askchapo @hexbear.net Ho_Chi_Chungus [she/her] @hexbear.net 1 yr. ago

Is there another nation's equivalent to "What would the Founding Fathers think" or is that just a purely American thing?

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?

21 comments

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
Closest I can give you is the occasional countryman going about how their favorite medieval ruler would hang everyone in the Parliament and the like.
Fuckinell I don't even know who the founding fathers of Norway are, I just know the building where they signed the constitution
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
Australians, no. Nothing equivalent, despite our general chuddiness. A lot of our place names are early coloniser's names?
- 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
  
  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)
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.
- 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.
  
  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)
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.
- KING CUNOBELINE DOESN'T FUCKIN CARE
I don't think so, sounds like american civil religion brainworms. Just a slightly more secular version of "what would Jesus think?"
India doesn't. That's all I can tell you.
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.
No

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