http://agora.stevenpressfield.com/2009/06/summing-up-our-first-week-and-what-weve-been-talking-about/ Website of author and historian, Steven Pressfield. Sat, 11 Feb 2012 20:07:25 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 http://agora.stevenpressfield.com/2009/06/summing-up-our-first-week-and-what-weve-been-talking-about/comment-page-1/#comment-1699 Joe Mendenhall Sat, 20 Jun 2009 22:09:32 +0000 http://blog.stevenpressfield.com/?p=244#comment-1699 I think it is interesting that Robert Kaplan mentions "Anglo-Saxon traditions of liberty and democracy" because the Angles and the Saxons were germanic TRIBES which invaded and ruled England from the fall of the Roman Empire until other germanic tribes the danes and the normans showed up. Our culture seems far removed from the tribalism of Iraq and Afghanistan, but in point of fact we too are descendants of a tribal tradition. Our tradition of liberty and democracy is founded upon the value of the individual. We would be wrong to attempt to overlay the evolution of our tribes onto theirs before they are ready. I would think that the allemanic tribesmen of southwestern Germany probably had a similarly negative reaction to the arrival of the Romans. 2000 + years ago. I think it is interesting that Robert Kaplan mentions “Anglo-Saxon traditions of liberty and democracy” because the Angles and the Saxons were germanic TRIBES which invaded and ruled England from the fall of the Roman Empire until other germanic tribes the danes and the normans showed up. Our culture seems far removed from the tribalism of Iraq and Afghanistan, but in point of fact we too are descendants of a tribal tradition. Our tradition of liberty and democracy is founded upon the value of the individual. We would be wrong to attempt to overlay the evolution of our tribes onto theirs before they are ready. I would think that the allemanic tribesmen of southwestern Germany probably had a similarly negative reaction to the arrival of the Romans. 2000 + years ago.

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