Bill Bartlett wrote
>This longing for past autonomy seems (from this distance) a strong part of
>US culture, perhaps because in the US, more than any other society, some
>people genuinely achieved that independence. Of course you have to discount
>the experience of the numerous conquered and enslaved peoples, (Indians,
>Africans and Mexicans) to truly idealise this past, but that does not mean
>it was not genuine for a large number. I read a fascinating (to me) article
>recently, written a hundred years ago by American Socialist Daniel De Leon,
>it touches on this history, tracing how changes to the electoral system
>marked the disappearance of the autonomous American citizen. I'll post it
>to anyone interested.

I am interested in reading the DeLeon article.  Nonetheless I have come to
believe that the myth of the independant homesteader in the US is just that:
a convenient myth.  It is of great use to the people who slash welfare and
other socially beneficial programs.  What follows is one paragraph from
_The Way We Never Were, American Families and the Nostalgia Trap" by
Stephanie Coontz HarperCollins 1992:

"In reality, prairie farmers and other pioneer families owed their existance
to massive federal land grants, government-funded military mobilizations
that dispossesed humdreds of Native American societies and confiscated half
of Mexico, and state-sponsored economic investment in the new lands.  Even
'volunteers' expected federal pay: Much of the West's historic
'antigovernment' sentiment originated in discontent when settlers did not
get such pay or were refused government aid for unauthorized raids on Native
American territory. It would be hard to find a Western family today or at
any time in the past whose land rights, transportation options, economic
existance, and even access to water were not dependant on federal funds.
'Territorial evperience got Westerners in the habit of federal subsidies,'
remarks Western historian Patricia Nelson Limeric, 'and the habit persisted
long after other elements of the Old West had vanished.' "

>I would be quite interested to hear from Nestor Miguel or others how this
>myth manifests itself in countries with different cultural heritages, I
>know it seems a little off the topic of this list but...

Me too...
        -LL

 "Henry Ford's gospel of multiple production and interchangeable parts will
win hearts that stood firm against Thales and Democritus, against Galileo
and Faraday.  There is no god strong enough to withstand the Universal
Suburb"  John Dos Passos, 1921