Allow me to stereotype Americans for a moment. Unlike Europeans, we think we live in what's still a very "new" world. It's unburdened by the past in a way Europe can't be. Our history only goes back a few hundred years. Few domestic military conflicts weigh on our memory. Even those that do, like our Civil War battles, are today more an occasion for partying (through re-enactment) than solemnity. Where even the Old World's recent history is filled with slaughter for the ages, our scattered massacres of Native Americans now strike most of us as ancient history. When you get down to it, we move faster than our history, and we like that about ourselves a great deal. We are glib about the past; we can afford to be.
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