Constants and variables 80
ZH features a map of all the countries USA STRONG has invaded through all of our history. It's incomplete and somewhat partisan, but it basically covers the important ones. It seems to be confused on the defensive side. It includes Germany, which we invaded defensively, but skips France and Japan, which we also invaded defensively.

Atypically but accurately, the map includes both Russia and China.

One commenter showed ignorance:

This map is bullshit. America has never invaded Russia or China.

Many commenters corrected him on Russia, accurately citing the 1918 War of Intervention. But they didn't correct him fully on China. They cited the Boxer Rebellion in 1898 but not our invasion and occupation of China during and after WW2. At that time China was nominally an ally, so we were NOT responding to an attack. We were trying to strengthen Chiang against Mao, just as we had tried to strengthen the Mensheviks in Russia.

Both failed. Even though ordinary Americans didn't know about these invasions, ordinary Chinese and Russians did know and didn't appreciate foreign intervention. Ordinary people moved toward the non-foreign side, which is completely understandable if you're not blinded by globalist evangelical fervor.

Our book-knowledge, our schools and media and history, omit BOTH of those occupations. They are thoroughly memoryholed.

I didn't know about the Russian invasion until I bumped into it sideways in an old Signal Corps publication. After that I started looking and found more info, but still not much.

I knew about the China invasion because of family experience. My dad's WW2 service was part of the Chinese occupation, and a distant relative was involved at a higher level in our failed attempt to counter Mao and retake the mainland. Dad talked about both of those involvements, so I always knew about them and assumed everybody else knew. Obviously they didn't.

Which brings us back to a deeply wise comment by another ZHer a few weeks ago:

Anything worthwhile is not in a book. Anything worthwhile is common knowledge.

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Persnickety sidenote: Though I know what the writer meant, the word common isn't quite on the mark. When common knowledge comes solely from books and media, it's still wrong. Better phrasing would be Anything worthwhile comes from personal experience. Direct sensory input, processed rationally. Common knowledge (culture, folk tales, family stories) occupies an intermediate level. More trustworthy than books and media, but still needs checking against personal observation and logic.

Labels: Constants and Variables, Experiential education

  ¶ 3:27 AM