I’ll say it right off the bat – I DON’T love my country.
That’s practically an incendiary charge to speak that aloud in the USA and sounds completely radical but please allow me to explain.
To begin with, in the USA the concepts of “nationalism” and “patriotism” are thought to be one and the same whereas where I live right now they are two totally separate issues.
For example, most Romanians I know are VERY proud to BE Romanian, very proud of their culture and heritage and traditions, VERY proud. But extreme “love” for the country as in government aka patriotism? Hardly. Most Romanians consider the government to be full of corrupt, largely inept stooges, which is pretty much true.
I cannot even for one second fathom anyone loving the USA in the patriotic sense as in love for the “country”. Everyone quotes the beautiful words from Thomas Jefferson about “all men are created equal” but that was never in force ever. It was never even a legal document nor was it something anyone ever lived by.
From the very first moment, neither women nor Native Americans nor people of color could vote. Not even all WHITE men could vote – only those of property. Even old George Washington wasn’t “elected unanimously” by result of the popular vote – 11 of the 13 first states had no direct voting for the Electoral College.
Nearly immediately after independence the USA began a policy to crush and exterminate internal dissent (even from WHITE MEN) starting with the “Whiskey Rebellion” and into the Acts of Sedition, etc.
Concomitant with that was an actively genocidal program to exterminate the Native Americans from wherever the USA wanted to expand to, Smaller states within the reach of the USA’s military were crushed as well (including the “Barbary Wars”) in the name of preserving trade.
When Haiti became the SECOND nation in the western hemisphere to declare independence did the USA support it? Hell no. They backed France all the way on it and ended up sending in troops to occupy the island not once, not twice, not three times but about 10 different times spanning decades over the years.
The American “Empire” didn’t begin 10 years ago and it didn’t begin 100 years ago. It began on day one with territorial expansion against SOVEREIGN Native American nations (the “Miami” Campaign, etc). Outside of (what is now) the continental USA, the annexation began with the lesser known independent kingdom of Samoa (now the “protectorate” of the USA) and later with Hawai’i.
It was very “sweet” of Napoleon to sell the “Louisiana Purchase” to old TJ but the vast majority of people living on that land had no idea they were either subjects of France OR the United States until men arrived with guns and told them that they were.
Trumped up incidents were used to mask naked aggression against Mexico and a third of their country of was lopped off to form the bottom center of what is now the USA.
During the presidency of James Monroe (1817-1825) and forever after, the ENTIRE WESTERN HEMISPHERE became the USA’s “business” and literally dozens of wars of aggression, military interventions, coups and other shenanigans were inflicted upon the region.
Having a slew of Pacific Islands under its aegis the Philippines came next and a democratic insurrection was crushed by military force. This continued over and over (including esp in the 1950s) and even today there are American troops using force to bolster the Manila government against separatist/autonomy movements.
And so on and so forth, including the invasion of more countries than I can count, a 40 year military presence in China, a failed attempt to invade Russia to prop up a corrupt dictatorship, etc.
And it’s not like it was only non-Americans who suffered. Internal dissent was put down with violence on numerous occasions, including the huge one – enslavement of millions of human beings – but also the use of federal troops to break up union strikes, the use of troops to crush race riots (including as late as the 1940s), the disenfranchisement (de facto) of people of color until the 1960’s, the disenfranchisement of Native Americans until 1924, the disenfranchisement of (white) women until 1920, etc.
Again I’m just referring to FEDERAL actions, not state ones because this is about the nation in its entirety. So all kinds of horrific inequities such as Jim Crow laws and “sundown towns” from Maine to Miami are not even what I’m referring to here.
And of course all the myriad other horrors such as internment camps, suspension of habeas corpus (yes the great Lincoln did this one first), federal segregation laws, federal approval of sterilization of “unfit” people (eugenics), the various incidents such as the execution of the Rosenbergs, etc.
And then throw in all the modern horrors such as the extremely high rate of incarcerating one’s own people, the incredibly medieval and savage custom of capital punishment, spying and eavesdropping, invasive searches, on and on.
So I have about zero love for the GOVERNMENT.
But what about the nation? That which means “American” in every sense of the word?
I got to say this is where I used to love America a lot more but love it a whole lot less than I did.
It is true that I do know a lot of Americans and admire a lot of them quite a lot. There were and continue to be some very good people who are American and I greatly admire them for that. Some of the most generous and compassionate people I know ARE Americans.
But on a national level as a collective whole? No.
For one thing, the extreme love of being in fear and using fear as a tactic to accomplish nearly about everything completely sours any good that Americans do on a whole.
Just briefly:
Guns – I thought Michael Moore did a SUPERB job showing that the prevalence of gun ownership in the USA has almost no correlation with the level of gun VIOLENCE. Countries such as Switzerland (here in peaceful old Europe!) and Canada all have high levels of gun ownership and yet practically none of the related problems.
