Do No Evil – Some see us as decadent, oppressive, willfully ignorant of the world. Others see us as strong, economically vibrant and possessing a rich, unique cultural heritage. But, to the rest of the world, America is still largely a dream, a dream that we seem to have forgotten.
" But to dream? Ah that, that is our greatest gift to the world..."
I agree, if by dream one means that America proposed a liberal (original sense of he word) egalitarianism that was something new under the sun. In America, one was not condemned to die in the same "station" in which one was born.
But the world today is infinitely smaller (and larger) than it was even a century ago. We are one of many, which is to say that the dream is increasingly considered a global prerogative. Let us not try to hog it for ourselves.
Agreed, but I think that is the point. It is the dream of hope that America represents to the world. Once, that was also the dream that the United States represented to the world. I hope (dare I say dream?) that one day they will again be one in the same.
"They want what we have, but they don't want to become what we are." Who can blame them? Who would say that the American expiriment is all goodness and light, devoid of blowback? Does the same freedom to sleep with a gun make us fear for our childeren? Does the unbridled freedom to make money unleash corporate monsters? Are we really so arrogant as to beleive we are the pinnacle of human potential? Aren't our contributions just one more of man's step up the long hill out of the primordial stew? Babylonians, Indians, Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Europeans. Each contributed, each passed. Is there perhaps something grander even than American "egalitarianism"? Who will carry the dream further? China? Africa? Beleive it or not,individual freedom and equality are not the values held closest by many. True story: I drug my wife to America from Eastern Europe 10 years ago. Every day she pines for the dirty, Mafia filled streets of her home, her $200 a month job.
A far cry from my experience of the post-Communist world in Central Europe; of course there are some very derelict corners in Eastern Europe.
But these days $200 is certainly not a king's ransom here!
On the contrary the Czech crowns that I earn have more than doubled against the $ in the last few years and some of our home-bred yuppies go to NY for shopping trips..
Maybe you should consider going back home with her unless the Mafia truly has it in for you individually!
This is a hard question. Americans are percieved as arrogasnt to many yet millions flood our borders to get here.
I think the dream is almost like a tradition to many needy foreigners symbolized by such icons as the Statue of Liberty. It is a "dream" handed down for generations.
Why have we forgot? A tough one.Could it be we are self arrogant?Assume we are the best and assume we have an inherent right to what we have?
It seems we have lost the sense of what we were and what we could yet be for a host of reasons.Po... breakdown of society,hopelessness when we look to leaders, the media keeping a fear factor alive such as mass killings among a few.
It's the culturazation of the dream, I think. As Poulenc mentions above, we are but one of many, but the original idea of daring to believe that anything was possible has been exported more effectively than any product.
We've forgotten because we've gotten wrapped up and divided amongst ourselves. We've been told for so long that this or that wasn't possible that we've forgotten that once upon a time in America, nothing, nothing at all was impossible.
Split the atom? Impossible! Put humans on the Moon? Impossible! Free the slaves? Impossible! Dream of equality of opportunity? Not yet, but not impossible either.
I agree and mentioned the word polarization and hopelessness.We are polarized along different lines than in the past perhaps.
I think perhaps a sense of unconscious hopelessness has set in of what is there to hope for.No striving like the things you mentioned(the moon,slavery,etc.) and perhaps lethargy is another good term.
I think that's largely true. What larger goal is there to strive for? There are many, but what I call reverse cultural inertia has set in. We are a nation at rest that tends to stay at rest and a country in motion that tends to stay in motion unless acted upon by an INSIDE force.
I agree with the sentiment, but the reality is a little different. Why the huge spike in undocumented immigrants from Mexico for instance. NAFTA. The taxpayer subsidized farm products from the U.S. put over a quarter million mexican farms out of business. These farmers and all those employed by them have been forced to cross the border illegally in order to survive. Along with NAFTA the National Chamber of Commerce and others (the National Chamber of Commerce is nothing like your local chamber, it is a greed crazed front for a few multi national corporatists who have literally told the politicos what trade agreements they will make for them) have demanded a free flow of cheap labor (Bush promised them that nothing would impede the free flow of inexpensive labor in an adress to them covered on c-span). The point being is they were in fact invited.
