[geeks] RIP, Ronald Reagan

[Francisco Javier Mesa-Martinez]

On Sun, 6 Jun 2004, Phil Stracchino wrote:
> Indeed.  It's merely that the history books portray it as a great
> humanitarian act, when it wasn't done for humanitarian purposes at all.

Well it is part of the American trend of making history to be more of a
movie script than reality. Slavery had very little to do with the Civil
war, economics however had everything to do with it. But movies sell
far better when people die for the slaves, even though those slaves were
treated like shit for another century.

Same with the American revolution, taxes had much more to do with the
desire of the American colonies to break free than the drive to create a
republic that would break away from the evilness of the British empire.
Then again, the movies would not be as flashy. In fact it is fascinating
once one analyzes that a lot if not most of the important events in
American history revolve actually around taxes!

As long as Americans like to mix history with scripts, the real version of
fact will get more and more dilluted. But then again, that is also part of
history... the winners get to tell their side of things even if it is not
true.

However today is D-day, and I find the sacrifice of the British,
Canadians, Yanks, and free Poles... significant enough that there should
have been a better coverage. Rather than this all Reagan all the time (and
I do not watch that much TV BTW).