"...Professor Harry Elmer Barnes in his pamphlet, "The Struggle Against the Historical Blackout' said this, about that: 'If world policy of today (1951) cannot be divorced from the mythology of the 1940's, a third world war is inevitable...History has been the chief intellectual casualty of the second World War and the cold war which followed. In this country today, and it is also true of most other nations, many professional historians gladly falsify history quite voluntarily'...."
I find it fascinating that every American myth can be--in fact must be--torn apart except the myth surrounding the loss of the Republic and the rise of Washington DC as the Other Evil Empire. I use the word "evil" because shout as we may on this forum, literally billions of people on the streets of the world cheered Osama Bin Laden. This would have been unthinkable in 1901 when the USA generated the most hostility among the power elites in the Old and Ancient World--NOT among the man on the street.
I suppose the reason that myth is still sacred is because it serves the purposes of both the Police/Welfare State AND trans-national corporations.
Why, precisely, was the USA involved in stripping Germany of it's military after WWI? Why didn't we strip England and France of their military? Oh. That's right. They "won". Had we kept our noses out of this clash of Imperial powers--you know, simply do what George Washington advised us to do-- the Nations of Europe could only have fought Germany to a draw. The peace treaty drawn up would not have put the burden of "guilt" for the war solely on Germany's shoulders. Only America's late entry and emergence relativley unscathed gave England and France the energy to shove that poison pill down Germany's throat at Versailles.
Hitler becomes a housepainter in Munich without Versailles--without America's entry into WWI. At that, all Woody wanted to do was "make the world safe for democracy". Shoeless George wants to vanquish "terrorism" and "evil" itself.
Result? Just as the Republic disappeared in the 20th Century--The United States Empire will not exist in 2101.
Have fun. You can tell your grandchildren that if only we had killed a few more "evil" people, if only we had set up a few more non-governmental agencies to spread the good news of consumer capitalism. if only we had exported more dailsy-cutter "freedom" and more tomahawk "democracy", more shopping malls, if only we had done more to everybody and for everybody, then everybody would be like us.
If he asks you: "Who are 'We', grandpa?" you can always tell him to lay of the Prozac....
So well stated. This is the crux if the whole problem. Our children and grandchildren will despise us for what we've done.
If Europe or the United States are no longer populated, in the main, by people culturally or by ancestry to the land they reside in, does the nation still exist? I don't think so but it seems that there is a large group, even on this forum, that thinks otherwise. That being the case, the heart of the West is dead and the body can be expected to follow. The new century is not likely to be pretty.
Regards