Story of America: Westward; Revolution

Continuing the journey of discovering how the America came in its current state from the wilderness of 400 years ago, I saw the next two episodes of the documentary America the Story of Us. The second episode showed the ongoing war between the independent colonies of US and the British empire at its full extent.  It depicted how George Washington lead his army to win the impossible battle. On one side were the amateur militia of America while the other side had the professional army of the strongest empire of the world at the time, equipped with the modern weapons. But there was one difference, unlike the British troops, Americans were fighting for the independence.

The Declaration of Independence crafted by Thomas Jefferson and adopted by congress on July 4, 1776 was filled with rhetoric like "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness". This motivated the people and was one of the most important events in the revolution. The new kind of warfare tactics developed by Washington and his sub-generals also struck the British by awe.

The next episode 'Westward' describes the journey of people from East end of America to the West and thus exploration of the whole mainland of America. This phase describes the early problems faced by the people in their exploration, but the continuation of this race due to the indomitable will of humans. It describes how the civilization discovers the uninhabited lands and the tracks used by the explorers then have now become national highways. The California Gold Rush in 1848 drew ambitious people who had dreams to become rich and the will to follow their hearts from all over the world.

The episode also mentions the expansion of US by narrating Louisiana purchase in 1803, in which US bought the territory of Louisiana from the French and which more than doubled the area of the young nation of America. The Texas revolution further increased the territory of America by adding Texas.  The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo gave the United States the Rio Grande boundary for Texas, and gave the U.S. ownership of California, and a large area comprising New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and parts of Wyoming and Colorado. 

The documentary is not that much detailed but provides an overview of the main events in the American story of civilization. The documentary is filled with well known American people giving their views on the events of history. But sometimes it feels like a rhetoric to make the American people proud about themselves. The overall viewpoint about America is too much positive till now, no negative side of America is being discussed and  the documentary feels totally biased.

Story of America: Rebels

Today, I saw the first episode of the famous documentary America:The Story of US. It is a 12 part documentary showing how America became the most powerful nation from one of the most remote places in world. The first episode titled rebels tells how America was first settled by open and courageous people from Europe who came there to start a new life. The success of these people motivated others of their kind to come and join.

The documentary shows how Tobacco crops made the migrated people rich and made America the land of opportunity for the people who had dreams and the courage to follow them. But the increasing wealth of America also attracted Britain who quickly created 13 colonies there and imposed taxes.A third of all British shipping is made in America. But the natives were not happy with this new and biased law and governance of Britain and decided to revolt. In Philadelphia  First Continental Congress met on September 5, 1774 which included 56 delegates from 12 colonies. The delegates included John Adams, George Washington, Patrick Henry and many more.

The revolt started in Boston after a small fight between the guards and mob, but the news spreads quickly due to the revolution in postal delivery system by postmaster Benjamin Franklin. The newspapers spread the news of revolt quickly around the 3 colonies.After the tea taxes by British, people threw the tonnes of cargo in sea. British respond by closing down the Boston harbor; hundreds lost their jobs. The American rebels started forming the local militia by training them and then attacked the British army which came on the news of rebellion to suppress it and to take the arms and ammunition of rebels. When the smoke cleared, a third of the army was down or wounded.

Too Much of Focus??

It is an old saying that ‘Focus is the key to Success’. But my recent observations of my life have led me to ponder over the viability of this scenario every time. Focus means concentrating all your resources on a single point. Focus can provide one the energy required to complete the work quickly. The example of using a lens’s focus to burn a paper through sunlight has become a cliche  but it is true even now. But, real life is not just a single task, it is a tangled web of intermingled responsibilities, opportunities, dreams , aspirations and some bitter facts. I feel focusing too much on something leaves you unguarded on the other fronts. The real question is ‘Is it worth it?’. Now I am getting confused here due to a dilemma.

One side of my brain says that focus is very important to achieve your goals. This group believes that concentrating all of resources on your primary goal is very important and will lead one on the path of success. But meanwhile the other half is pulling me back, stating that even after achieving the goal, there would be no success because when you would be focusing on the goal, you would have lost the battles on other front. Focusing too  much can make you isolated from your social circle.

The first half replies back that everything can be achieved back. Life is a kind of mesh topology, with multiple nodes(current situation) interlinked to each other through multiple paths(choices we make). The end result is that the complexity of this mesh gives us the ability to have multiple options every time. As Aragon says in LOTR, “There is always hope”. Even if we don’t succeed in one thing, another opportunity springs up. But it won’t be the same as before. But isn’t this argument ambiguous. Why to focus on the opportunity if we always have the chance for next.

I don’t know the end to this argument. But I can only decide that it is always better to be in balance(Is it?? Maybe next time). So, we can conclude that it is good to be focused on a topic. Yet, it is better to un-focus for some time and enjoy. This will increase our concentration and motivation for the task. The Success lies in finding the way back to focus.