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The Leonard Lopate Show / December 18, 2007 / How British and American Individualism Shaped the Modern World
How British and American Individualism Shaped the Modern World
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Foreign policy expert Walter Russell Mead says that British and American emphasis on individualism has allowed those countries to gain unprecedented power and prestige over the last few centuries. His new book is God and Gold: Britain, America, and the Making of the Modern World.
God and Gold is available for purchase at amazon.com
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We are not just an Anglo Saxon country, even from our beginnings. Let's call this so-called individualism what it really is: UK/US exceptionalism that all the peoples of the world have had to endure, insult that accompanies the injury this sort of progress brings. Let's not idealize our barbarism, let's not rationalize our brutality.
Although I believe I understand what Mr. Mead means to convey when he says that the United States has been historically, demographically christian since its inception, I dispute his words.
Considered geographically, the peoples within that which is these United States, I would bet that the numbers of native, slave, and immigrant peoples within these borders from its beginnings reduce his vast majority at least into a 50% participation in the pool of this country's religious thought.
What about the Germans who sent soldiers into the trenches in WWI with belt buckles that read, "God on our side"? The iron cross remained a prominent symbol under Hitler. Why didn't they prosper due to the two World Wars?
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