Quote:
Originally Posted by Honey Badger
This seems more like a political topic then a historical.
The definition of freedom for example has evolved a great deal over time. Ancient Greek's and Roman's thought of themselves as free but owed slaves, oppressed certain religions, suppressed certain types of expression etc.
You use the term "underdog values" it might be interesting to explore what parts of history set the foundation for your "underdog values" to evolve in the United States but you don't have to dig to far back in even the US history to see that even in the US "underdog values" not the norm. It wasn't that long ago:
Women couldn't vote
People owned slaves
Certain speech has been suppressed
Native American's were treated very differently even forced to relocate.
ect.
The primary reason I felt uncomfortable using the term "USA" is because it entails acknowledging a certain history of which we rightfully must acknowledge, and it of course brings the question up of, "well does the USA even have 'underdog values'?" I used the term "West' to acknowledge our specific ideology at this point and time in history, given all that we've learned about the aforementioned things, the advancements of which I don't think are necessarily the "USA's," but are instead attributed to a "Western" brand thoughts on individual liberties.
I would certainly retract everything I just said there if it turned out that our historically ideals weren't new, or if it was the case that we are heinous examples of the ideal compared to another historical group.
I don't think this is suitable for the political forum though. I am looking for a comparison of historical ideologies, not necessary current ones (primarily though, because I am under the assumption that the western ideals about treatment of women, free speech, ethnic groups, etc. is the only legitimately defensible game in town).