To me, the war between the states [the Civil War] is a very important part of American history because its tells me a lot more about the USA than the Constitution or any other part of USA history. To erase it means to erase half of the core principles of the USA.
My basic idea about the USA come from history before the founding fathers. That is the way I conceive of it. I mean I look at the war between Sparta and Athens and realize how tragic that was. Then I look at Rome. Then England in the 1700's. I see in all this- conflicting principles each one important in itself yet when put together they all conflict. Then I look at the USA Constitution and realize the effort put into it to get a synthesis between conflicting principles. But to see the results I look at the civil war to understand what happens when the synthesis falls apart.
I may not be explaining this properly but I am just trying to give a rough idea of how I think of the USA.
[There are a great deal of principles and ideals that go into the making of the USA Constitution. The most important idea comes from the Talmud--the idea that the commandments have reasons that are known and knowable. Natural Law. Though never said openly in the Talmud in that many words, it was expressed simply thus by Saadia Gaon and Maimonides. Thomas Aquinas developed this further. Finally John Locke came along and Parliamentary system in England with its own range of disastrous civil wars and conflicts. So to put all the ideas into a workable system I see as one of the most remarkable successes in Human history. ]
[The odd thing here is that the philosophical foundations of Aquinas and John Locke a a bit weak. Aquinas as all medieval thought take things as axioms that just do not see right. John Locke also. The obvious thing to do would be to look at more rigorous and exact philosophical thought--the German Idealists. But that does not seem to get very far. The puzzle is this: Why does the USA system work, and not just work but seem to work a thousand times better than anything else. Even though other systems seem to be base on much more exact and rigorous thought? ]
Not that Marx was all that rigorous.The best thing in terms of Philosophy is the Kant Friesian school based on Kant and Leonard Nelson and that is certainly supportive of American Democracy and individual rights.
However to me everything seems to depend on DNA. I simply can not see that a USA kind of democracy would have been able to deal with the problems in czarist Russia. Nor in any population with a large percentage of criminal DNA. For societies that are not WASP, clearly something else is need to keep the peace. To me it is clear that nothing would have or could have worked in Russia except a czar or the USSR. Nothing even close to the American system could have or can work. The trouble is simple. Too many crooks. When there there just too much criminal DNA in the blood, you need an absolutist central government.
My basic idea about the USA come from history before the founding fathers. That is the way I conceive of it. I mean I look at the war between Sparta and Athens and realize how tragic that was. Then I look at Rome. Then England in the 1700's. I see in all this- conflicting principles each one important in itself yet when put together they all conflict. Then I look at the USA Constitution and realize the effort put into it to get a synthesis between conflicting principles. But to see the results I look at the civil war to understand what happens when the synthesis falls apart.
I may not be explaining this properly but I am just trying to give a rough idea of how I think of the USA.
[There are a great deal of principles and ideals that go into the making of the USA Constitution. The most important idea comes from the Talmud--the idea that the commandments have reasons that are known and knowable. Natural Law. Though never said openly in the Talmud in that many words, it was expressed simply thus by Saadia Gaon and Maimonides. Thomas Aquinas developed this further. Finally John Locke came along and Parliamentary system in England with its own range of disastrous civil wars and conflicts. So to put all the ideas into a workable system I see as one of the most remarkable successes in Human history. ]
[The odd thing here is that the philosophical foundations of Aquinas and John Locke a a bit weak. Aquinas as all medieval thought take things as axioms that just do not see right. John Locke also. The obvious thing to do would be to look at more rigorous and exact philosophical thought--the German Idealists. But that does not seem to get very far. The puzzle is this: Why does the USA system work, and not just work but seem to work a thousand times better than anything else. Even though other systems seem to be base on much more exact and rigorous thought? ]
Not that Marx was all that rigorous.The best thing in terms of Philosophy is the Kant Friesian school based on Kant and Leonard Nelson and that is certainly supportive of American Democracy and individual rights.
However to me everything seems to depend on DNA. I simply can not see that a USA kind of democracy would have been able to deal with the problems in czarist Russia. Nor in any population with a large percentage of criminal DNA. For societies that are not WASP, clearly something else is need to keep the peace. To me it is clear that nothing would have or could have worked in Russia except a czar or the USSR. Nothing even close to the American system could have or can work. The trouble is simple. Too many crooks. When there there just too much criminal DNA in the blood, you need an absolutist central government.
