In my recent wanderings amongst the internets, I came across a number of blog posts and videos on YouTube from people who wanted to discuss their visits to the United States. The majority were quick to point out that they thought the US was a wonderful and interesting place, but that there were plenty of things about the country that confused them utterly.

Lucky for all involved, I am here to cut through the puzzlement. But to get it all straight, you have to go back to the beginning when Europeans arrived.
AMERICA WAS COLONIZED BY YEOMAN FARMERS
Yeoman farmers? Who are these guys?
The word “yeoman” has a fair number of meanings, but in this context it refers to people who own their own land. Click here to get a definition.
“Yeoman farmers are those who owned their own piece of land and worked it with labor from family, …” (break) “They were also seen as the ideal Americans because they were hardworking virtuous citizens who did their work without exploiting others.“

That is only half the story. In times of old the English crown would recruit archers from the yeoman class as part of their armies, their archery skills self-taught and honed for hunting and defending the home.

When the enemy knights would charge, these archers would stand their ground in the face of highly trained and armored warriors that had spent their entire lives getting ready to kill other people. The farmers would do this so the could shoot pointy little sticks at the galloping warhorses, each horse weighing over half a ton, and try to bring the enemy down before being stomped into goo under the thundering hooves.
So the bedrock of the American character is work hard, deal fairly, and take no shit.
THE CENTERS OF GOVERNMENT ARE IN INCONVENIENT PLACES
This is a map of the great state of New York.

The city of New York was more populous and richer than anywhere else when the state was formed, but a backwater village named Albany was eventually chosen to be the seat of government. This was in the hope of keeping the dirty, money grubbing merchants living in New York City from dominating the democratic process. Didn’t work, but it was a valiant effort nonetheless.
This wasn’t a mistake, and the pattern is repeated time and again across the nation. Here is a map of my home state of Ohio.

The port city Cincinnati was already established when the state was formed in 1803, but it wasn’t even considered to be the seat of government. It was eventually decided to make a new capital city from scratch in the center of the state, but that decision wasn’t made in order to make things convenient for anyone. Instead the idea was to make it equally inconvenient for everyone involved, in the hope that the new government would be discouraged from meddling in the day-to-day lives of the voters. This worked about as well as it did in New York, but at least they had the right idea.
When the country was being set up, it was heavily influenced by a bunch of strong willed citizens whose main desire was to be left alone. The yeoman farmer knows his plot of land better than anyone else on Earth, they know the best way to manage their affairs, and anyone who says otherwise should just go away and leave them in peace.
THE MEALS ARE ENORMOUS
Anyone who says that has never worked on a farm.
Continue reading →