(Meme) Your country's history

[stormwreath]

There's a thread on this over on the RPGnet forum, and I thought it would be fun to give it a go here.

Describe your country's history - not as it really was, but as the average person in your country remembers it. What are the major events that everybody knows about? What's taught in schools? What do your politicians and media talk about when they

Comments

[eowyn_315]

Haha, this reminds me of my Public Policy class last week, in which we had a history lesson entitled, "It's All Oliver Cromwell's Fault." :)

[stormwreath]

At university I was a charter member of the 'Oliver Cromwell Was Actually A Good Bloke' club. I think he was, as long as you weren't a Roman Catholic or a King, at least...

[eowyn_315]

Haha, well, being American, Cromwell is only relevant in that it's all about US! :)

It's all his fault because he was an example of what happens when one person gets too much power, and so the Framers created a system of government that was meant to distribute power so that we'd never have a Cromwell.

Of course, that system is incredibly inefficient, but 3.5% efficiency is 96.5% tyranny-free! :)

[stormwreath]

Ah! it's interesting to hear a critique of Cromwell that doesn't mention Ireland...

I always had the impression that yes, he was a ruthless leader who set up a military dictatorship and oppressed people, etc etc - but he didn't actually want to be. He just wanted to set up a stable, reasonably democratic government that would guarantee religious liberty (except for Catholics), and then he could retire - but every single time he tried, people screwed it up, so he had to step in again to sort things out. Poor guy. :-)

[eowyn_315]

Heh, we don't really care about Ireland. :)

I always had the impression that yes, he was a ruthless leader who set up a military dictatorship and oppressed people, etc etc - but he didn't actually want to be.

Yeah, that's sort of where our discussion went. He didn't mean to be a dictator, but what else can you call it when you say, "Um, Parliament? Hi. I have this army. See my army? Okay, let's talk about what I think should happen..." Parliament: "Let's put the dude with the army in charge." Cromwell: "Cool. Let's be all democratic, but remember you guys, I've still got that army. Heh, this power thing's kind of nifty."

Lesson learned: Power corrupts.