Quite simply put, the vast majority of people I know who use/own guns do it because they’re afraid – afraid of someone else hurting them or robbing them. Perhaps this fear is “justified” and perhaps not but Americans overwhelmingly live in fear of SOMEONE who is not in Iraq or Afghanistan or Zimbabwe but right next door, right down the street, right across town.
Sex – Americans fall right between the Saudis and most Europeans in a weird sort of mix of complete fear of sex and SEXUALITY as well as a tolerance for the same.
In what other western country would breastfeeding be an issue whatsoever? It’s natural, normal, healthy and completely un-sexual in every way.
Furthermore, the great bastions of culture (the TV) have a weird twist where sexuality is severely censored and repressed while violence is glorified and shown even on programs for little children.
I have never, ever, ever been anywhere (and perhaps I need to travel more) where this is true – where sexuality is censored more from children than violence is on television.
Violence – Quite simply put, violence is almost NEVER the “last resort” for problems. Nationally on the foreign policy front it is almost always brought up to solve any issue. Any time any country does not do something the USA “likes” there are always a gaggle of people bringing up violence as the “solution”.
Violence is always advocated to resolve any domestic issue as well – whether that’s the legality of abortion or high rates of crime or anything else, there is always a sizable segment of the population saying that MORE VIOLENCE is the “solution” to this issue.
The American law enforcement organizations from local sheriffs to the DEA all depend upon (and are heavily supported by the local population) to use more and more violence to enforce the laws. Except for the lack of (local) spying upon the citizenry, quite simply American police forces resemble the Gestapo or Stasi more than they do a constable on the beat.
Drugs – I’m referring to the illegal kind, which again the “solution” is again more violence, aka the “War on Drugs” which involves things like SWAT teams busting down doors and all kinds of people serving lengthy sentences at very violent and horrific penal institutions where rape is so endemic as to be lampooned by comedians and TV shows.
People who have problems with substance abuse (including the legal drug alcohol) are ridiculed, shamed, harassed, mistreated, vilified and jailed and very, very rarely treated with compassion, understanding or help.
Television – You know what? Every country I’ve ever been to has lots of televisions and they show lots of American programs, many of which are exactly the same as in the USA. Here in Romania we have MTV and Discovery Channel and they’re virtually identical.
But I’ve never seen a nation so ENSLAVED to the television as the USA and maybe I just need to travel more. Anything and everything of national importance occurs on television and is watched VIA the television.
And it’s not just in people’s homes – it’s in nursing homes, it’s in jails, it’s in churches, it’s in grocery stores, it’s in hospitals, it’s in the schools, it’s even in people’s CARS.
I’m not even referring to the “quality” of the programs being watched, such as American Idol versus some kind of PBS documentary. The sheer number of HOURS spent staring at a screen is what I find so repugnant. It promotes fear, insecurities, horrifically bad “role models” (from sports stars to say your Paris Hiltons or Britney Spears), anti-social tendencies and low attention spans and literacy rates.
The average American wants to be holed up in their private bunker of a home, surrounded by four walls to protect them from the outside world, gun in hand and wanting society at large to keep that bunker well-stocked with material goodies and damn the torpedoes if it means some other group of people, whether religious, cultural, ethnic or otherwise has to pay for it to happen with their blood, tears or very lives.
But all of the above might apply to say perhaps a large chunk of Americans but not the good people here at Booman Tribune. And I know that and I know that’s a wonderful thing that keeps me optimistic despite everything I’ve written.
But the biggest “curse” in my mind about the American national character, INCLUDING from people exempt from the above, is this hideous disease of American “exceptionalism” that somehow America is DIFFERENT, is BETTER, is the LEADER.
It’s a patronizing, sickeningly egotistical belief and I’ve seen it espoused unconsciously even from people who “know better”.
To wit a few examples:
America was a democracy and despite a few “failings” is the “shining city on the hill” to inspire people all around the world of how awesome capitalism and democracy is.
Pure crap. Pure, utterly BS. It’s not even an original idea by TJ and the rest of the Founding Fathers (with double capital F’s included for hagiographic purposes). All those beautiful thoughts in the Declaration of Independence were a mix of John Locke’s ideas with those of the NATIVE AMERICANS. It wasn’t enough to steal their land, they stole their ideas as well.
When the hell has the USA ever ACTUALLY promoted freedom abroad? The two biggest examples I always hear are (then West) Germany and Japan. Well Germany’s constitution was written BY the occupying military forces and is still in effect today. Japan has been run by one single party almost non-stop since two of their cities were nuked. They are forbidden from defending themselves (again imposed from their military conquerors) and have had to “rely on” the USA the entire time.
That’s the two BEST examples. Others in modern times include the psychopathic necktie eating Saakashvili who not only tried to crush Tshkinvali and kill every Ossetian he could but also brutally repressed internal dissent and political opposition.
Or the lauded great “peace” agreement with Egypt, which ended up giving billions and billions of dollars worth of weapons to a dictatorship that brutally crushes (and tortures) all political independence and dissent JUST for a promise not to attack Israel. Ok Israel is free from Egyptian military attack but when the chains bust loose in Egypt (as they will one day) that paper won’t mean a hill of beans.
