11.23.06 6:00 AM CST
•
Books
• Jamie Malanowski
This week, as we commemorate with turkey and pigskin the first Thanksgiving, let us remember that very few of us today, and especially few of us reading Playboy, would have all that much in common with the Pilgrims who got New England rolling. As Nathaniel Philbrick pointed out in Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War, the first settlers were a sour, dour bunch of religious fundamentalists who often settled the problems they had with the natives by killing them, sometimes in a genocidal way. So they were courageous, yes, but not quite the best role models for a 21st-century American.
That’s why, when I toast early settlers this week, I’m going to salute the Dutch. As Russell
Shorto describes in The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America, the Dutch who settled in Manhattan were wonderful role models. Residents of the colony included whites, blacks, Jews, and people of other origins, and they were not the sexual blue-noses that were the settlers of Plymouth. Shorto even makes the argument that governments exist by the consent of the governed got ingrained in America thanks to this group. And if that’s not enough, they gave us the words for cookie and cole slaw.
Granted, that’s not quite as good as turkey, but toleration and democracy more than make up for it.
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Comments on this entry:
Sour and dour were motivating forces for what used to be known as "the puritain work ethic." Granted, puritainism isn't exactly Hef's favorite lifestyle as per his editorial. However, the ethic's investment technique is still the foundation of America:
only spend enough to keep the business going.
Hef might note that he too is guilty of this work ethic, no matter how loudly he shouts "Americanism."
Regarding the best of all the statements ever made by American statesmen, it is always the matter of thanks that returns our success.