Feb 25, 2022 06:53
In the global rivalry between China, Russia, and the US, you don't have to pick a side. Disliking the US doesn't mean you have to boost China or Russia. Disliking Russia or China doesn't mean you have to be a US fanboy/girl/x. It's OK to oppose the imperialism and environmental destruction of all three countries simultaneously.
I had this feeling this morning: all large countries are horrible (yes, you too, Canada), it's how you get to become a large country, you had to conquer lands and peoples to get that big. The EU is different, it is a voluntary association of sovereign countries, and as the UK demonstrated, it is truly voluntary -- countries may leave the EU without military consequences. When states tried to leave the US, they were reconquered at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives. Russia and China act similarly toward territories that try to leave, or have actually left --> they are willing to kill to keep them or get them back.
It's why I was thinking the other day that Borders are Theft. That 2000-mile southern US border that Trumpsters fetishize -- we took all of it from Mexico via force and intimidation during the mid-19th Century. And now we get upset if some of those Mexicans want to cross the border without "our" permission. No way, Mexicans, this is our land now. We took it by force, and you submitted, game over.
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It's difficult being anti-nationalist in a world of 200 nations. You start by realizing the fiction of nationalism and by not having "pride" in one's country of residence or country of origin. A country is merely an administrative convenience, nothing more.
Surveys over the past few decades have consistently shown that the US is the most patriotic country in the world -- more people who live in the US believe it is the best country in the world than any other country.
Whereas I'm happy to point out that WE SUCK. It's an important counterpoint. We're not actually #1 with respect to most of the things that matter in our daily lives. We are #1 in military spending and overseas military deployments. We are #1 in the use of our currency in world trade. These are measures of military and economic dominance. Yes, we're dominant, we're a global superpower. But what good does that superpower do for each of us in our daily lives? There are countries with longer lifespans; countries with higher median household incomes or minimum wages; countries with better education; countries with less crime or less people in prison; countries with better health care, better child care, better sick leave or vacation policies; countries with better mass transit; countries with fewer per-capita deaths from COVID. We're not at the bottom on all of these measures either (on some we're close to the bottom), but we're not #1 on any of them. We're not the country with the happiest people. We're just the most dominant country, militarily & economically dominant.
We take pride in our mere dominance. Which is pretty stupid. It has nothing to do with your family's quality of life, and it is helping to destroy the planet.
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I'm not in favor of any country dominating any other country. Borders should be used for administrative convenience, that's all. Like the internal borders within the US, between cities, counties, and states. Which entity paves your roads, which pays to have your trash hauled away, which provides 911 service, which handles housing assistance or food stamps? I don't fetishize borders or nationality.
Trump's re-election politics took dominance to the extreme -- Keep America Great with absolutely no written platform listing his policies, and with absolutely no acceptance of the possibility of losing. His post-loss intraparty politics is absolutely about loyalty to Trump -- Trump's dominance of his party, his party's dominance over Democrats, his country's dominance over the world (once he leads it again). That's it. He's better than everybody else. Pure dominance. It's why I've viewed his ascent as a global political emergency, and why I supported (in limited ways) Biden's campaign to replace him, because Biden had the best chance of any potential replacements (and then just barely beat him).
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They don't survey every country in the world on their patriotism, but of those surveyed, Germans are pretty low on the list, with those living in the former East Germany even lower.
I was surprised to see this, given what happened with Germany during the first half of the 20th Century. Arguably Germany was the leading cause of both WW1 and WW2, which was why Germany was completely conquered and dismembered at the end of these European wars. "Good riddance", thought the rest of the world.
It seems Germans may have learned their lesson, that aiming for pure dominance will ultimately get you destroyed. Perhaps it would be better to aim for a good life for you, your family, your community, and the world at large. Perhaps that's what led Angela Merkel to allow over a million refugees into Germany during 2015 -- a sense among the median German that living the good life included helping others to live the good life. I dunno, I could be taking this line of thought too far, but, I respected Merkel and Germany for doing that, even though it fed the hard-right opposition. Meanwhile, here in the #1 patriotic US, we have a bipartisan commitment to ignoring our own laws accepting those seeking asylum -- GTFO!
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Somehow living in the most patriotic country in the world means living among people who aren't willing to sacrifice for each other. Not via paying taxes, not via a military draft, not via pandemic restrictions, not via providing health care or sick leave for all, not via allowing in refugees, not via restricting greenhouse emissions.
You're patriotic, you're #1, but you suck, Americans. You suck on every dimension that matters.
we suck,
i cast you out,
no gods no masters,
borderlands,
nationalism