Which group best personifies the United States?

[Raskolnikov]

Taking that idea a bit farther, all who came here to North America were invasive if you were an "Indian". Those who came from England,France,Spain,Sweden and other European countries invaded and then stole the living space from the natvies. I say living spaces as the idea of land ownership was not part of the native's culture. Then to add insult to injury ,we, the Europeans tried to eridcate the natives langauge, culture, ways of life,food sources and traditional tribal territories and went on to kill hunderds of them. If that's not an invasion by an alien element then I don't know what is.

I wish we could say We came, we saw, we conquered. For the most part we just came.

[Joe McCarthy]

Taking that idea a bit farther, all who came here to North America were invasive if you were an "Indian". Those who came from England,France,Spain,Sweden and other European countries invaded and then stole the living space from the natvies. I say living spaces as the idea of land ownership was not part of the native's culture. Then to add insult to injury ,we, the Europeans tried to eridcate the natives langauge, culture, ways of life,food sources and traditional tribal territories and went on to kill hunderds of them. If that's not an invasion by an alien element then I don't know what is.

The Indians themselves are alien to the United States. The United States was spreading ever westward in armed conflict with Indian NATIONS which didn't see themselves as Americans in any sense until post-modern guilt trippers concocted the concept of 'Native Americans' for savage nomads that had no conception of America, a European word, prior to contact with Europeans.

Indians have contributed nothing to our institutions other than to get run over by them. One might as well claim the Canaanites best personified ancient Israel.

[Gaztelu]

If I could, I would have picked the first three because the values of those three groups defined American society.

Unfortunately, the values of those three groups have (for the most part) gone down the drain.

[European Loyalist]

It's curious how a reviled and marginalized religious sect could best personify the country in which it exists. These people had to alter the tenets of their religion to even have Utah allowed into the Union.

It was more of a light heated ribbing of the international reputation the US has, think about the parallels of Mormonism in it's genesis, ideology, and reputation, and then that of the US itself.

[Raskolnikov]

Mormonism is just Calvinism with space aliens.

[Odoacer]

Mormonism is just Calvinism with space aliens.

Not really ...

I think the contributions of the Puritans/Congregationalists, Anglicans/Episcopalians, & Presbyterians have been the most important in shaping America. Indicative of the influence of these groups, the oldest American universities are as follows, with their charter dates:

Harvard 1650 (Puritan)
William & Mary 1693 (Anglican)
Yale 1701 (Puritan)
Princeton 1746 (Presbyterian)
Columbia 1754 (Anglican)
Pennsylvania 1755 (Anglican, but officially non-sectarian)
Brown 1764 (Baptist - at the time, essentially Puritan heretics )
Rutgers 1766 (Dutch Reformed - the Dutch version of Presbyterians )
Dartmouth 1769 (Puritan)

I'm voting for the Puritans only because I think they slightly edge out the other two.

[Osweo]

Personifications are best thought of as symbols, or caricatures:

Yesteryear;

- This image has great residual impact but is consciously anachronistic when used today.

Nowadays (and ULTRA-modern!);





***

You speak of that identity as if it is a minor thing. It is what keeps the country together,

... Kept

The patterns that shaped western democracy originated in ancient Greece.

An oft-repeated error, or gross exaggeration at best. Most peoples in the Barbarian world had various types of folk assembly, and there's more of this in the English 'Mother of Parliaments' than there is of the aristocracy's arrangements in certain Greek polises.

[Aivap]

Jewish capitalists, blacks, and latinos.

[GeistFaust]

Jewish capitalists, blacks, and latinos.

I would not say Latinos play anything but a very small role in today's America, but I am sure that will grow with their growing population. The Jews play a big role, and there are a few blacks who play a role, but the majority are not to be taken seriously.

I think the people who play roles in America are mixed and diversed overall, but I think the original creators of the American spirit play the biggest role overall.


Even though they were only the substratum of the American culture, they shaped it to where it is now, and you can see many of their agendas, ideologies, and mentalities projected into our society if you look over them in history.

[Aivap]

I would not say Latinos play anything but a very small role in today's America, but I am sure that will grow with their growing population. The Jews play a big role, and there are a few blacks who play a role, but the majority are not to be taken seriously.

I think the people who play roles in America are mixed and diversed overall, but I think the original creators of the American spirit play the biggest role overall.


Even though they were only the substratum of the American culture, they shaped it to where it is now, and you can see many of their agendas, ideologies, and mentalities projected into our society if you look over them in history.

Jewish are white collars


blacks and hispanics are blue collars