America against itself

[Briar]

America against itself

Godfrey Hodgson


Jan Morris spoke for many around the world in a piece in the Guardian on 14 February 2007 in which she admitted to disenchantment with what the United States has become. " missionary instinct", she wrote, "which impelled Americans into so many noble policies, was to be perverted by power". And even, " from being the most beloved country on earth, today the US is the most thoroughly detested".

No doubt there she exaggerated: think North Korea? And she was wrong to trace American exceptionalism back to Abraham Lincoln and his belief that America was "the last best hope": exceptionalism goes back a long way farther than that. But she has put her finger on something that puzzles and angers many Americans and distresses those of us who have loved what we thought America stood for.

There are, I think, two points to be made:

America has changed, hardened and mobilised since the cold war, and even more since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the coming of the age of terror on 11 September 2001

America was always a tougher, more ruthless society than American patriots wanted to admit, less innocent, less free from the common failings of mankind than American exeptionalists claimed...

http://www.opendemocracy.net/democracy-americanpower/dualism_hodgson_4362.jsp

[Atman]

1. That is an incredible article...and so true

I thought I was just getting cynical in my old age (back off...I don't even get the AARP mag yet!), but it appears I'm not alone. The American fairy tale they pumped into our heads is crumbling, and it's revealing a very un-pretty picture about our roots. No wonder they (read: conservatives, republics, fundies, etc.) feel the need to lie about history (including contemporary history). Every time they get involved, they fuck up something major league!

.

[flamin lib]

2. America, Love it or Leave it?

No, Change it or Lose It.