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No way. That's a deliberate choice of words and the parallel is actually pretty striking. From Wikipedia: > In the 19th century, manifest destiny was a widely

by pesenti 10y ago

No way. That's a deliberate choice of words and the parallel is actually pretty striking. From Wikipedia: > In the 19th century, manifest destiny was a widely held belief in the United States that its settlers were destined to expand across North America. There are three basic themes to manifest destiny: The special virtues of the American people and their institutions The mission of the United States to redeem and remake the west in the image of agrarian America An irresistible destiny to accomplish this essential duty

jwdunne 10y ago
Pretty much the template to justify colonialism i.e "The current inhabitants are savages. They would do well with our civilisation and rule of law. We are the exceptional people to do that. If they don't want it... Well we can't have that sort of thing, can we?" Sometimes it is blatant. See Congo Free State. The nominal justification was to bring civilisation and thus improve lives. Instead the people were enslaved in a state owned and controlled by private enterprise.
genmon 10y ago
And just to add to this, Manifest Destiny had some very concrete related beliefs. Such as "the rain follows the plow", the belief that if you settle and farm somewhere, the climate will magically change to make this workable https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rain_follows_the_plow https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rain_follows_the_plow This led to people settling in unwise places. And you know what, even though the Wikipedia page says that climatologists now regard this as mere superstition, these areas of the US are now well-populated: A critical mass did settle, so in a way it's all worked out.
- newjersey 10y ago
  > This led to people settling in unwise places. And you know what, even though the Wikipedia page says that climatologists now regard this as mere superstition, these areas of the US are now well-populated: A critical mass did settle, so in a way it's all worked out. Sounds like a classic case of survivor bias though? Where would Chicago be today if it wasn't for the trains? What would be the state of Phoenix Arizona if not for things like CAP? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Arizona_Project https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Arizona_Project You mentioned this but I wanted to spell it out.

by pesenti 10y ago

jwdunne 10y ago

Pretty much the template to justify colonialism i.e "The current inhabitants are savages. They would do well with our civilisation and rule of law. We are the exceptional people to do that. If they don't want it... Well we can't have that sort of thing, can we?" Sometimes it is blatant. See Congo Free State. The nominal justification was to bring civilisation and thus improve lives. Instead the people were enslaved in a state owned and controlled by private enterprise.

genmon 10y ago

And just to add to this, Manifest Destiny had some very concrete related beliefs. Such as "the rain follows the plow", the belief that if you settle and farm somewhere, the climate will magically change to make this workable https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rain_follows_the_plow https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rain_follows_the_plow This led to people settling in unwise places. And you know what, even though the Wikipedia page says that climatologists now regard this as mere superstition, these areas of the US are now well-populated: A critical mass did settle, so in a way it's all worked out.

newjersey 10y ago
> This led to people settling in unwise places. And you know what, even though the Wikipedia page says that climatologists now regard this as mere superstition, these areas of the US are now well-populated: A critical mass did settle, so in a way it's all worked out. Sounds like a classic case of survivor bias though? Where would Chicago be today if it wasn't for the trains? What would be the state of Phoenix Arizona if not for things like CAP? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Arizona_Project https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Arizona_Project You mentioned this but I wanted to spell it out.