Wednesday, July 4, 2007
Independence Day: the rudest of all holidays
Today is Independence Day. The day we Americans celebrate the supposed birth of our country. It’s the day our ancestors declared their independence from Great Britain.
As though that is something actually worth celebrating. I can think of worse things then being a British citizen.
I sometimes wonder how different my life would be if Maryland was still a colony of Great Britain. How different would my life be if I was a British citizen? Do I as an American enjoy any rights or privileges that I would not enjoy if I was British?
I don’t think so.
I’m not overly convinced that my life would be all that bad if our nation’s forefathers hadn’t declared their independence from England. If they had simply paid their taxes and not caused a ruckus. For guys that supposedly loved freedom so much, they certainly had a funny way of showing it. The phrase, “All men are created equal” was probably written with ink and paper fetched by a slave.
I’ve been to England. It’s a nice place. It’s not the type of place that makes me want to celebrate because I am independent from it. I can think of at least 12 countries off the top of my head that I would be thankful not to be part of. England is not one of those countries. In fact if I had to choose a country to live in other then the United States, my list would start and end with England.
In fact, I would choose to live in England even over many of the states in my own country. Have you ever been to Texas? How about Montana? I’d take England in a heartbeat.
Can you really blame me? Look at what Great Britain has given us. The Beatles and Elton John. Alan Moore and the Rolling Stones. The Who and Harry Potter. The Lord of the Rings and Led Zeppelin. The Clash and Ricky Gervase. Doctor Who and William Shakespeare. Monty Python and James Bond. Rich Johnson and Mary Poppins. David Bowie and Neil Gaiman. The list is really quite endless.
Have you ever eaten a scone? They are really very delicious. Have you tried putting malt vinegar on your fries? Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it.
In London, you are allowed to openly drink a beer while riding in the underground subway system. A beer that actually tastes good I might add. In nearby Washington D.C., you can be arrested for simply chewing a piece of candy.
Don’t get me wrong. There are many things I love about this country. For all of the things wrong with it, there are many good things too. I just don’t see why we have to make such a big deal celebrating our independence from England. To actually set off fireworks and throw festive get-togethers with friends and family. To eat potato salad, watermelon, and burnt hot dogs like there is no tomorrow. If I was from the England I think I would be a little offended at our level of jubilation. It strikes me as being more then just a little rude, Then again, maybe the English are just thankful that so many of our fellow Americans are not longer contaminating their gene pool.
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You are a fool, and I actually live in Great Britain. Sure, GB does some things better than the US, but then the US does some things better than the UK. Firstly, the UK is already overcrowded. So many people live, it is insane. Because of this, properties are really small, public transport is good, but traffic is horrible. Everything here, is ridiculously expensive. The weather is horrible, and possibly because of that, people are miserable and whinge about everything.
What you are doing is very childlike. You are comparing the best things of Britan with the worst parts of US. Of course GB is going to win.
Don’t forget, the Britain from which we gained independence was quite different than modern day GB. Even if our current government is shameful, it isn’t run by, literally, a madman.
Okay, i just checked wikipedia to see if George III was crazy. It says on there he might have been suffering from porphyria, which makes you crazy.
Anyway, I always liked the Fourth of July precisely because it is a little “in your face” and all.
Also, it kicks Guy Fawkes Day’s ass. Too bad he hadn’t succeeded- we might not have needed a Fourth of July 200 years later.
“Do I as an American enjoy any rights or privileges that I would not enjoy if I was British? I don’t think so.”
I’m glad I’m not the only person who’s noticed that, and doubly glad you wrote it here today. I miss a few things about the US from time to time, but “freedom” isn’t one of them.
There’s a lot less privacy in GB. There are different police powers and lots more surveillance cameras.
And the MODERN and CURRENT rights granted UK citizens are a helluva lot different than the reasons the U.S. fought for independence in the first place.
The U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights was created in direct response to the kind of bullshit that can happen when you have a leader who has power because of heredity or “divine right.”
I was only commenting on why people today seem so happy that they are not British subjects. Why they celebrate our independence from Great Britain with such passion. When I look at the UK today and compare it to America today, I really don’t see what the big deal is.
Interesting article. The guy above said its “in your face” but surley that kinda thrill only works if it actually offends someone. I can honestly say people in england are not offended in the slightest by independence day celebrations. In fact half of us go over to the US for a good piss up on this holiday.
The whole issue is so old, and as people rightly said, the world back then was a totally different place. If you all just waited a few hundred years we would have given you independence anyway along with giving the rest of our empire away. And im sure you would be just as good a country if not better, look at austrailia, thats an awesome place and its mostly arid land. Or hong Kong, a capitalist kingdom inside a communist country, who could have done that apart from great britain?
I like to think if the US remained a part of Great Britain there would be a greater sense of calm about the way the country is run.
Any way, have fun with your holiday, see you in florida soon!
The UK
I think any celebration of independence is “in your face” to a degree. It’s not about a thrill of offending someone. It’s about celebrating the freedom from an oppressor.
Now that the oppressor is our staunchest ally, there’s no joy in offense, only in celebrating freedom itself.
Found this link. its related to the topic in question, and a damn good read
Link From Above Which Hopefully Works
Ok,
So obviously it helps to be a bit shocking, and you’ve accomplished that in this article (with a little humor too). You’re taking a stand and that attracts readers (those who agree and those who don’t).
While I can see the perspective that it seems a bit over the top, I think there is a larger point to take into account.
The US’ Declaration of Independence was a huge step in world history that ended a long era monarchical and feudalist rule, and set forth a movement that made “all men equal” (yes, except if you were a slave, but for the sake of my argument I’ll overlook their hypocrisy) a notion that is now excepted in most of the civilized world.
This revolution, which seemed to spur on other revolutions in the centuries to follow, not only started the ball rolling with democratic societies, but also with more socialist, or even communist governments as well.
Chris writes:
“If you all just waited a few hundred years we would have given you independence anyway along with giving the rest of our empire away.”
But I wouldn’t be so sure that GB would have “Given the rest of our empire away” if there hadn’t been a very large event (ala the US Revolution) that told the world that empirical rule is not OK. It took years for GB to release the rest of it’s empire, but the 4th of July 1776 was the catalyst to all that followed.
-c
PS: I also love Great Britain, and have great respect for that country today. I just don’t want to loose site of the historical significance of the 4th.
to no 10..
You make it sound like GB was an oppressed nation at that time which it was not. Sure social powers were not what they are today but the country was still progressing towards those goals, with the industrial revolution, and there for true capitalism, the basis of the US.
What did the USA actually GAIN by leaving GB empire? Not have to pay some taxes.
Also to say that 4th of july was a catalyst i find a very arrogant notion. Each nation within the empire was entirely different, and the choice of independence taken when British rule had arguable modernised the country’s, and actually helps remove oppression. Sure you can counter this argument with many examples but the overall effect was good.
My argument that it wouldn’t have had an impact can be seen in the successes of Hong Kong and Australia, very vibrant metropolises.
would be nice to hear are non US and non GB side to the argument, as each side will surely be swayed to one side or the other.
a URL to some facts of that time and what was actually gained would be nice to see also…
Look oen thing AMerica has that Britain doe snot is gun right si woudl give my right to eat candy in a station other than being able to carry a seim-automatic in a station.Hell nop officer gunna bnother me them hey!!!