A friend and I were chatting earlier over a game of chess and a few cocktails. He brought up a perception he's heard repeated, time and again, by
media and political pundits. They say we're a "young nation," implying that our mistakes as a country--like the neo-colonialism in Iraq or our Judicial appointment of an unpopular President--should be typical of inexperience.
Would someone please remind me whose government is older or better? French? No, they played copycat in the late 18th Century. The Germans? Hell no, we remade them just over fifty years ago. Even Britain--whose prior colonies, like India, still produce emulations of their parlimentary system--now has a monarchy composed of figureheads. Much like Japan. That, too, shifted about half a century ago. China? Certainly not. Communism only persists there because a vast rural population could be ruled by three chimps and a spark plug.
Would anyone care to remind me which current political system (no dynasties or cults) has been in successful, contiguous operation longer than the one outlined by our own Constitution?
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