Let's hear it for The Boys
Like all foundational myths, 'the 4th of July' requires some qualification.
But this was only the beginning of a painfully protracted struggle to break free, not the end. Years of bloody battles and skirmishes followed, with the definitive peace treaty only signed, in Paris, on 3rd September 1783. Even then, this was not to be the end of hostilities, with war breaking out again in1812. Indeed, British troops set fire to the White House in 1814, as memorably alluded to by King Charles III on his recent State visit to Washington DC. Peace was only finally achieved with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent on Christmas Eve 1814.
Relations between the two nations, while ostensibly cordial, have been strained ever since, perhaps best characterised as edgy rather than affectionate. During the so-called "British Century" (the 19th) this hardly mattered; Britain had other fish to fry, in Canada, India, Australia and New Zealand, and the US had declared its suzerainty of the Americas in the Monroe Doctrine of 1824. Only after World War I was Britain to begin to lose ground to the US, and even then it arguably managed to sustain an illusion of power and prestige until after World War II, with the loss of India in 1947 and the ignominy of the Suez Crisis in 1956. Since then, the US has become a superpower, strutting the world stage as once Britain did.
Relations between the two nations, while ostensibly cordial, have been strained ever since, perhaps best characterised as edgy rather than affectionate. During the so-called "British Century" (the 19th) this hardly mattered; Britain had other fish to fry, in Canada, India, Australia and New Zealand, and the US had declared its suzerainty of the Americas in the Monroe Doctrine of 1824. Only after World War I was Britain to begin to lose ground to the US, and even then it arguably managed to sustain an illusion of power and prestige until after World War II, with the loss of India in 1947 and the ignominy of the Suez Crisis in 1956. Since then, the US has become a superpower, strutting the world stage as once Britain did.
But, mention of superpower puts me in mind of the US TV series, The Boys*; a highly political, satirical take on the superhero genre of comics, though more Image than Marvel or DC, charting modern America's descent into decadence and madness. Watching this sprawling, orgiastic, sanguinary 5-series show it becomes increasingly obvious that it is presenting an allegorical take on the American Dream, where democracy and capitalism have descended into a nightmarish dystopia. The leading super-anti-hero character, Homelander, is not so much a thinly-veiled as a full-frontally grotesque parody of Donald Trump; power-crazed and with delusions of divinity.
The series may have ended but American life is now clearly imitating art.
*Available to stream on Amazon Prime Videos