JV PhiloBlog

Ken Burns makes excellent documentaries with pictures and music. He tells a story well. He aims to shape the consciousness of his audience. His latest work is on the National Parks. He sees their creation in epochal terms. He says:

The sanctification of the parks marked ... the first time in human history that a government set aside its treasures for the mutual ownership of its people and not for the hoarding of its aristocracy.

But is that so? I seem to recall that in Rome, emperors and tyrants at least claimed to have created parks and such for the people.

I haven't watched the Burns series, yet. But a question it raises is: how do the people who make up "the government" or "the aristocracy" acquire what they offer to the people in the first place?

I suppose what Burns means is that the United States is exceptional in having a government "of the people, by the people, and for the people."