Posted on 02/19/2007 5:42:10 PM PST by Gritty
Thanks for the info. I'm planning on buying one (probably an RWS 34) real soon.
I'm taking this great Western Civ. elective about the effects of the American independence on Europe, We totally screw everything up all over Europe.
When crossbows are outlawed, only ...
You give us too much credit. The French probably would have screwed up their own country without us. As it was, the only enduring harm from the French revolution was the metric system.
IMHO, Communism and Nazism can be traced very directly to 19th Century European Romanticism, which had its roots in the late 18th Century. It's a short journey from Rousseau to Hitler; one delusional world view quickly morphs into another. The attempt to explain life in terms of infantile stereotypes is just another European bad habit.
The American experiment was only one of many ideas in the air at the time. Europe's complete misinterpretation of the American Revolution was just another example of Europeans almost complete inability to comprehend Americans.
I agree with you about France screwing themselves up without us, Louis said the people are too dumb to rule themselves....he was right! They are dealing with the same problems today that they were dealing with then and they are trying to apply the same solutions. The only advance I can see is no one is pulling out the guillotines.
I also agree with you about the roots of Nazism. King Fredrick William I- wanted a militaristic society in Prussia just because he liked wearing a uniform. During his reign the most valuable commodity was obedience and loyalty, 200+ years of that being passed down from generation to generation and it was pretty easy for Hitler to get German's to fall in step.
Then in Russia, Ivan IV ( Ivan the terrible) made it really easy for Marx and then Lenin when he declared all commoners his legal servants because he was paranoid that the other loyals were out to get him (they were, but he never had proof of that).
It's amazing how just a couple of nuts can have such a huge impact on the entire world for 100's of years.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.