How Offensive Would a Gun-Slinging Uncle Sam of the Knights Templar Be 500 Years from Now?
Posted by CircuitGuy 10 years, 6 months ago to History
The post about Native American / First Nation costumes made me try to put myself in their shoes.
I imagine aliens came here with amazing technology, caused wars, and eventually took over most of the planet with their amazing technology. Most jobs disappeared instantly and were replaced by jobs related to the amazing technology. Five hundred years later people hardly care who was originally from earth (now called Pegasians b/c of early confusion between our sun a similar star called 51 Pegasi) and who was alien. Earth becomes a major hub of interstellar commerce and production following the Discovery, with beings from throughout the galaxy living an affluent life here in peace and equality. Pegasians of all areas of the world are all thought of as having the same stereotypes: weird religions now regarded as superstitions, supposedly amazing intuition, tendency to get angry and turn into the Incredible Hulk, and a child-like curiosity. Some sports teams use the American flag and brand themselves American gunslingers; most people hardly know one Pegasi nation state from the other. Some of the mascots conflate the US with the Knights Templar b/c they both were religious, militaristic, and appeared in the millennium just prior to the Discovery of Earth. So they have teams carrying banners of US flags with a big red cross where the stars should be.
As someone with Pegasian (indigenous Terran, to be PC) ancestry, I would not like that at all, but I don't see how removing the US flags from mascots and asking people not to confuse the US with other nation states helps. The fact is this collision of cultures happened, and it changed everything. Preserving the flag doesn't matter at that point. In this scenario I know the stories of Earth history, but other educated people confuse the American Revolution with the Greek city states and WWII with the Punic Wars. Their history is Cassiopeia-centric b/c a star in that area developed advanced technology and space travel first. The world of my ancestors is just gone. I can't imagine some gun-slinging Uncle Sam mascot for the fighting American Knights Templar really bothering me that much.
I imagine aliens came here with amazing technology, caused wars, and eventually took over most of the planet with their amazing technology. Most jobs disappeared instantly and were replaced by jobs related to the amazing technology. Five hundred years later people hardly care who was originally from earth (now called Pegasians b/c of early confusion between our sun a similar star called 51 Pegasi) and who was alien. Earth becomes a major hub of interstellar commerce and production following the Discovery, with beings from throughout the galaxy living an affluent life here in peace and equality. Pegasians of all areas of the world are all thought of as having the same stereotypes: weird religions now regarded as superstitions, supposedly amazing intuition, tendency to get angry and turn into the Incredible Hulk, and a child-like curiosity. Some sports teams use the American flag and brand themselves American gunslingers; most people hardly know one Pegasi nation state from the other. Some of the mascots conflate the US with the Knights Templar b/c they both were religious, militaristic, and appeared in the millennium just prior to the Discovery of Earth. So they have teams carrying banners of US flags with a big red cross where the stars should be.
As someone with Pegasian (indigenous Terran, to be PC) ancestry, I would not like that at all, but I don't see how removing the US flags from mascots and asking people not to confuse the US with other nation states helps. The fact is this collision of cultures happened, and it changed everything. Preserving the flag doesn't matter at that point. In this scenario I know the stories of Earth history, but other educated people confuse the American Revolution with the Greek city states and WWII with the Punic Wars. Their history is Cassiopeia-centric b/c a star in that area developed advanced technology and space travel first. The world of my ancestors is just gone. I can't imagine some gun-slinging Uncle Sam mascot for the fighting American Knights Templar really bothering me that much.
but it will be irreverent
In this scenario, Earth becomes the center of commerce. The indigenous people either get involved in modern life or live in areas where they try to live the pre-Discovery life but often get sucked into using brain implants to live in a fantasy world
Proper names of terrestrial places "Washington" are Cassiopeianized but still sound odd, as Oconomowoc or Gichigami sound to English speakers.