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For What the Thanks

Discussion in 'Fred's House of Pancakes' started by amped, Nov 21, 2007.

  1. amped

    amped Senior Member

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    BY MARK STEYN
    November 19, 2007
    URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/66648

    Speaking as a misfit unassimilated foreigner, I think of Thanksgiving as the most American of holidays. Christmas is celebrated elsewhere, even if there are significant local variations: in Continental Europe, naughty children get left rods to be flayed with and lumps of coal; in Britain, Christmas lasts from December 22nd to mid-January and celebrates the ancient cultural traditions of massive alcohol intake and watching the telly till you pass out in a pool of your own vomit. All part of the rich diversity of our world. But Thanksgiving (excepting the premature and somewhat undernourished Canadian version) is unique to America. "What's it about?" an Irish visitor asked me a couple of years back. "Everyone sits around giving thanks all day? Thanks for what? George bloody Bush?"

    Well, Americans have a lot to be thankful for. Europeans think of this country as "the New World" in part because it has an eternal newness which is noisy and distracting. Who would ever have thought you could have ready-to-eat pizza faxed directly to your iPod? And just when you think you're on top of the general trend of novelty, it veers off in an entirely different direction: Continentals who grew up on Hollywood movies where the guy tells the waitress "Gimme a cuppa joe" and slides over a nickel return to New York a year or two later and find the coffee now costs $5.75, takes 25 minutes and requires an agonizing choice between the cinnamon-gingerbread-persimmon latte with coxcomb sprinkles and the decaf venti pepperoni-Eurasian-milfoil macchiato. Who would have foreseen that the nation that inflicted fast food and drive-thru restaurants on the planet would then take the fastest menu item of all and turn it into a kabuki-paced performance art? What mad genius!

    But Americans aren't novelty junkies on the important things. "The New World" is one of the oldest settled constitutional democracies on earth, to a degree "the Old World" can barely comprehend. Where it counts, Americans are traditionalists. We know Eastern Europe was a totalitarian prison until the Nineties, but we forget that Mediterranean Europe (Greece, Spain, Portugal) has democratic roots going all the way back until, oh, the mid-Seventies; France and Germany's constitutions date back barely half a century, Italy's only to the 1940s, and Belgium's goes back about 20 minutes, and currently it's not clear whether even that latest rewrite remains operative. The U.S. Constitution is not only older than France's, Germany's, Italy's or Spain's constitution, it's older than all of them put together. Americans think of Europe as Goethe and Mozart and 12th century castles and 6th century churches, but the Continent's governing mechanisms are no more ancient than the Partridge Family. Aside from the Anglophone democracies, most of "the west"'s nation states have been conspicuous failures at sustaining peaceful political evolution from one generation to the next, which is why they're so susceptible to the siren song of Big Ideas — Communism, Fascism, European Union. If you're going to be novelty-crazed, better the zebra-mussel cappuccino than the Third Reich.

    Even in a supposedly 50/50 nation, you're struck by the assumed stability underpinning even fundamental disputes. If you go into a bookstore, the display shelves offer a smorgasbord of leftist anti-Bush tracts claiming that he and Cheney have trashed, mangled, gutted, raped and tortured, sliced'n'diced the Constitution, put it in a cement overcoat and lowered it into the East River. Yet even this argument presupposes a shared veneration for tradition unknown to most western political cultures: When Tony Blair wanted to abolish in effect the upper house of the national legislature, he just got on and did it. I don't believe the U.S. Constitution includes a right to abortion or gay marriage or a zillion other things the left claims to detect emanating from the penumbra, but I find it sweetly touching that in America even political radicalism has to be framed as an appeal to constitutional tradition from the powdered-wig era. In Europe, by contrast, one reason why there's no politically significant pro-life movement is because, in a world where constitutions have the life expectancy of an Oldsmobile, great questions are just seen as part of the general tide, the way things are going, no sense trying to fight it. And, by the time you realize you have to, the tide's usually up to your neck.

    So Americans should be thankful they have one of the last functioning nation states. Because they've been so inept at exercising it, Europeans no longer believe in national sovereignty, whereas it would never occur to Americans not to. This profoundly different attitude to the nation state underpins in turn Euro-American attitudes to transnational institutions such as the U.N. But on this Thanksgiving the rest of the world ought to give thanks to American national sovereignty, too. When something terrible and destructive happens — a tsunami hits Indonesia, an earthquake devastates Pakistan — the U.S. can project itself anywhere on the planet within hours and start saving lives, setting up hospitals and restoring the water supply. Aside from Britain and France, the Europeans cannot project power in any meaningful way anywhere. When they sign on to an enterprise they claim to believe in — shoring up Afghanistan's fledgling post-Taliban democracy — most of them send token forces under constrained rules of engagement that prevent them doing anything more than manning the photocopier back at the base. If America were to follow the Europeans and maintain only shriveled attenuated residual military capacity, the world would very quickly be nastier and bloodier, and far more unstable. It's not just Americans and Iraqis and Afghans who owe a debt of thanks to the U.S. soldier but all the Europeans grown plump and prosperous in a globalized economy guaranteed by the most benign hegemon in history.

