Still trying to figure out the rationale behind America's Independence Day celebration.
Always reminded me of the unruly teenager who escaped to college and then spent the rest of her life celebrating the day she moved out of her parent's house.
This post may contain Mildly Adult content.
ViciDraco · 41-45, M
Getting England to give up and say "fine, do what you want" was a huge deal at the time. It's not like they just let us go. This wasn't something just anyone did back then.
Now, you can say maybe we'd have been better off if we didn't. And it is ironic that we are now guilty of the same imperialism we decried. But the accomplishment of breaking away was very significant.
Now, you can say maybe we'd have been better off if we didn't. And it is ironic that we are now guilty of the same imperialism we decried. But the accomplishment of breaking away was very significant.
ninalanyon · 61-69, T
@ViciDraco It's also not as if England tried all that hard to hold the original colonies. We were a bit busy, with bigger fish to fry in Europe and India.
I'm of the opinion that independence wouldn't have been all that long coming even without the War of Independence. Had it been delayed until 1833 (Slavery Abolition Act 1833.) you might have been spared a lot of the damage that slavery caused and skipped the Civil War.
Just perhaps of course; one can never tell what an alternate history might have turne out like in the long run.
I'm of the opinion that independence wouldn't have been all that long coming even without the War of Independence. Had it been delayed until 1833 (Slavery Abolition Act 1833.) you might have been spared a lot of the damage that slavery caused and skipped the Civil War.
Just perhaps of course; one can never tell what an alternate history might have turne out like in the long run.
ViciDraco · 41-45, M
@ninalanyon They didn't fight like it was existential to them, but 50K soldiers back then wasn't anything to sneeze at. England has a long history so it's easy for them to downplay this loss, but it was significant.
Given where history has taken us, I'm not going to argue there may have been benefits if it never happened.
Given where history has taken us, I'm not going to argue there may have been benefits if it never happened.
in10RjFox · M
swirlie ·
@Reject
Yes, independence is a good thing, a very good thing actually. But you've completely missed the point of my post.
It was almost 250 years ago that the US became independent from Great Britain. It was a big deal at the time but it isn't a big deal anymore, nor has it been a big deal for the last 249 years or so.
If today, the USA actually identified itself as being a valid, INDEPENDENT nation, it wouldn't keep trying to over-state itself TO itself as an independent nation over and over again, year after year.
At the time 250 years ago, becoming independent of Great Britain was a massive feat for the times, but after that first one-year anniversary had passed, that's where the celebrating should have ended for the USA because after all, the USA was now an independent nation and that's all that mattered and that should have been the end of it.
But in America's mind, it IS still stuck deeply in the past and cannot pull itself away from it's former ties with Great Britain, despite that feat already having been acknowledged by the British Monarchy almost 250 years ago as well!
Yet America behaves today like it STILL hasn't happened ..or that it's independence from Great Britain JUST happened yesterday, when in fact it happened back in the mid-1700's for fukk sakes!
It's really time the United States laid this so-called "Independency Day" garbage to rest once and for all because NONE of it is relevant anymore. The USA has to put on it's big-boy pants and stop pretending that it is still being victimized by the ancient memories that nobody alive remembers of Great Britain 250 years ago.
Yes, independence is a good thing, a very good thing actually. But you've completely missed the point of my post.
It was almost 250 years ago that the US became independent from Great Britain. It was a big deal at the time but it isn't a big deal anymore, nor has it been a big deal for the last 249 years or so.
If today, the USA actually identified itself as being a valid, INDEPENDENT nation, it wouldn't keep trying to over-state itself TO itself as an independent nation over and over again, year after year.
At the time 250 years ago, becoming independent of Great Britain was a massive feat for the times, but after that first one-year anniversary had passed, that's where the celebrating should have ended for the USA because after all, the USA was now an independent nation and that's all that mattered and that should have been the end of it.
But in America's mind, it IS still stuck deeply in the past and cannot pull itself away from it's former ties with Great Britain, despite that feat already having been acknowledged by the British Monarchy almost 250 years ago as well!
Yet America behaves today like it STILL hasn't happened ..or that it's independence from Great Britain JUST happened yesterday, when in fact it happened back in the mid-1700's for fukk sakes!
It's really time the United States laid this so-called "Independency Day" garbage to rest once and for all because NONE of it is relevant anymore. The USA has to put on it's big-boy pants and stop pretending that it is still being victimized by the ancient memories that nobody alive remembers of Great Britain 250 years ago.