Tag: Independence Day

Was the American Revolution A Mistake?

| July 5, 2018

Even on the American Independence Day there are those in the American left that can’t spend at least one day without trashing the country:

This July 4, let’s not mince words: American independence in 1776 was a monumental mistake. We should be mourning the fact that we left the United Kingdom, not cheering it.

Of course, evaluating the wisdom of the American Revolution means dealing with counterfactuals. As any historian would tell you, this is a messy business. We obviously can’t be entirely sure how America would have fared if it had stayed in the British Empire longer, perhaps gaining independence a century or so later, along with Canada.

But I’m reasonably confident a world in which the revolution never happened would be better than the one we live in now, for three main reasons: Slavery would’ve been abolished earlier, American Indians would’ve faced rampant persecution but not the outright ethnic cleansing Andrew Jackson and other American leaders perpetrated, and America would have a parliamentary system of government that makes policymaking easier and lessens the risk of democratic collapse.  [Vox]

You can read the rest at the link, but be warned the article makes some major assumptions to support its thesis.  For example if the British did try to end slavery sooner in the American colonies does anyone think the South would not have revolted?

Picture of the Day: Home of American Journalist In Seoul to Be Restored

| March 2, 2016

Seoul to restore home of former American journalist

This photo provided by the Seoul Metropolitan Government on Feb. 26, 2016, shows what used to be the home of Albert Taylor, the first Western journalist to report on the March 1, 1919, independence movement by Koreans against Japan. The Seoul government said it will restore “Dilkusha,” the name given to the two-story brick house in downtown that means “palace of hope” in Hindu, to its original appearance and open it to the public in 2019 to mark the centennial of the independence movement. (Yonhap)