Those lines are really concocted by the men behind the curtains. They are an illusion like in the "matrix". Swallow the red pill and it will become your reality, the illusion that you are enjoying your life with rewards and struggles friends and foes, but in reality you are merely being used as a battery to power a heartless amoral machine. Like Frank Zappa said- "Government is the Entertainment Division of the military-industrial complex." "The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it's profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way, and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theater."
Lets get real. For every immigrant chasing "freedom" there are ten who are coming here simply because they are chasing the wealth we exported from their country in the form of natural resources and cheap labor.
We have exported uncounted blessings to the rest of the world. Along with Europe and a few others, modern tecnology of all kinds, medical advances and more. Every where in the world people watch TV (RCA and Sarnoff), cars (Ford - the first successful mass production techniques), aircraft (Wright Bros. and later mfrs.), radio (Marconi - Italy), telephone (Bell), electric lighting (Edison), movies (Edison), cotton gin (Whitney), agricultural equipment (Deere, Allis Chalmers, Crane, Bucyrus Erie, Caterpillar, et al), transistors, microchips, computers (IBM, Apple), computer operating systems (Gates), sewing machines (Singer got it going but didn't invent it), and on and on. I don't mean to leave out other countries. England first developed the textile mills, China invented gunpowder long ago, automobiles were invented and developed in Europe, and so on. The U.S. and Europe developed oil fields, refining and shipping all over the world and on and on.
Without most of these developments, basically given to the rest of the world to use, and/or copy and sell, a huge chunk of the world would be still living in the stone age. Most of us wouldn't even be alive because of the lack of mass prodution of food and labor saving devices. Try herding sheep or weaving rugs by hand or hunting wild game for fun and profit. Along with the good comes the inevitable bad such as overpopulation, spread of disease. Without all these advances there would be more wars, fighting over limited resources and productive land. People who benefit from all these advances should be grateful for what has been bestowed on them by the USA and advanced countries. And the political system which allowed these developments to happen was and is very important too. Pointing out the bad and trying to correct is good; lumping all together as bad and constantly whining about the bad, without acknowledging the good is very counterproductive and projects the wrong impression
Do many Americans feel guilty for what they have because they have contributed little to nothing to our society?
I don't know what that has to do with this, but I think that's very possible. They may not know it or show it, but I know that when I think about it, it bothers me somewhat that I don't seem to be doing enough to bring the United States back to some kind of rational path.
You help create awareness Brandon, what more can you do? Just keep talking the talk and walking the walk and take comfort in knowing that you may be a minority but you are not alone.
I do what I can. The question becomes: is it enough? I doubt it more and more each day.
In Jefferson's America individual acheivement was the primary engine of social benefit. Individual farmers fed the nation, individual seamen moved the goods, individual pioneers tamed the wilderness. Individualism has been devoured from one end by huge self-serving government and huge self-serving corporations from the other. How few are those who leave highschool with the idea that they will accomplish anything on thier own? The vast majority of us simply march to our socially engineered place in the Big Machine- could be in a GM assembly line, in an Army formation, or a government cubicle. We measure our lives by the sole measure of success left in America. $$$. And not by whether what we do contributes anything to society.
Brimstone is correct. Individualism is stifled in our modern society from the second we emerge from the womb. For generations we have been shaped into consumers. Consumers of branded goods, consumers of branded philosophy and religions, consumers of branded political agendas. That's it. Critical thinking has literally been removed from the process. One can easily observe the anti-intellectual and lock step-no ability to do anything but repeat "corporate-government sanctioned slogans from media who*es" activities of some right here on propeller. Right on this thread, Bkumm is criticized for sharing his thoughts with us. This is not some crappy personal blog with a few sentences lifted from legitimate sites to attach an ad farm to, but thoughtful and original material. But there you have it, someone who doe not write articles at all disses a man for writing a thoughtful and heartfelt essay.
I defend his right to do so, but also mine to say these cricisms are worthless.
I personally believe that there is a spiritual malaise in our nation that comes from an over-emphasis on material acquisition.
Almost every religion teaches the vapidity of materialism ... the perversion of perception that a life based upon acquisition brings.
