HISTORIANS ALARMED !!
Trump to Preside Over 250th Anniversary.
Headline in The Guardian UK news outlet reads “Historians alarmed as Trump seeks to rewrite US story for 250th anniversary.” (Link to article at bottom of page). For recent graduates and the benefit of any average Americans that may read this blog - MOST of you are thank goodness above the average - the anniversary is next year.
Historian here. President Orange Sh*tgibbon is by far NOT the only history-impaired American. That's what makes his task so easy. But yeah ... let's tear down universal, compulsory, secular public education even further.
My favorite quote from the article:
“Anybody who teaches about the American revolution knows that the thing the founders feared the most is someone like Donald Trump – someone who would be lawless and and have arbitrary power, that’s not limited by the rule of law.”
Johan Neem.
NOT SO FAST !! Remember: we’ve discussed here that SOME of the founders WANTED a strong executive and a WEAK populace (demos in Greek). So even Neem’s reading of American history is a bit triumphalist and one-dimensional. No surprise that the article goes on to promote the popular historian HCR.
The overall point, however, is that Trump is going to put on a giant shit-show. Count on it.
BTW, in my home recently there was a very polite and charming young man (mid-20s,maybe 30) who worked for the company contracted to wash the windows. Perfectly intelligent. Very nice young man. When doing the inside, he saw my library/museum-looking front room and asked what I do. “Research and write history,” I answered. He said .. a little dejected ... "I received no history at all. I was home-schooled." After my standard “it’s never too late,” I then asked him, "Who won the American Revolution?" A LONG silence ensued. He was honestly stumped. He sincerely and literally was unable to answer the question and said so. He's voting age.
BTW, readers of this blog should already know that — while “the Americans” is the obvious answer — the correct answer to the question is, "mostly or in great part ... the French."
'MURKA, people !! FREEDUMB !!
By far most Americans think “our guys” whipped the Nazis in WWII, too. While my area of focus is 18th and 19th century democratic reform and reformers, an honest study of 20th century history has taught me the error of that formula. But that’s a story for another entry.
Some will have noticed the comparative silence on this blog the last few days. The goal here has always been at least two or three posts per week. Tentative excuse: your intrepid blogger spent the last three days up on a twelve-foot ladder scraping the paint from the south-facing eaves of said domicile (THOSE windows will need re-washing!). . By the time evening rolled around, there honestly wasn’t enough gas left in the septuagenarian meat-mobile to keep her running. LOL! Promise to do better.
Ken to my friends; Dr. Burchell to my few critics and hopefully even fewer enemies.
Yes, we've always known "the masses are asses", but we eventually gave them all the vote with the predicted results ensuing.
"By the late 1780s, the luster of democracy had dulled. U.S. political leaders blamed the nation’s growing instability on the democratic elements of state governments. Protests and rebellions prevailed. The nation’s future seemed to be in peril, and democracy was the culprit.
Madison warned that “a factious spirit has tainted our public administrations.” During the Constitutional Convention, Massachusetts delegate Elbridge Gerry declared that “the evils we experience flow from the excess of democracy.” Democracy had shifted from something to strive for to something that needed to be checked in American government."