this post was submitted on 17 Sep 2023
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Does any nation on earth sincerely ask itself what some guy from 250 years ago would think about said country's modern state or is that only a thing that Americans do? Is there any other equivalent?

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

I mean, most communist countries had a thing for daddy Marx and Lenin

But it wasn't as deranged.

edit Socialists in Czechoslovakia still jerk it to Zizka and the Hussites tbh

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 years ago

Closest I can give you is the occasional countryman going sicko-wistful about how their favorite medieval ruler would hang everyone in the Parliament and the like.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Hmm, in Argentina there's maybe a liiitle bit of that with José de San Martín (the biggest national hero from independence time nicknamed "Padre de la Patria"), but the thing is, José hated with passion the spineless compradores that actually got to rule this country during his time. So when dipshits mention San Martin they usually ignore or misrepresent his political ideals and simply cite him cuz he's the national hero.

Btw, the military governments from 20th century which cemented San Martin image as the "padre de la patria" would have been utterly detested by him. A classic case of kind-vladimir-ilyich

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 years ago

Fuckinell I don't even know who the founding fathers of Norway are, I just know the building where they signed the constitution

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Never heard anything like it anywhere else. Modern Germany is just 74 years old, so the founders didn’t live in a completely different world. Still there is no similar reverence.

The constitution, even when it was not considered a constitution for reasons, is revered similarly to the US one though.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I feel like Germany does have a little bit of veneration of like... Bismarck or something, at least politically. Nowhere near the deification of Washington though.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

Never came across any veneration of Bismarck. It may be a conservative thing.

It’s probably similar to Republicans worshipping Reagan. (Although Bismarck actually achieved stuff while Reagan just lived at the same time as Gorbatschow)

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago

I'm mostly spitballing here, no worries

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Australians, no. Nothing equivalent, despite our general chuddiness. A lot of our place names are early coloniser's names?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 years ago (1 children)

It's engrained but it's not known in the same way the US seems to be. For somewhere with mandatory voting, we can really be a lot less politically engaged

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I despair at aussie "disengaged" culture. (that said, I have no idea who wrote our constitution or was our first PM, something that would pretty hard to accomplish in the US)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

uhhh Barton. Cook. Curtin. Kelly. grillman

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Ned kelly was pretty cool, I thought

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Ned Kelly never had a "such is life" tattoo so he's cool in my books

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 years ago

That said, I cannot imagine someone pulling up anyone else on a piece of policy saying "That's not what Ned Kelly meant" or "That's not what Lord Fremantle would do". America feels almost unique in that regard. Maybe Bolivians and Bolivar or Cubans and Castro?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Nope. But to be fair, Britain's historical record goes back pretty far. I don't think I'd take king Cunobeline's advice on much other than mudslinging and bronze/tin trading.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago

cuno KING CUNOBELINE DOESN'T FUCKIN CARE

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 years ago

I don't think so, sounds like american civil religion brainworms. Just a slightly more secular version of "what would Jesus think?"

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 years ago

It's American only. Same thing with citing the constitution or amendments at every opportunity. Does my country have a consistution? I've honestly no idea. Maybe it does, but I've no clue what it would say.

Instead we have laws and laws can change.