Right on down the line to coups, armed interventions, the funneling of weapons and support to anybody and everybody (including Osaba bin L) who served the national interest FOR A MINUTE and then later ended up in disaster.
Even such lauded programs as the Marshall Plan which if you read the standard text were to “help rebuild war-torn Europe” were based on a two-fold plan of both installing the American currency as the de facto money standard (and not gold) and to foster dependence on the USA both for military protection as well as food.
I won’t even get into all the bizarro European meddling such as Operation Gladio which totally destabilized and screwed up life for people in Italy, Greece and elsewhere (with results being seen even now).
I literally want to gag when I hear of how America is the leader of anything that’s morally or ethically good. Even all the huzzah over the “Greatest Generation” is largely propaganda of the worst order. And America’s policies from WW2 onwards about accepting refugees is appalling – I literally wonder how severe the (Jewish) Holocaust would’ve been if the USA had been willing to actually take in refugees fleeing from Nazi Germany. Or done a damn thing about stopping the concentration camps BEFORE the war was in its final hour.
And you know what? Life IN America isn’t that great today. It’s full of homeless people who are a combination of economically displaced people and/or mentally ill people and/or substance addicted people who need help but barely get it.
It’s a country full of prisons and the vast majority are citizens of that “great nation”. It’s a country full of fear and paranoia where someone can shoot you for being on their land or taze/shoot you to death for committing even minor infractions of the law.
The food is incredibly unhealthy and barely regulated by the government, most of the “inspection” work is done by the companies themselves. The state of meat for human consumption would barely pass muster in a third world country. Animals are penned up in horrific conditions, force fed, injected with all sorts of hormones and chemicals, slaughtered in horrifically unsanitary conditions and then sold as food for human consumption.
Americans eat “fortified” bread products because the vast majority of the flour has been stripped of all nutritional content and bleached, then injected with chemicals to “preserve freshness” aka allow huge agricultural concerns to ship products all over the country.
In fact, there is a tremendous array of food that is/has to be “fortified” such as milk, soft drinks, breakfast cereals and the like just to keep Americans from suffering from malnutrition.
The water is barely clean enough to drink. The state of health care is appalling. I’ve met Americans who have performed dentistry on themselves for lack of money. Basic preventative care is often neglected because people can’t afford it. People go into bankruptcy for medical bills. And the “solution” for a wide variety of problems is almost always “take a pill” even when it’s things like ADD or stress.
Violent crime is quite frankly, rampant. Crimes that barely make the newspapers in the USA would be front page news for weeks elsewhere. I honestly can’t think of anywhere on the planet not in the middle of an actual civil war where violence on the streets is so prevalent as the USA.
And even on the materialistic front, America is swamped with crappy, shoddy products on every level from automobiles to houses to toys to “gizmos” and appliances and electronic things on every level (including toys painted with lead).
Transportation inside a single city or metropolitan area is abysmal from lack of “public” options like trams, buses or subways and the highways are congested, crumbling and falling apart for those who CAN afford cars (and their multiple and expensive legal requirements to own and operate).
Train service between cities is almost non-existent and very expensive. Air service is congested, crappy and third-rate, not to mention the hokey homeland security “theater” of removing shoes and whatnot which does little except pander to fears of a terrorist hijacking.
Education levels are abysmal. The level of outright illiteracy is shocking and there are huge swathes of the population who are barely functionally literate, who can decipher images on food products at the store but can’t understand things like tax forms and electric bills.
In this day and age if you can actually SPELL English correctly that’s some kind of major achievement. And if you can’t and make basic grammar mistakes, well that’s “just normal”.
And the last great “quality” of the USA was the ability to make money – the super duper wunderkind economy. Forgetting even the knowledge that it was based on a supercolonialistic exploitation of the entire rest of the world’s resources (both labor and natural), now even that one last shining example is beginning to rot.
The only thing great about America is its eternal optimism that it is itself awesome and great and cool and that God loves it/her and all of its/her people and if you don’t like it, well you’re just a moran 😉
If the USA was* like Equatorial Guinea and isolated in some tiny corner of the world where “only” a few hundred thousand people lived lives of abject misery while a small cadre of elitist, homicidal maniacs ran the place and stole all the wealth of the nation, I could live with it. It would be sad but I could live with it.
It’s just the BILLIONS of people around the world who have suffered so incredibly much, starting perhaps with Pocahontas right down to the Iraqi journalist who got his limbs broken for daring to oppose the great and glorious forces of the liberating Americans by tossing his shoes at their proudly intolerant and imperial president.
So no, I really DON’T love my country. I want to though 🙂 And I really, REALLY appreciate all the good work people like you do, the readers of Booman Tribune.
Pax
* – This grammar mistake was in the original and I left it in just to show how even I can barely freaking write my own language! 🙁
