What is so exceptional about the United States of America?
The United States of America.
The supposed city on the hill. The nation of Nations. Americans have been conditioned into thinking that we are the greatest of the great. The one empire who will rule them all...through example it is said. Except our example has not been a shining one. The path taken to get to this point included ethnic cleansing and genocide, hundreds of wars, the dismantling of one nation after another in favor of the American World Order. Massive Debt. Bloated government. Suppression and excess. Too dark? Not enough light shed on our positives? I don't think so. I will remind you that the hunky dory world modern capitalism was forged by an ancient force...violence. I will remind you that we had to conquer two of our largest trading partners, Germany and Japan. Violence was the key. Japan was the 2nd largest economy in the world for a long time...and America had to nuke them to get that result.
Don't misunderstand me. I do not approve of war. War is cowardice. It is easy for the one with the largest guns to get what he wants. And the United States has used it's guns predictably in it's favor. Like I said, it's an ancient force. But I come to topic in this way to illustrate a special point:
We are not that different. American Exceptionalism is an illusion. A trick. A flavor of the moment. Nations and empires before us have done much the same. Perhaps things will finally change soon, now, in an age of new promises? An information age? Who knows. I'd like to think so. Technology offers us some interesting surprises here. But if we got this far through conquering the North American nations and extending military and financial control over the world, then is there any merit to the programmed thought that America is unique, that our principles of free, open democracy provide an example to the world? Yes and no. Is it the democrracy? Other democracies have come and gone. So that is not unique. Ancient Greece never lasted that long, and Rome succumb to the instant gratification of dictatorship. The West claims wrongly that these are the sources of influence for modern democracy. The Iroquois Confederacy-the world's oldest democracy and the practical source of democratic and federal inspiration-is in contention with that title - world's oldest democracy- by that certain nation that also claims the same title, the USA. Ok, then. Well. Is it the military? Ours is the greatest ever, but other nations and empires used the sharpest swords, too, and they, too, were not exceptional...they too succumbed to every rule nations must obey. So what is it? What is our strength? If there is anything exceptional to the USA in this age, what could that be?
There is one thing that does stand out: The Freedom of Religion.
Except that a vocal minority claiming to be a majority differs on that point. I'm talking about the one special interest group to rule them all - the Christians. And the "Ground Zero Mosque" illustrates this point well. We are supposed to be all people, all languages, a federation of humankind. Except for some of the US christians feel that this quality is unAmerican.
This is a shame. I thought for a minute there that Acceptance made us different from the other peoples of the world. Scratch that theory. I guess we could carry on hating all those that hate us, instead of reverting to those agreed on principles that, you know, we agreed on. Violence, I guess, is the time-tested answer.
The supposed city on the hill. The nation of Nations. Americans have been conditioned into thinking that we are the greatest of the great. The one empire who will rule them all...through example it is said. Except our example has not been a shining one. The path taken to get to this point included ethnic cleansing and genocide, hundreds of wars, the dismantling of one nation after another in favor of the American World Order. Massive Debt. Bloated government. Suppression and excess. Too dark? Not enough light shed on our positives? I don't think so. I will remind you that the hunky dory world modern capitalism was forged by an ancient force...violence. I will remind you that we had to conquer two of our largest trading partners, Germany and Japan. Violence was the key. Japan was the 2nd largest economy in the world for a long time...and America had to nuke them to get that result.
Don't misunderstand me. I do not approve of war. War is cowardice. It is easy for the one with the largest guns to get what he wants. And the United States has used it's guns predictably in it's favor. Like I said, it's an ancient force. But I come to topic in this way to illustrate a special point:
We are not that different. American Exceptionalism is an illusion. A trick. A flavor of the moment. Nations and empires before us have done much the same. Perhaps things will finally change soon, now, in an age of new promises? An information age? Who knows. I'd like to think so. Technology offers us some interesting surprises here. But if we got this far through conquering the North American nations and extending military and financial control over the world, then is there any merit to the programmed thought that America is unique, that our principles of free, open democracy provide an example to the world? Yes and no. Is it the democrracy? Other democracies have come and gone. So that is not unique. Ancient Greece never lasted that long, and Rome succumb to the instant gratification of dictatorship. The West claims wrongly that these are the sources of influence for modern democracy. The Iroquois Confederacy-the world's oldest democracy and the practical source of democratic and federal inspiration-is in contention with that title - world's oldest democracy- by that certain nation that also claims the same title, the USA. Ok, then. Well. Is it the military? Ours is the greatest ever, but other nations and empires used the sharpest swords, too, and they, too, were not exceptional...they too succumbed to every rule nations must obey. So what is it? What is our strength? If there is anything exceptional to the USA in this age, what could that be?
There is one thing that does stand out: The Freedom of Religion.
Except that a vocal minority claiming to be a majority differs on that point. I'm talking about the one special interest group to rule them all - the Christians. And the "Ground Zero Mosque" illustrates this point well. We are supposed to be all people, all languages, a federation of humankind. Except for some of the US christians feel that this quality is unAmerican.
This is a shame. I thought for a minute there that Acceptance made us different from the other peoples of the world. Scratch that theory. I guess we could carry on hating all those that hate us, instead of reverting to those agreed on principles that, you know, we agreed on. Violence, I guess, is the time-tested answer.