    That said, Thanksgiving isn't about the big geopolitical picture, but about the blessings closer to home. Last week, the state of Oklahoma celebrated its centennial, accompanied by rousing performances of Rodgers and Hammerstein's eponymous anthem:

    "We know we belong to the land And the land we belong to is grand!"

    Which isn't a bad theme song for the first Thanksgiving, either. Three hundred and eighty-six years ago, the pilgrims thanked God because there was a place for them in this land, and it was indeed grand. The land is grander today, and that too is remarkable: France has lurched from Second Empires to Fifth Republics struggling to devise a lasting constitutional settlement for the same smallish chunk of real estate, but the principles that united a baker's dozen of East Coast colonies were resilient enough to expand across a continent and halfway around the globe to Hawaii. Americans should, as always, be thankful this Thanksgiving, but they should also understand just how rare in human history their blessings are.

    © 2007 Mark Steyn
     
  2. Pinto Girl

    Pinto Girl New Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(amped @ Nov 21 2007, 12:50 PM) [snapback]542479[/snapback]</div>
    For the betterment of humanity!®

    I'm confused, are you the author or are you quoting him?

    ---------

    BTW, I don't think the assimilation of Hawai'i is exactly one of white-dom's finest hours.

    It was based on erroneous assumptions of racial and religious superiority, and was --IMHO-- another perverted form of "Manifest Destiny." I'd say, if anything, we should be thankful that Pacific Islanders are as resilient as THEY are, and were willing to consider (even, admittedly, under great duress) ethnic and spiritual traditions which were totally foreign to them.
     
  3. F8L

    F8L Protecting Habitat & AG Lands

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    I think it is important to acknowledge the truths of the Thanksgiving myth and move beyond the historical inaccuracies and Eurocentric viewpoints and delvelop the holiday into something you can truely celebrate in personal terms. This is what I am trying to do this year. I no longer wish to see it as a bitter day or one of blind acceptance. I'm moving beyond...

    Here is an article I found that explains it for me.

    Quoted from Alternet.org
     
  4. amped

    amped Senior Member

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    PG, I'm not Mark Steyn. Edited for clarity.
     
  5. Godiva

    Godiva AmeriKan Citizen

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(amped @ Nov 21 2007, 01:36 PM) [snapback]542523[/snapback]</div>
    In which case you should have provided a link to the original article and either summarized it or only provided a few lines or a paragraph.

    The entire copy/paste is copyright infingement and leaves Priuschat susceptible to a cease and desist from the original owners/website. Putting Mark Steyn on the bottom doesn't mitigate this unless Mr. Steyn and the website you found it from gave you permission to repost in it's entirety.

    Perhaps you could edit it down in keeping with Priuschat guidelines.
     
  6. daniel

    daniel Cat Lovers Against the Bomb

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    Referring to the Pilgrims' celebration as "the first thanksgiving" is one small part in a larger propaganda campaign, dating from the first arrival of Europeans here, to hide the cultural traditions of the native peoples. The harvest celebration we call thanksgiving was already older than memory when our ancestors arrived. The Indians taught the Pilgrims how to survive in this land, and in return the Pilgrims excoriated and murdered the Indians in a campaign of genocide that lasted until very recently.

    I suppose I could have my own private vegetarian pig-out and call it "thanksgiving," but a gluttonous feast hardly seems an appropriate way to give thanks in a nation where obesity is an epidemic.

    At this time of year I'm mainly thankful that I no longer have to go to those family thanksgivings at my evil step-mother's house. With no family within 900 miles, and no vegetarian friends within a day's drive, I'll eat the same way tomorrow that I do on any other day.
     
  7. IsrAmeriPrius

    IsrAmeriPrius Progressive Member

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    I don't consider a Canadian born, U.S. based journalist to be an unassimilated foreigner. He is just another conservative columnist writing for a neo-con publication.
     
  8. Pinto Girl

    Pinto Girl New Member

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    We live amongst such bounty; it's now almost impossible to indulge ourselves more than we do normally.
     
  9. Banjoman

    Banjoman Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(amped @ Nov 21 2007, 09:50 AM) [snapback]542479[/snapback]</div>
    Had the Pilgrims and other early arrivers become as the native Americans instead of subduing them, could America be the blessing it is to the rest of the world today? The natives were primitive people still living in the stone age--didn't have metals, the wheel or even horses to ride. Isn't there a greater good, as described in the quote above, that resulted?
     
  10. F8L

    F8L Protecting Habitat & AG Lands

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(banjoman @ Nov 21 2007, 04:19 PM) [snapback]542693[/snapback]</div>
    Blessing to the rest of thw world??? LMAO! :lol: We are doing our best to destroy it, not restore it. Some of you really need to look at the long term picture here. OUR WAY OF LIFE IS NOT SUSTAINABLE.
     
  11. fairclge

    fairclge Member

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    Is it hypocritical to spit on the country that gives us all so much while we (you) live on the land that was “stolen form the native American’s†and benefit from it?

    That like saying crime is bad while you count your drug money in your bling-bling home.

