For example, can you imagine the public outcry there would be if any game studio anywhere created a game ever depicting the US in a negative light? We have games like Battlefield 3 and Medal of Honor where gamers play as US soldiers killing Arabs of various nationalities in their own countries and it's morally acceptable. Imagine now a game where the user plays as an Arab killing US soldiers. Even if he's doing it for the most altruistic reasons: defending his homeland, his family, his way of life, his religion, he's killing American soldiers and thus always morally repugnant. America is always morally just, and those who disagree are always morally wrong.
Maybe a better example would be a game set elsewhere, playing as a soldier fighting against the US CIA operatives in their country trying to overthrow their government. Plenty of real world examples of this exist: the overthrow of the Shah of Iran, the attempts at Fidel Castro, intervention in vietnam, etc. etc. Once again it doesn't matter why you fight us, you are wrong because you fight us.
Another example of our arrogance came to mind when I was watching an episode of the West Wing (which I highly recommend). I dont remember exactly what happened, but it was something along the lines of a foreign diplomat telling US officials that since we are so fond of calling ourselves the leaders of the free world, we should go ahead and start leading (meaning intervening in whatever conflict was central to the show's plot). That phrase, "leaders of the free world" really struck a chord in me. First, it implies that anyone not under the US banner are inherently not free. Second, it explicitly states that we are the leaders and no one else. It's vague enough to makes us the leaders economically, militarily, politically, and morally of the whole world. Some of those may be true, but implying all of them by declaring ourselves to be the leaders of the free world reveals a vast arrogance. Imagine the opposite, that you're a citizen of America while, say, the Germans declare themselves the leaders of the free world. Yeah.
Media outlets are also very fond of jumping on moral outrages occurring in other countries. Perhaps the most frequent of these are punishments being administered in Muslim states for what Americans consider petty offenses. Again, there is an implicit arrogance in how the media portrays this and how the public perceives it. We would never stop to think that maybe that's how their societies have maintained social order for the past thousand years, but about how backward their societies are. How primitive. How if they would just eat McDonalds, listen to hip-hop and drive Fords the world would be a better place. I don't seek to take a moral stand on the specific issue here, I'm just noting the mindset that Americans are so quick to jump to upon hearing these types of stories.
We are also vary arrogant in how we approach relations with the rest of the world. We are so inherently sure that we know how people should live and therefore everyone should live like us. Just recently i vaguely remember Obama mentioning in a speech how it is our goal to democratize the rest of the world. As if we have a divine mandate to spread our way of life to the rest of the world and they have to accept it or step aside. As I have previously noted, there are plenty of problems with American society and in no way is it the bastion of peace, harmony, and fulfillment we believe it to be. I should note that what America wants is not for the whole world to embrace democracy. What we want is for everyone to accept a subjugated democracy, in which the people themselves don't interfere with American foreign policy self interest. Rest assured that if there was every an unfriendly democracy, we would meddle in their affairs one way or another.
I should point out that i don't hate America, or something. I just think that people should question the fundamental assumptions of their culture before they accept them. Maybe I should write an article next time about how great America is to counterbalance all this criticism I've given them lately.
Do you ever wonder how it is, and why it became so, that a population at any one time of less than 300 million people created the highest standard of living? Progress, economic, political, education, by any standard you want to measure, the United States of America has been the greatest collection, population of human beings in the history of the world." There have been civilizations, countries, and populations long before us that were the trademark of their day, their standard-bearers of their day.
ReplyDeleteThey can't compare to us, and they've been around thousands of years. Now, what was it? What is it? What is it that makes three hundred million people special? Our DNA is no different than the ChiCom DNA. I'm talking about in terms of humanity. Our DNA is no different than any other human being anywhere on earth or has ever been on earth. What is it about this 200, 300 million people that have created by far -- there's no comparison -- the greatest country and collection of human beings on the face of the earth for good? We feed the world, we relive the world, we repair the world. We defend the world. We have liberated hundreds of millions of people who have lived in bondage and slavery. What is it about us? We're not born special in terms of our DNA. What is it? I asked people to think about this 'cause I don't think they do.
