advertisement


Do Americans today feel like 19th Century Brits ?

W

wacko

pfm Member
Of course I'm not certain how 19th Century Brits felt but:
1. Britain was a military superpower.
2. Britain was an industrial superpower.
3. Brits were 'untouchable' under pain of retribution.
4. Brits had relatively well-paid jobs all over the globe.
 
wacko said:
Of course I'm not certain how 19th Century Brits felt but:
1. Britain was a military superpower.
2. Britain was an industrial superpower.
3. Brits were 'untouchable' under pain of retribution.
4. Brits had relatively well-paid jobs all over the globe.
Click to expand...
You forgot 5. Britain's greed cause misery to a lot of people all over the world.
Not even the Americans can match that
 
wacko said:
Of course I'm not certain how 19th Century Brits felt but:
1. Britain was a military superpower.
2. Britain was an industrial superpower.
3. Brits were 'untouchable' under pain of retribution.
4. Brits had relatively well-paid jobs all over the globe.
Click to expand...

I’d say they’re more like how Britain felt after WWI. A super power who’s empire is fading even if most people didn’t/don’t realise it at the time. For the British power moved across the Atlantic, for the US it’s moving across the Pacific.
 
Stunsworth said:
I’d say they’re more like how Britain felt after WWI. A super power who’s empire is fading even if most people didn’t/don’t realise it at the time. For the British power moved across the Atlantic, for the US it’s moving across the Pacific.
Click to expand...

I agree with this to some extent. I'd add that Americans, like most Brits in 1918, might be told that their country is a superpower, but this has almost no tangible benefit to their everyday lives. Who cares if your country is a financial and military superpower if you can't afford to visit the doctor, fill a prescription, or put your kid through college, or if large parts of the public infrastructure are in a state of advanced decay ?

I'd rather live in a small country of no global consequence with modern, functioning and affordable (universal), public health, education, and transit systems.
 
sean99 said:
I agree with this to some extent. I'd add that Americans, like most Brits in 1918, might be told that their country is a superpower, but this has almost no tangible benefit to their everyday lives.
Click to expand...

something very similar can be said for the modern wars. who is actually being protected or benefiting?
 
I wonder if most 19th century Brits were aware of much more than what was going in in their local community, eg cholera, TB, no access to doctors, the class divide.

Kind of mirrors what is going on in the US now.
 
wacko said:
Of course I'm not certain how 19th Century Brits felt but:
1. Britain was a military superpower.
2. Britain was an industrial superpower.
3. Brits were 'untouchable' under pain of retribution.
4. Brits had relatively well-paid jobs all over the globe.
Click to expand...
There is an important distinction to be made between the two situations - in 19th century UK, the lower orders generally knew their place and generally accepted them (the UK's biggest employer was domestic service), although the rise of the trade union movement and its political arm, the Labour Party, would change that. (One of the results was that parliamentarians started to receive a salary - the Liberals and Conservatives were all landed gentry, who saw the running of the country as a duty to be fitted in between polo matches. The arrival of unlanded Labour MPs changed this).

Generally there was a great pride in Empire and in the fact of being British, which helped tamp down (increasingly ineffectively) any feeling among the lower orders that they weren't getting a fair shake. I think it was Cecil Rhodes who was farewelled with the words, "Finally, Sir, remember that you are an Englishman, and have therefore won first prize in the lottery of life!"
 
Last edited:
The 'lower orders', or bottom 10%, don't seem to be getting 'a fair shake' in USA today.
OTOH the top 1% have never had it so good; so similar to the UK in the 19th C.

But I agree with the last line of sean99 above. Which basically means somewhere in Europe.
 
tones said:
There is an important distinction to be made between the two situations - in 19th century UK, the lower orders generally knew their place and generally accepted them (the UK's biggest employer was domestic service), although the rise of the trade union movement and its political arm, the Labour Party, would change that. (One of the results was that parliamentarians started to receive a salary - the Liberals and Conservatives were all landed gentry, who saw the running of the country as a duty to be fitted in between polo matches. The arrival of unlanded Labour MPs changed this).

Generally there was a great pride in Empire and in the fact of being British, which helped tamp down (increasingly ineffectively) any feeling among the lower orders that they weren't getting a fair shake. I think it was Cecil Rhodes who was farewelled with the words, "Finally, Sir, remember that you are an Englishman, and have therefore won first prize in the lottery of life!"
Click to expand...

I remember some boor farewelled us on here with that regularly before he finally flounced.
 
At least 19th century Brits never had to put up with the "freedom-loving" gun lobby https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-51170252
Christian Yingling, who led the Pennsylvania Light Foot Militia during the violent clashes in Charlottesville in 2017, told the BBC he was hoping for a big turnout.

"I'd like to see a lot of people, I really would. I know from chatter online that a lot of militia types are coming in from some distance... Texas, Illinois, elsewhere," he said.

He said he hoped the rally would pass peacefully but feared it would not. "I think there's enormous potential for something to go wrong."
Click to expand...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


advertisement


Back
Top