    I am thankful for my pregnant wife and two year old son and the freedom that comes from living in the greatest country in the world, so I and meet all of you wonderful people her on priuschat and be able to write what i think . And for the fighting men and women who protect our freedoms during this thanksgiving.
     
  12. F8L

    F8L Protecting Habitat & AG Lands

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    Recognition and acknowledgement is the issue. It's kind of like celebrating Columbus Day and placing prestige upon such a vile man.

    Spit upon my country? I would agrue I do more to preserve it than most do. This country needs to evolve if it plans to stay "afloat", and by holding onto antiquated values backed by a couple centuries worth of ignorance is only hastening it's demise.

    There is a huge difference between hating ones country and being disatisfied with the path it is taking and doing something to correct it. The whole America Hating debate kind of reminds me of the citizens of old who disliked the way their King/Queen was running the show and they took up arms to make a change. I thought that was what the United States was built upon. Who is more "American then", that is the question. The one who holds fast to old values and refuses to change or the one who fights/works to create change? ;)

    Let go of the guilt? No, I think it better to remember it, say we are truely sorry and mend the past wounds but do not ever forget the source of that guilt.
     
  13. F8L

    F8L Protecting Habitat & AG Lands

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(fairclge @ Nov 21 2007, 05:24 PM) [snapback]542720[/snapback]</div>
    I may disagree with your views but I wish you the best with the new child. :)
     
  14. hyo silver

    hyo silver Awaaaaay

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    Funny, I thought Thanksgiving had something to do with appreciating the bounty of the harvest and the hope of living through another winter. But no, it's just another platform to assert the blindingly obvious superiority of Americanism and the utter stupidity and backwardness of anyone who doesn't bow down to it. :angry:
     
  15. TimBikes

    TimBikes New Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(daniel @ Nov 21 2007, 03:02 PM) [snapback]542645[/snapback]</div>
    Actually the Pilgrims lived in peace with the Wampanoag for over 50 years. The native tribes of Narragansett, Mohawk and Pequot fought with each other and the Wampanoag. The Wampanoag were able to fend off some of these inter-tribal attacks and live in relative peace for some time due to their friendly alliance with the Pilgrims.

    Just as there were peaceful native tribes and war-like tribes, so were there peaceful Europeans and warlike ones. It was apparently when the Puritans began arriving en mass that the troubles began for the Wampanoag. Thus the first Thanksgiving, whether it took place exactly as described in some texts, remains as a celebration of the harvest - a harvest that was enabled by the friendly relations between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag at or around the time of some of the earliest European settlements in the New World.

    Ultimately, we all know the story of native Americans is a tragic one. But to paint all of the European settlers as greedy warmongers and all of the native tribes as peace-loving friends is a pretty large historical inaccuracy as well.
     
  16. TimBikes

    TimBikes New Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(daniel @ Nov 21 2007, 03:02 PM) [snapback]542645[/snapback]</div>
    Actually the Pilgrims lived in peace with the Wampanoag for over 50 years. The native tribes of Narragansett, Mohawk and Pequot fought with each other and the Wampanoag. The Wampanoag were able to fend off some of these inter-tribal attacks and live in relative peace for some time due to their friendly alliance with the Pilgrims.

    Just as there were peaceful native tribes and war-like tribes, so were there peaceful Europeans and warlike ones. It was apparently when the Puritans began arriving en mass that the troubles began for the Wampanoag. Thus the first Thanksgiving, whether it took place exactly as described in some texts, remains as a celebration of the harvest - a harvest that was enabled by the friendly relations between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag at or around the time of some of the earliest European settlements in the New World.

    Ultimately, we all know the story of native Americans is a tragic one. But to paint all of the European settlers as greedy warmongers and all of the native tribes as peace-loving friends is a pretty large historical inaccuracy as well.
     
  17. patsparks

    patsparks An Aussie perspective

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    The world should be thankful to the most war loving nation on earth? Yeah, OK. Please excuse me if I don't bow down before you.

    Sorry, the USA is the most hated country in the world.
     
  18. Proco

    Proco Senior Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(hyo silver @ Nov 23 2007, 09:13 PM) [snapback]543428[/snapback]</div>
    Well, the whole harvest thing is what it used to be. Now it's a holiday of gluttony & excess. We gorge ourselves on food so we have sufficient stores of fat to survive the trek to the mall at 4am on Friday so we can hunt down a good deal on things we don't need.

    For most of us, the superiority of Americanism is a distant second. :p

    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(patsparks @ Nov 27 2007, 09:02 AM) [snapback]544654[/snapback]</div>
    No apologies necessary. We did this to ourselves.
     
  19. qbee42

    qbee42 My other car is a boat

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(patsparks @ Nov 27 2007, 09:02 AM) [snapback]544654[/snapback]</div>
    It hasn't always been the case. I hope I live long enough to see a change back for the better.

    Tom
     
  20. Godiva

    Godiva AmeriKan Citizen

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(patsparks @ Nov 27 2007, 09:02 AM) [snapback]544654[/snapback]</div>
    And we know who to thank for that.

    Of course, I'm sure when he said he was a uniter he didn't intend uniting the rest of the world against us.