A Scientific Survey about the USA

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Tuesday, January 3. 2017

A Scientific Survey about the USA

Image: City of Washington, 1800

Two questions for our readers:

1. If the USA is the mostest evilish oppressive imperialist country in the world, why do so many want the federal government to have more power over the states and the people?

2. Is Washington Rome? The federal city looks like Rome, a hideous statement of power and the smallness of the individual citizen. Are the states of America just Roman colonies, creating the goods and food and money for the wealthy imperial capitol and its power people?

Posted by The News Junkie in Politics at 14:15 | Comments (20) | Trackbacks (0)

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2a. Federal-style classical architecture of D.C. was intended to invoke the democracy of ancient greece and the republican government of Rome. Chesterton said, “Men did not love Rome because she was great. She was great because they had loved her.”

2b. Your analogy veered into the stupid.

#1 Will Bithers on 2017-01-03 15:17 (Reply)

Been in DC recently? Feels like an imperial capitol to me.

#1.1 the nj on 2017-01-03 15:38 (Reply)

he commented on what it "looks like", not understanding what federal style architecture means. I'm not even sure what the antithesis of the architecture should be. a log cabin capitol building? his thumbnail description of the roman empire is cartoonish and unuseful as well.

#1.1.1 Will Bithers on 2017-01-03 15:50 (Reply)

Log cabin would be perfect. Wood stoves, no a/c.

#1.1.1.1 Bird Dog on 2017-01-03 16:14 (Reply)

You are being over-literal with the "looks like." I have not followed your comments as an aggregate until the last few days, though I have seen your name. I suspect you think you are always the smartest person in the room. I dare you to keep trying that among this crowd here.

#1.1.1.2 Assistant Village Idiot (Link) on 2017-01-03 17:28 (Reply)

am I supposed to know who you are? and is that supposed to mean something?

let the OP speak for himself.

#1.1.1.2.1 Will Bithers on 2017-01-03 20:38 (Reply)

Come now, AVI; we KNOW that the Gang of Z believes themselves to be the smartest in this room.

#1.1.1.2.2 Sam L. on 2017-01-04 12:30 (Reply)

We should put the entire Federal government in Quonset huts, otherwise they'll have delusions of grandeur.

#1.1.1.3 Otto Maddox on 2017-01-03 20:11 (Reply)

Follow-up question:

If Islam is and has always been a "religion of peace", why did so many cities in Europe discover the need to build walls to protect themselves from all the incoming peace delivery systems?

The buildings that originally populated DC do tend to stand os memorials to Ancient Greek architectural styles, and thus emulating their pursuit of democracy.

The more recently constructed edifices, all built to house the seriously anti-democratic, big government institutions of education, agriculture, HUD and etc., conjure the darkest architecture of the former Soviet Union...

#2 The Distributist (Link) on 2017-01-03 15:48 (Reply)

1: They think they will be a part of it, or control it.

2: So DC thinks.

#3 Sam L. on 2017-01-03 16:08 (Reply)

Those two magic words: "free stuff". We live in a Democracy (of sorts) and a democracy is defined as two wolves and a sheep voting on what's for dinner. If you are working and paying taxes you are the sheep. If you are a politician a aggrieved minority or part of the elite you are the wolf. Most of us have tolerated the federal governments over reach for years. Some complain, some people form a tea party and some of us just wait until next election and hope for the best. But slowly but surely our federal government has appropriated power that was never intended for them. They don't know their place, they don't respect us or give us a thought at all except as taxpayers and just prior to elections. I believe we have reached a tipping point. Trump probably won't stop this massive transfer of power but he may bring the fight to a head and maybe the sheep will finally do something other than line up to get fleeced.

Washington has become Rome. They are the seat of power and a simple majority of congressmen can inflict terrible consequences on the subjects. Or worse a simple majority of the 9 Supremes can turn our world upside down by legislating from the bench and finding secret script in the constitution. And of course there is the emperor who can make laws by edict. The clinker in it all is our free press who was constitutionally empowered to watch over the government and report the truths to the people. They have failed us terribly and they have aligned themselves with the wolves.

#4 GoneWithTheWind on 2017-01-03 17:31 (Reply)

reading the question for intent rather than for pedantic accuracy -
1. There are broadly speaking, two groups who want to control it for different reasons. The Clintonistas want it for power (and money which is easily converted to power). The Academia inspired useful idiots want to control it so that they can destroy Western Civilization - the fact that their original plan to replace it with Soviet-style Communism crashed and burned with the Soviet Union has mostly escaped their notice. They have no plan for what to replace it with - they're just focused on the destruction.

