History Channel Packs A Lot Into A Little

I was eating breakfast this morning before going to work and glanced at a program on the History Channel concerning the War of 1812. It was highly informative, but not because it told me anything I didn't already know about the war itself.

In the first minute, a historian disparaged then-President James Madison as a "cold fish" and "nerdy." Of course he was. James Madison was a man of character and intellect, and such a man has little place in modern America, certainly no more of a place than the Constitution he gave us.

In the second minute, another historian lamented that the war occurred only because of the slow pace of communications -- the British repealed their hated impressment laws before our Congress declared war (this was back when Congress still did such things), which supposedly would have averted war today because we would have known instantly of the repeal. For all our vaunted technology, wisdom apparently remains scarce. When an emotional decision is made, all conflicting data are rationalized away. America had an Anglophobia coupled with a lust for territory that sought an outlet, and no telephones or emails would have sufficed to plug it. Most likely, news of the repeal would have been buried until after the war was on, or a new outrage would have magically surfaced to justify the war even if impressment no longer did.

Thanks, History Channel. In two minutes you conveyed deep insights that most people can't grasp over a lifetime, although this may not have been your intention.