Re: History Lesson/ Hollywood's propaganda

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: : Wellllll, now!!

: : A lot of reflective silence is required for this one....except for one statement..."blood is thicker than American citizenship".... hmmmmm!!  I can reenact British Highlander, I can be proud of my ancestry (which I've written of before, won't bore anyone again!), but I am damn proud to be an American....and....and...that's why I can see these things through!!

: : Any other comments?  How about Toot, Seamus, and Three Tales (not to mention all the other fine folk of Mohicanland).

: : Your most Humble and Obed't Servant...For God and Country!!

: : Dr. Uncle Mark

: Dr. UM,

: Yes, that one line caught my attention too.  However, mayhaps we just look for something to jump on and take that comment out of context?  Clearly, we are dealing with an Anglophile here, but somebody who can see past the propaganda.  I agree it is worrisome to portray history from a jingoistic or slanted view in movies.  I agree Patriot was a Mel action movie set in the time of the Rev War and had little other connection to actual facts.  I agree folks (mostly under college graduate age one hopes) will see the film and may draw historical conclusions from "hollywood history".  And I even agree that Tarleton was honored when he returned home and accept he obtained a seat in Parliament.  But......though he never did the church deed or anything like it, he was FAR from a model officer and gentleman.
: The British might have revered him as Germany employed some ex-Nazis and SS in all levels of police and goverment, but that does not change his ruthlessness and even barbarity.  Maybe, just maybe, in this gentleman's enthusiasm for his English background HE also sees things a tad slanted?  It's human nature.

: I guess some folks react to any criticism of patriotism, America, or Americans a bit strongly because over the years it was too fashionable to slam America and Americans for EVERYTHING and to accept us a truly the Great Satan with no heart or honor.
: I mean, if an African rebel leader farted and died, it HAD to be the CIA feeding him explosive chicken nuggets or something.  You would think America had been the ONLY country who ever backed a somewhat less than shiny foreign leader or government out of necessity, expediency, economics or dogma.  We made mistakes. Our government lied to us on more than once occasion.  But we often saw folks dumping filth on us at every turn while holding up governments, leaders, and forms of government who, if they had said the same about THOSE would have disappeared with their whole families.  There are politics in our military.  We do NOT however have pogroms of the officer corps wiping out folks with the wrong political background.  etc etc etc.  So, we look around.  We remember a time when even our own countryfolk shat upon the flag, our system of government, and willingly believed every tiny scrap of propoganda about us generated by our enemies.
: And we react a bit strongly to a seeming resurgence of those days.  The pendulum had swung way too far to the left, and we want it centered.  

: However, I do take exception to the statement that America ALWAYS portrays the enemy as barbarians, etc etc.  Sir - EVERY nation including Britain paints the enemy as barbaric.  Somehow every nation has been accused of bayoneting babies for example.
: Did it happen in the Rev War?  Not to my knowlege.  Did it NEVER happen?  Oh, it did. Ask Nanking if it did.  It can.  It has. 

: There are some, believe it or not, who say the holocaust never happened.  It was Jewish propaganda and Hollywood trickery.

: The truth is usually somewhere around if it can be sought for objectively and diligently.  The Brits weren't monsters.  They weren't HERE in the strength of an Army and a Navy to hold public awareness meetings though.  They were here to compel a people to stop thinking like Americans and think as docile British subjects.  In point of fact, most of Britain thought of us as they did the rest of their colonies - a place to dump goods - even unwanted goods - at high cost,and as a source or cheap raw materials. Essentially they thought of us as shopkeepers and riff raff who had only an economic purpose.  That attitude has cost them more than one piece of their empire.

: I do tend to go on and on dont I?  Sorry.

: Bill R


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