RE: America's fascination with history

It occured to me last night that other countries do indeed have their versions of Civil War re-enactments. When I was stationed in Germany, for example, there were tons of Renaissance Festival like events with knights in armor and the whole bit. Japan still has tons of Samurai events, Native Americans have Pow-Wows (which are not military re-enactments, but involve some of their martial skills). I guess it comes down to what is "politically correct" in the region and what era has a romantic idealization by the people there. On the first part, knights in armor re-enacting something from the 1400s is pretty harmless because these guys fought other Germans/French/English as much as they did the neighboring country, so it doesn't re-inflame ethnic/national gripes like something like WWI or more recent or national level struggles. In our own case, the Southerners still take pride in the Civil War because they feel their ancestors requitted themselves well. Many Americans can respect that and their bravery even if they lost and even if we are opposed to what they fought for. The Civil War, like the knight example, is also pretty harmless politically because it was "in house", and not against another nation (well, the South was arguably a nation for a time) or ethnic group (if you don't count the slaves).

I don't really see how you can be isolationist and dream of an empire though, unless you count making your nation proper great. You can't very well be isolationist and be deeply involved building colonies in Africa, for example. That's one reason McKinley's foray into the Philippines was so blasted unpopular. I think the isolationists hoped that our oceans would keep all those whacko Europeans away, and that a powerful military would deter them from even thinking of invading. I think where this becomes naive is when the world gradually becomes more integrated, as it did in the 1900s and you think you can just play nice with everyone without taking a side now and again, as in WWI and WWII. Those days are gone forever.

I agree with you wholeheartedly about the other aspects of narcissism, especially our TV, movies and advertising. I also agree that we largely have such a high opinion of the military because it's done its job as an instrument of the people and never turned on them, as has happened elsewhere. We've also been blessed, as you say, that we never let our politics go completely crazy. However, I think part of the reason the Civil War is so celebrated is precisely because of the trauma here at home--but yet we didn't go so crazy as to devastate our own country or fight terribly dirty (although some would argue about Sherman).

I also wholeheartedly agree with you about spreading democracy. If you read my posts here and everywhere else, I continue to advocate for this in the strongest possible sense. This is why I don't want us to bail on Iraq. It's funny you mention our advertising prowess...for some reason we cannot translate that into an effective Information Operations campaign. The American people are blitzed continuously by commercial advertising, yet scream if they consider something propaganda. The whole failure to get people to understand and build support are perplexing and paradoxical.

As for your last point on commercial imperialism, the whole rise of China, the rise of the standard of living for countries that embrace globalization, and the general economic health of the "free world" kind of put that perception to a lie. The whole last portion of Thomas Friedman's Lexus and the Olive Tree talks very eloquently about the limited American "hegemony" and how the rest of the world and the world economy benefits far more than we do. I actually laugh out loud most of the time when someone suggests the war in Iraq was a way for us to get their oil.