Our nation has become the foremost purchaser of junk. The availability of all this junk fulfills a desire to acquire.
The massive amounts of junk requires larger vehicles to cart it home, and larger homes to store it all.
Poeple in other nations see all the glittery junk that we all have access to and dream of coming to America where they too can have easy access to all the junk.
It;s liek a drug.
Ain't that the truth! You forgot to mention the bigger homes and garages to store all that useless crap.
Goppy: - Congratulations on losing the phony hillbilly talk. I heard there was a movement started to stop your demeaning portrayal of hill country and religious Americans. I stopped reading your comments long ago, now I'll read them again.
I agree 100% about the junk and excess of buying by Americans - things they don't need and upgrading houses, cars, etc. beyond their needs. I remember when I was a kid my Father couldn't figure out what to get my Mom for Christmas. She said an electric can opener. I couldn't understand why anyone would need such a thing. The old key wind opener worked fine, lasted forever and was cheap. He got it for her and I think it lasted a year or two and broke down. 55 years later they still don't last more than a few years.
And yes, religion does teach about materialism being bad and helping others as good.
P.S. I collect early American household and kitchen gadgets. You should see all the "junk" I have. Most of it still works though.
Jeebus nawl I seems to has de Goppy speak. Sumwun haz ta tawlk fer us nit wits! We cristen conserbatibs don lak no immigrints ceptin fer our granpapys now les git sum guns an' shoot all dem ******** and ****.
(End Sarcasm....couldn't resist) I'm sure Goppy will comment in the style appropriate for thread. Frankly Goppy, you is duh man!!!!
"A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right." By Thomas Paine.
As with any good thing, it is imperative that everyone work to keep what we have, for this thing called America is the land of liberty, opportunity and freedom that can disappear and revert back to the days our forefathers who chose to fight King George, in order to be free. To be treated like human beings was achieved only through the hope, the blood and persistance of people who were willing to risk all!
Never give up, there is always hope, as the sun rises, so shall the spirit of human kind! We must keep America on track! Like a garden that must be tended, so must we tend America.
Thanks Bk, good Op-ed! Thought provoking!
Thanks and you're absolutely right.
I have long claimed that if we could just set aside the "moral" agendas that seem to drive us and work together most Americans agree that something should be done about the larger issues.
We've allowed ourselves to become distracted by inanities and this keeps us from concentrating on the larger issues, which in turn seems to sap our will to hope.
We can never give up. In the end, hope is all we have.
Gardens also need weeding in order to remain healthy. We haven't done much weeding lately. We are choked by greed - corporate and personal. Rather than feeling outrage at the disparity between the super rich and the rest of us, we feel jealous. We are lost in 30 second sound bites, corporate politicians and phony religious doctrines.
It's a downward spiral when both parents have to work to make ends meet and the kids are left on their own. Their values are dictated by the tube and their minds are conditioned to buy the latest overpriced "must have" piece of crap that they really have no need for. Combine this with the assault on public education and I think the dream has turned into a nightmare. I wonder what the percentage of highly educated people from industrial societies migrate to he U.S. compared to poor laborers from undeveloped countries.
This is true. The quality of life has plunged compared to my parents generation. For the most part each generation has given up more and more of it's personal time,family participation, and integrity since the 1940s. With corporatist lackeys creating the illusion that their version of life is lovely.
America is only as great as we make it.
True, Rick, the problem is that we disagree on what "greatness" means.
Personally, I think it means a country that will follow through on what it says it will do and that lives by the same values that it espouses to the rest of the world, while not surrendering that unique hope to dream that gives America its gravitas throughout the world.
In other words when the country commits to a plan of action we should not do what we did in Viet Nam. We had the war won but pulled out for political divisiveness. Then millions died.
It means we should never get into a Vietnam from the beginning, and prevent the millions who died during the war and all those who died after as well.
The perfect response, Lurch.
But it serves to highlight a question that's been bothering me since starting Bkumm's excellent thread.
Hasn't the country become so vast, so diversified, so stratified, so multi-culturalized, so complex and in many ways so fragmented that the phrase "we Americans" no longer has any meaning?