2. The architecture was meant to inspire, just as Roman and Greek architecture was. It's really more about how we feel that determines how we look at it. Right now, it feels like Rome - Huge, imposing, corrupt, out of contact and ready to burn. In happier times - it seems quite beautiful.

#5 Vince on 2017-01-03 17:39 (Reply)

I see this theme a lot, that someone is focused on destruction and doesn't really know what he wants to replace it with. It is really easy to get stuck on revenge and rebellion, and a standard adolescent failing is to be unable to imagine beginning to build afterwards. But I have to bear in mind that our political opponents think the same of us (watch how they describe our approach to Obamacare). My progressive friends really do have a strong idea of what they'd like to institute; it involves lots of academic jobs where people are creative and don't have to grub for money, and there are farmer's markets and art exhibits and cultural festivals and no sprawl.

Their downfall isn't that they don't have a vision of paradise, it's that they have no idea where the food and energy come from that sustain all this creative leisure. The people who are successful at producing food and energy and medicine and making it cheap are, in their minds, driven by greed and therefore all their techniques are suspect. Left to their own devices, they'd produce Venezuela soon enough, but they have no idea whatsoever that that's the road they're on.

#5.1 Texan99 on 2017-01-03 19:34 (Reply)

I call that the Utopian Delusion.

Human beings will never achieve a Utopia on Earth. Even if you managed to create the teleporter, zero point energy, and the replicator you won't get it. We're not all the same, we don't all want the same things.

My idea of Utopia: Anarchy + Free Market. That won't work either - ever. It's a nice dream but the thought of it actually being implemented is kind of terrifying. It depends entirely on the assumption that the world is populated with - well... ME. - See shivers down the spine - eshhh.

#5.1.1 vince on 2017-01-03 20:02 (Reply)

I suppose someone still fighting the Civil War could look at the Lincoln Memorial and see a vision of imperial Rome. How threatening the Federal Reserve Building or the USSC looks depends more on how threatened one feels by the Federal Reserve or the judiciary branch.

But I take the architects of the federal style at their word: evoking greek democracy and roman republicanism. while I think someone could be inspired by a building, being scared by one in D.C. is infantile.

if you're really worried about governmental overreach, you should be quaking at the sight of most statehouses, which are also typically in the federal architecture style. state governments have general, rather than powers limited by the Constitution.

#5.2 Will Bithers on 2017-01-03 20:53 (Reply)

I think the guilt, to the extent it's not entirely theoretical and fashionable, attaches to the culture. The idea is that somehow the government are the good guys who will rein the culture in. It's like the King returning from the crusades and sweeping away the corrupt barons. "My boyfriend's back and you're gonna be sorry . . . ."

#6 Texan99 on 2017-01-03 19:25 (Reply)

QUOTE:

1. If the USA is the mostest evilish oppressive imperialist country in the world, why do so many want the federal government to have more power over the states and the people?

Quite a bit loaded into the question. Many liberals, including African Americans, look positively to the federal government, which forced through the Civil War Amendments, then finally brought an end to Jim Crow a century later.

QUOTE:

2. Is Washington Rome?

No.

#7 Zachriel on 2017-01-04 10:22 (Reply)

QUOTE:

2. Is Washington Rome?

The parallels are interesting, though, if you consider America as the center of a great trading empire, the citizens of which have a great influence on the world, but whose leadership is only chosen by those in the center of power.

Because Rome has so much power, she can make many gross mistakes and still continue on. People the world over watch expectantly as the new Caesar rises to authority. Still, they flow into the center of civilization, until one day, Rome is just a vague memory of mythical greatness.

#7.1 Zachriel on 2017-01-04 12:14 (Reply)

which forced through the Civil War Amendments

Wasn't that the Republicans?

#7.2 OldFert on 2017-01-07 00:48 (Reply)

OldFert: Wasn't that the Republicans?

Indeed, it was Radical Republicans who used the power of the federal government to preserve the Union, and then pass amendments to the U.S. Constitution ending slavery and guaranteeing equal protection.

#7.2.1 Zachriel on 2017-01-07 09:33 (Reply)

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Tuesday, January 3. 2017

A Scientific Survey about the USA