Where would we be without a Mom to tell us we might want to start using a Retinol product? Where would we be without a best friend to tell us we can't borrow a sweater because it makes us look paunchy? Sometimes we just need someone to just tell us like it is. Steve Schifferes of BBC News interviews British historian Simon Schama and dicusses the challenges facing America. As a non-American historian, Schama can act as over-indulgent America's mom and best friend. Our poor taste in oil and political leaders has made us terribly out of style. Schifferes writes that, according to Schama,:
America was founded by pioneers who had an expectation of plenty, who believed that it was endowed with God-given natural resources and thought that through hard work it could provide enough resources for all. [He] argues that Sarah Palin, as the governor of Alaska, represents of the enduring power of the frontier as a continuing factor in American politics . . . her belief that only full development of Alaska's oil and gas reserves can save it from dependence on foreign powers has echoes of the 19th Century belief in Manifest Destiny which aimed to conquer nature and take control of the whole of North America.
Even if this weren't an indictment of Bush, it really might be time to leave the frontier behind.
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