This is a thought (for what it's worth), from one who has lived away for more than 30 years, so very possibly the perspective is, quite literally, skewed.
No blinkers, one can not really assess one's position without triangulation. Someone who has never been anywhere else can not say the country they live in is the greatest, the worst, or mediocre; with any integrity whatsoever, unless they have been other places. I Live in the U.S. but have traveled fairly widely, lived in Peru for a while. What I have found is that most people are decent everywhere I've been. Most people in the US are decent too. But sadly enough are led like sheep to have fallen for pretend political ploys orchestrated by corportists. Most conflict is caused (worldwide) by obscene greed's ability to dupe basically decent people into believing some self defeating dogma. The U.S. is no different in that sense. I love The U.S., it's unique and awe inspiring landscapes, it's conflicted but fascinating history, the principals and radical ideas of it's founders, its diversity.
It's faults lie largely with it's citizens who work to undo these things. Those who would destroy the constitution, those who demand we lockstep to their particular brand of philosophy or religion, those who have allowed greed and idiocy to rule over them. They often hide behind symbols of the US, flag pins made in China, and visions of simulated monodiglycerinated processed red dye#6 infused apple pie. They and their brainwashed followers have set the controls for the heart of the sewer. The U.S. has done most everything fast, it rose to a world power quickly, it seems to want it's food fast, it's news cycles, it's religion, even it's sex ---fast.
The danger is the fast rise suggests decaying fast as well. The higher the climb, the farther the fall. And our so called "leaders" have forged a trail of superfluous elitism and arrogant isolation on the world stage. We need to be humans first, good citizens of the world, and citizens of nations next. Our sporadic foreign policy is based on bullying and bribing. Those who have guided the nation to this point hiding behind those symbols (made in China) are not America. They shout loudly they are the real Americans but they are not. The real America is the spirit of it's revolutionary founders, pioneers, innovators, it's brave visionaries and indeed it's staunch individualists. It lies not in slogans nor flags, but in the hearts and minds of men and women where the spirit of Jefferson, Paine,& Franklin dwell!
Thanks, Radio. I like that word "triangulation" and hope you're correct. I sometimes feel my roots have withered to such an extent that I'm unqualified to comment on stories such as this, that's why I added the concluding paragraph.
(The advent of Internet discussion boards such as Propeller have only served to strengthen this feeling, almost of alienation, and emphasized further how out of touch I had/have become!)
Your wider observations about people in general, I'm in complete agreement with.
Best wishes.
Ah, I wrote the above comment after reading only the first of your three contributions, my mistake.
You've put together a rather sparkling analysis of American history and society, and arrived at a crystal clear conclusion on the "real" America, which, being a "staunch individualist" myself, I applaud.
Thanks!!! On propeller, as much as I feel abject sadness when I see people posting and voting for terrible articles that tear at the fabric of the true spirit of the U.S. while hiding behind those waving flags, I am equally filled with hope and confidence by folks like you and many others here as well. That's why I'm here, not to have my intelligence insulted by proponents of regressive blind ideology. Truth be known, if I thought America was version touted on the luvmyAG redrover threads I'd want tactical nukes too. :-Q
The world of nations is in transition: a positive move where power is distributed between nations of equal status.
Economic development requires new responsibilities and as more countries raise their living standard, they become better citizens of the world.
We've led this development at least since WWII and continue to do so, but the baton will be passed in the next 20 years.
Not something to fear ...
Agreed.
Post WW2, we were ideally positioned to be the absolute leader of the planet.
England, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Japan ... all of Europe and all of Asia had been bled dry by years and years of warfare. World War 2 began in Europe a full 5 years before we entered. We didn't experience any loss of infrastructure - whereas Europe and Asia were devastated.
Nations immersed in warfare almost always suffer economic and social setbacks. Just as our nation is suffering due to the Iraq war.
I find it instructive that the nations of Japan, Germany, England and France made complete recovery after complete devastation within 3 decades of the end of WW2.
Now, the two nations we fought the hardest against and whom we devastated the most are the two nations who most Americans prefer to buy their cars from.
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Some thoughts on why all over the world, America is loved and dreamed of, but the United States doesn't seem to be.