80 years ago

[Kwacky]

https://www.theatlantic.com/internation ... it/536106/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Britain and France were very close to being one country

[D41]

That was a close shave.

[Cav]

It may have put us in a better position to govern the European Union if that still happened.

[Blade]

I guess no one told Cookie

He still thinks it is one country

[StMarks]

I guess no one told Cookie

He still thinks it is one country

It's just one planet imho.
Countries are simply fictitious human political constructs, a legacy of our past.

[Blade]

We are pack animals organised into packs, tribes, groups or whatever you want to call it.

We separate ourselves by religion, colour, nation etc..... seems we can't help ourselves and being one united planet is beyond us.

Being part of a pack is our identity and our cornerstone. Right or wrong its how it is and unlikely to change anytime soon.

Ironically the closet we have been to one world is when we tearing ourselves apart in a world war. At those two moments in history there was effectively just 2 sides, 2 groups on the planet.

[D41]

This is like playing a game of "Spot The Hippie."

[Kwacky]

World war 2 was never about two sides fighting. It wasn't 1939-1945. That's just the way we're taught about it.

Russia and Germany started off as allies
USA didn't want to help UK
USA support for Germany was strong
USA wanted to stop Russia
If Germany hadn't attacked mainland UK we would have stayed out of the European theatre of WW2 after Dunkirk.

[D41]

I wouldn't say Russia and Germany were allies in the conventional sense though.
They had mutual interests in dividing up Poland between themselves. Russia even allowed Luftwaffe pilots to train with them, etc.
So they shared some mutual interests, but they never truly trusted one another. A non-aggression pact is not really an alliance.

[Kwacky]

I'm saying that they were allies because they signed a pact. I'm saying they're allies because they reached an agreement on how to divide Poland between them.

[D41]

Fair enough, that's a more-than-fair statement.

[duke63]

A fair few wealthy Americans (and no doubt Brits too) gave financial support to Nazi Germany.

Wasn’t George Bush Snrs father censured by the US government for openly doing so?

[D41]

Wasn’t George Bush Snrs father censured by the US government for openly doing so?

I looked it up.
It seems he was an investor in a bank that held Nazi funds. The funds were frozen for the duration of the war. Allegations that he was a Nazi sympathizer were found to have no merit.

[Blade]

Maybe world wars weren't great examples.

My point is we form groups, tribes, packs, nations etc.....that divide us, more than unite us.

We seem unable to stop it. The only time we seem to come together is to fight a common enemy, whatever the form or body that enemy takes we only drop our tribal barriers when there is a shared common good. Most of the time we are insulated little groups pretending to offer outside help but ultimately only focus on our individual country, religion, race or group.

[Monty]

Several US robber barons supported Hitler financially, Henry Ford was one of them.