The Civil War News & Views Open Discussion Forum - Archive

Re: Why Americans fight...European view

I agree with you. Those can be discribed as different levels of motavation than what is being stated here. Most of those are the combat levels or courage motivations and can be attributed to what makes men brave enough or angry enough to fight and die. Or the many different motivations of minority groups.

I believe this is a higher level of motivation being mentioned. Americans have always had a deep infastructural spirit that motivates them to act. Unlike most nations this same spirit can be found in the average American when they pay their taxes, when they obey the laws, when they vote, when they volunteer to help those in need. This same spirit is what motivated the country to act during the Civil War, no matter which "country" they were supporting. It was and has been always "for the good of my country".

Couriously it has always been the American women who seem to teach and promote this idea more than the men. Many Southern men said it was the women who keep them motivated to stay in the army and continue the war. I'm sure it was the same in the North. It maybe that we see our country as an extension of our family, and this maybe because we are a nation founded by small groups of immigrants deposited on a vast wilderness, who needed the protection of the family or nation to survive. A major reason why the colonies formed unions or confederations.

You can see it in our culture in our hero worship. It is always the person that sacrifaced everything or conquered adversity or stood up against evil for "the good of my country" we admire the most.

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David Upton

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Why Americans fight...European view
Re: Why Americans fight...European view
Re: Why Americans fight...European view
Re: Why Americans fight...European view
Re: Why Americans fight...European view
Re: Why Americans fight...European view
Re: Why Americans fight...European view
Re: Why Americans fight...European view
Re: Why Americans fight...European view
Re: Why Americans fight...European view
Re: Why Americans fight...European view