and If I was asked to point out some of my favorite @$$holes, I would invariably point to the British.
Simon Cowell, Chef Gordan Ramsey, Hugh Laurie as "House", Len Goodman of "Dancing with the Stars" and Vinnie Jones, to name a few.
But getting back to the British in History, what they did to China was quite horrible, and much of Britain's wealth and empire was the consequence of it. Their role in the Slave trade was also horrible.
Yes, the British are and have been quite the vicious bunch. Good to have on your side in a fight though.