The European Tribune is a forum for thoughtful dialogue of European and international issues. You are invited to post comments and your own articles.
Please REGISTER to post.
So, I would always prefer to legitimize a certain policy with a serious argument based on the current circumstances and not week paralells with a distant past. History tells us how we got here and not where we should go.
But while we are at it, I am willing to accept your points on the Confederation. And since I am not qualified, I do not want to go into a serious debate in the multifold origins of the American civil war.
Then again, I was thinking of something else: The Confederate States was political regime designed to deliver its citizens the right to hold others as slaves on the notion of their racial infiority. This makes it a pretty racist and evil regime, by all imaginabe standards of western civilization.
So why is it, that saying so would still cost you any election in the South even 140 years after the war ended? This is the interesting question. There are huge "undercurrents" in the American political discourse I find scary. If I were to give Americans an advise, I would recommend them to come to a joint understanding of their common past - good or worse. By limiting the official historical discourse on a warped version of the own national history, the U.S. has created an unnecessary gap between itself and the rest of the world: slavery, civil rights movements, the inability to fight poverty, decades of senseless military intervention are part of the historical consciensce of many people outside the U.S., yet seem to be seen as irrelevant inside. Thus, the American political leadership lost the moment it ended to be the worlds moral superpower.
I would recommend an American Truth and Reconciliation Commission. It worked well in South Africa.
by Frank Schnittger - Jan 26 3 comments
by Frank Schnittger - Jan 31
by Frank Schnittger - Jan 22 3 comments
by Cat - Jan 25 55 comments
by Oui - Jan 9 21 comments
by Frank Schnittger - Jan 13 28 comments
by gmoke - Jan 20
by Oui - Jan 15 91 comments
by Oui - Feb 13 comments
by gmoke - Jan 29
by Oui - Jan 2731 comments
by Frank Schnittger - Jan 263 comments
by Cat - Jan 2555 comments
by Frank Schnittger - Jan 223 comments
by Oui - Jan 2110 comments
by Oui - Jan 21
by Oui - Jan 20
by Oui - Jan 1839 comments
by Oui - Jan 1591 comments
by Oui - Jan 144 comments
by Frank Schnittger - Jan 1328 comments
by Oui - Jan 1219 comments
by Oui - Jan 1120 comments
by Oui - Jan 1034 comments
by Oui - Jan 921 comments
by NBBooks - Jan 810 comments