MikeC;
Not necessarily;
Below is an enormous post on the background and history of "Manifest Destiny" to which I'll add another post of what I think you're trying to say here or what I think you should be trying to say or ask. Of course being long and not on the subject of ranking or whatever
it may only be of interest to you;
Let me try to convey how Mike Cirba may be using an analogy with the term "Manifest Destiny", or, in my opinion, should be using it in the context of golf architecture or perhaps an "Amercian" style or type of golf architecture.
I've used the term "Manifest Destiny" on this webiste a number of times in the last five years--I've probably started a few threads based on or even entitled "Manifest Destiny".
Strictly, the term "Manifest Destiny" was the US's 19th doctrine of pushing west across this continent of ours. But that doctrine became more than that. It became the "belief" that the young burgeoning nation had a destiny or right to push across this continent and basically conquer and in many cases destroy many of the things that stood in the way of that push across the continent with the clear and ultimate goal of basically conquering the continent entirely in the name of the new American nation.
As we all know many things were destroyed in that push West--whole indigenous American Indian tribes, buffalo and in the ultimate analysis much of the raw natural and unadulterated beauty of the Great American West.
Both the conquest and the destruction that conquest caused created in many Americans a dichotomy or duality---in my opinion. Those mostly immigrant west pushing pioneers of the young nation felt the urge to conquer what they perceived to be things adverserial--Indians, wild animals, the harshness of the raw natural continent etc just to survive and settle in it. But a duality was created within our people as many of them could see they were also destroying a beautiful natural majesty within that virgin continent and destroying other peoples, wild animals etc in the process. Both the "Manifest" part as well as the "Destiny" part became overlaid with a Christian fervor that probably was as much to assuage our guilt as to spur us on! Essentially we made “Manifest Destiny” biblical! Our right to conquer more in the name of salvation than destruction became even more than a God given right—it became almost a God given responsibility!
The essence of Manifest Destiny and the results of it I believe eventually became as much the ETHOS of the American nation and its entire culture as anything else about us. The essence of Manifest Destiny in an even larger sense is what we were taught in our schools and by our families and it became basically both our national and personal self-image!
In a nutshell how it represents itself is a culture and a people both individually and collectively that's perhaps history's ultimate "can do" people. Nothing is too big for us to dream and actually accomplish. Change itself is not only not feared it’s basically glorified by us. We aren't restricted by conventions and traditions as are other older cultures because we basically created our own conventions, traditions and culture supposedly out of the raw and presumably harsh wilderness not much more than 200 years previous instead of the eons ago of other older cultures.
We, as a nation and people both collectively and individually feel enormous power within us! We feel deep in our bones that there's nothing we can't conquer or can’t accomplish. But with our breast-beating pride in unlimited power there also resides in us a collective and individual DUALITY that we are a forgiving and compassionate people too! If it were otherwise, if we did not feel this too in our bones and about ourselves we could probably not withstand the guilt for long of the things we know we've done--destroyed and corrupted in our nation's history of the concept of “Manifest Destiny”.
Have we acheived great things with our unique "Manifest Destiny? Yes! Have we destroyed many things and many peoples with our unique "Manifest Destiny"? Yes, and we both collectively and individually basically understand both!
That is our national ETHOS to a very large extent, in my opinion! I call it our ethos of manifest destiny!
So how is Mike Cirba trying to use this analogy of “Manifest Destiny in this thread?
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