From: Damien Sullivan (phoenix@ugcs.caltech.edu)
Date: Sat Apr 26 2003 - 23:12:54 MDT
On Sun, Apr 27, 2003 at 12:03:06AM -0400, Michael Wiik wrote:
> Nonetheless, to me one of the greatest things about americans is that
> they don't maintain hatreds for very long. If only the rest of the world
> was as forgiving.
I view it as the good side of our having a rather limited sense of history.
Can't hate if you can't be bothered to remember why.
Of course it probably helps that we haven't really even had any wars on or
near our soil, let alone lost any, except for the Civil War. (And Southerners
seem to have a stronger sense of history than other Americans.) On the flip
side it probably helps that a large chunk of the population wasn't ancestrally
here for any particular US Historial Event.
"What side of the Civil War was your family on?"
"Ireland. Also Vienna and Moscow."
Of course at an official level I've long thought we're sore losers with regard
to Cuba, Vietnam, and Iran.
-xx- Damien X-)
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