tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30897652.post6211133962976510305..comments2024-03-27T15:44:43.564-08:00Comments on What Do I Know?: Thanksgiving - Conflicted Thoughts On A Conflicted HolidayStevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10498066938213558757noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30897652.post-14054797142497899132013-11-30T15:59:20.557-09:002013-11-30T15:59:20.557-09:00"Pumping up one's history isn't limit..."Pumping up one's history isn't limited to the US of A. Not at all. We are just told we can expect better." <br />- Of course, but this is the place I have the most right and responsibility to challenge it.<br /><br />About the rest, yes, thinks are complicated. I didn't think I was asking for penance, but maybe I was - at least from some. The Lakoff piece on Cirze's blog (first commenter) covers similar themes about framing, particularly relevant, framing poverty and redistribution. <br /><br />Did you celebrate in London? With other ex-pats? Stevehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10498066938213558757noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30897652.post-85355245203907558332013-11-30T15:37:18.237-09:002013-11-30T15:37:18.237-09:00Thanks for checkin in. Your blog looks interestin...Thanks for checkin in. Your blog looks interesting - liked the Lakoff piece particularly. Stevehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10498066938213558757noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30897652.post-48895283061825286912013-11-29T00:34:26.400-09:002013-11-29T00:34:26.400-09:00Correction: "Greatful for getting through a c...Correction: "Greatful for getting through a civil WAR perhaps?" Jacob Dugan-Brausehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06287631724339961459noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30897652.post-8530472581500035552013-11-29T00:07:05.322-09:002013-11-29T00:07:05.322-09:00So much guilt, already! Think if you had to govern...So much guilt, already! Think if you had to govern a nation with your view of its foundational myths, what would you do? That's more to the point of how this holiday got its start. Pumping up one's history isn't limited to the US of A. Not at all. We are just told we can expect better.<br /><br />In the UK, Thanksgiving is seen as quite a remarkable occasion -- people getting together as family for no other reason than to be thankful? Odd. It seems to have all the makings of liberal-Pope-talk, doesn't it? Peace and brotherhood and all that. <br /><br />But myth serves its purpose if it preserves the essential plot, and I do believe this holiday does just that, in many good ways. <br /><br />As I don't find fault with your call to penance, we agree that the myth must be reformed. To do this, will take textbook rewrites and reviews, budgets for books and many school board fights. Maybe it's already happened across that great land.<br /><br />It will take separating an essentially moral message from a bad historical one. It will require re-imagining facts, words and images of this great cultural text Americans have been taught to treasure. Greatful for getting through a civil way perhaps? Not bad, really.<br /><br />If one is a conservative, in the classic sense, this is difficult work, frought with dangerous deconstructions of text and meanings. If one is liberal, in the modern sense, it is required, ethical and worth the risks in binding up old wounds.<br /><br />I ramble too, Steve. It touches what are memories of so many real and good family times. It reminds me of the basic wrongness of the founding position of the country I was born in and to. For Americans to wake to the facts of its history is to ponder an earlier question asked of Roman civilisation in Europe, "But after all the fighting, wasn't Roman civilisation largely good for its conquered peoples?"<br /><br />Americans took up war against its first peoples, in conquest driven by visions of a new republic, stretching from sea to shing sea. It too, was imperial.<br /><br />So we ask, "Were we not a good empire?" Sure, and I still love Thanksgiving.Jacob Dugan-Brausehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06287631724339961459noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30897652.post-39420410155971863672013-11-28T21:00:39.233-09:002013-11-28T21:00:39.233-09:00Thanks, Steve!
You've said for me as well.
H...Thanks, Steve!<br /><br />You've said for me as well.<br /><br />Happy days to come!Cirzehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07070125217972397204noreply@blogger.com