This is part and parcel of what I call American exceptionalism. What is American exceptionalism? It's not that we're better people. It's not that we're smarter. It's not that we have the advantage because of our geography, because we clearly don't. So what is it that sets us apart? There's one answer, and it's found in the Declaration of Independence: "We are all endowed by our Creator." So we acknowledge God as a country. When we were founded, we acknowledged God: We were all created. We are all endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights. Undeniable. They're just there. And they come from the Creator. Among them, but not just, life, liberty, pursuit of happiness. That's pretty simple to me. Those three things, the acknowledgment of our creation by God -- a loving God -- that our spirit has this natural yearning to be free and to be happy and that there's nothing wrong with either of those.
There's nothing wrong with being created, nothing wrong with being happy or trying to be, and there's certainly nothing wrong with living. It was that codification that made one crucial thing possible: And that is for ordinary people to accomplish extraordinary things. Not the smartest, not the brightest, not the well born, not the richest. Ordinary. This is a nation that became the greatest nation in human history -- in however many hundreds of thousands, billions, whatever years you want to say we've been plodding the earth -- because of ordinary people accomplishing extraordinary things, made possible by the fact that our country was founded acknowledging that our freedom comes from God. Not from a government and not from some other man or some other woman. It does not come from a demagogue. It does not come from somebody promising to take care of us. It inspired people to produce, to take care of themselves and anybody else that needed it in their community via their church or whatever neighborhood organization they happened to belong to. That's what's been lost. Too many people think that without government doing the right things, we can't succeed -- and the government, when run by people like are running it now, get in the way and make it impossible for ordinary people to do anything extraordinary.
Posted by Jz at 9:17 AM
There is a reason we have (or at least did) have the highest standard of living in the world...Its called Liberty & Freedom. Other countries have been around for millions of years and they still shit in the woods.
ReplyDeleteAs to the first comment, ill go ahead and point out that god doesnt exist... or at least in the way that you'd like him to haha. Read my other articles for further details. You are also making a mistake in assuming that Americans are the best in the world, or ever or whatever. Again, see my other articles. Id also point out that there have been a myriad of nations founded on religion, many on christianity and thus Americans cannot deemed to be better because they are christian. Thats not some high standard that sets us apart from the rest of the world and the rest of history.
ReplyDeleteThat whole post was displaying the arrogance i was talking about. You assume a divine mandate that we have the right to intervene in the world however we see fit and that everyone should aspire to be us because god willed it to be so. I see that as really misguided and arrogant, a very dangerous combination.
As to the second post, first no nation goes back millions of years... human civilization as we recognize it dates to around 10,000 BCE. We also don't have liberty and freedom. We probably have the most written law guiding our behavior then any nation in history. It only appears that we are the most free because we are allowed to say whatever we want to those in power. You also have a very narrow definition of standard of living. Other societies may shit in the woods, but they dont have high suicide rates of people killing themselves out of sheer displeasure with their own lives.
David- Your response to the first comment hit the nail on the head.
ReplyDeleteThe arrogance to assume that the US is the only nation to have a true God 'backing them up' is ignorant and assuming America's excellence is down because of this is flawed.
Secondly, highest quality of living is a scale that many countries would consider arbitrary. The things valued in your scale are things valued by the american people, so again, using your scale to show your the best is an arrogant position to take.
Thirdly and finally
'We feed the world, we relive the world, we repair the world. We defend the world. We have liberated hundreds of millions of people who have lived in bondage and slavery'
I could pick this entire ignorant rhetoric apart in seconds, but most importantly, have you every heard of the slave trade?
America is a great country but for none of the reasons you suggest. You represent the things people outside America hate about America.
Have a nice day!
NB