Cannoneer No 4:
A bit over 20 years ago I was TDY to Ft Macarthur, supporting a special team. I came back to the motel one Saturday afternoon, turned on the TV, and the first thing that came on was a show depicting the facility I had just been working in being strafed and bombed by the Japanese. “Gen Macarthur” was out front, shooting back at them with a pair of 1911’s. The fort was being used to depict the Philippines in 1941.

In that case I was cheering for the Japanese. The place had no air conditioning and almost no furniture for us to use.

Wretchard: Yes! I have come to the same conclusion. There is an underlying Mythology in everything that people do. And it does not have to be true. “… all men are created equal and are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights…” is demonstrably false. Not even identical twins are equal and there is no such thing an inalienable right – try robbing a bank or jumping off a ship in the middle of the ocean at night and see if how inalienable your rights are. But if you build a country based on that Myth, it can be a pretty fine place.

Several years back I delivered a paper presenting the various Mythologies that drove our space program over the years, and how each one ultimately led to failure. I was somewhat concerned about the reaction to that point of view from the audience, all of whom were employed in the industry. But the reaction universally consisted of “Wow! No one ever explained it to me that way before!”

Sirius sir: Yes, one bombing ultimately led to the other, but to me it is remarkable that the Japanese do not see it that way. As the comedian Larry Miller puts it “When I see a bumper sticker that says ‘No More Hiroshimas” I want one that says “You First, No More Pearl Harbors.”