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Life Imitating Art?
Dec. 14th, 2010 10:03 amToday is proving to be a target-rich environment for blogging, so much so that I will carry over some ideas until tomorrow. However, an interesting article happened to tie into my writing, so I'll talk about that today.
While writing Pirates of Mars, I needed to up the stakes, so I added, almost on a whim, the "Manifest Destiny Movement." This was a group of Americans, who, much like their 19th Century counterparts, wanted to expand the territory of the United States. In Pirates, they were an off-stage Big Bad (tm). In the sequel, Night Watch, they step onto the stage.
Now, "America takes over Mars" is, in the world I've set up, highly improbable. Simply put, the Powers That Be don't want the headache of ruling Mars - yet. (Some of them will in later books.)
So imagine my surprise when, I read today, that at least one of the bloggers at a prominent conservative site says like it or not, Mexico is America's next Afghanistan. Not only is he advocating invasion, the blogger says in the lead sentence:
What to do with Mexico after we invade it and wipe out the drug cartels (as much as can be). Does the United States merely return Mexico to a nation state of corrupt politicians, failed economic policies, and lawlessness, or do we annex Mexico and turn it into the 51st state?*
The real irony of this idea is that, under the original Manifest Destiny concept, (at least per Wikipedia) "idealistic advocates of Manifest Destiny like John L. O'Sullivan had always maintained that the laws of the United States should not be imposed on people against their will." This was used during the Mexican-American War as an argument to not annex all of Mexico.
Every once in a while, I think that conservatives want America to revert to the 19th Century. Then something like this comes along as evidence. This is also a handy reminder that all old ideas can seem new again with the passage of time.
* This of course ignores that Mexico is already divided into 31 states.
While writing Pirates of Mars, I needed to up the stakes, so I added, almost on a whim, the "Manifest Destiny Movement." This was a group of Americans, who, much like their 19th Century counterparts, wanted to expand the territory of the United States. In Pirates, they were an off-stage Big Bad (tm). In the sequel, Night Watch, they step onto the stage.
Now, "America takes over Mars" is, in the world I've set up, highly improbable. Simply put, the Powers That Be don't want the headache of ruling Mars - yet. (Some of them will in later books.)
So imagine my surprise when, I read today, that at least one of the bloggers at a prominent conservative site says like it or not, Mexico is America's next Afghanistan. Not only is he advocating invasion, the blogger says in the lead sentence:
What to do with Mexico after we invade it and wipe out the drug cartels (as much as can be). Does the United States merely return Mexico to a nation state of corrupt politicians, failed economic policies, and lawlessness, or do we annex Mexico and turn it into the 51st state?*
The real irony of this idea is that, under the original Manifest Destiny concept, (at least per Wikipedia) "idealistic advocates of Manifest Destiny like John L. O'Sullivan had always maintained that the laws of the United States should not be imposed on people against their will." This was used during the Mexican-American War as an argument to not annex all of Mexico.
Every once in a while, I think that conservatives want America to revert to the 19th Century. Then something like this comes along as evidence. This is also a handy reminder that all old ideas can seem new again with the passage of time.
* This of course ignores that Mexico is already divided into 31 states.
