So....Do American's By and Large Feel America is Part of Something Great?

[KoKo]

I DO! My whole schooling was that our "Constitution and Bill of Rights" was the Greatist THING since Gutenberg Bible or the Reformation...actually I was taught the "Great Enlightenment" was due to the aforementioned events. We were taught that America WAS EXCEPTIONAL. But, the LIES and LIES AND LIES of our Empire Building seem to be coming "Home to Roost." :shrug: Have we always been covering up our GREED? Are we truly different from anyone else who has walked on Earth? Are we the NEW ROMAN EMPIRE...in DECLINE?

I think THESE QUOTES from an article on the internet..are very revealing..:shrug:

---------------------------------

Americans, by and large, have a fundamental need to feel like they are part of something great


above the fray and beyond the rest of the world. They are fed American exceptionalism with mother’s milk, and will fight like rabid wolverines to avoid being forced to believe otherwise.

-SNIP-


Iraq. Afghanistan. The continued freedom enjoyed by Osama bin Laden. Katrina. Abu Ghraib. Frist and insider stock trading. DeLay and a handful of indictments. Rove and Libby staring down the barrel of more indictments. Bush’s approval ratings are plummeting, and the entire country is beginning to wilt under the depressing reality that we are, in fact, getting screwed with our pants on. Any conceits of moral authority being put forth by the White House and the Republican Party have been washed away in a flood of graft, death, lies and corruption.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/101105Q.shtml

[Ron Green]

1. America and Americans have one last chance to lead ...

in SUSTAINABILITY of natural resources, in SUPPORT of all people with health care and equal opportunity, in GENUINE CAPITALISM that encourages competition and innovation, and in DIPLOMACY and PEACEMAKING throughout the world.

The only way we're going to put all this together is to reclaim the government for the people and elect leadership at the top that will tell the truth in an eloquent and compelling way.

I give it a 15% chance.

[murray hill farm]

2. You said it well...

we are fed exceptional ism with mothers milk..and then it is hammered home with each social situation or institution we encounter..school, church, govt,etc. as we go through the early developmental years...and the kicker..the marching happily..as we are taught to do..into the economic system and the american dream. until now...it has worked fairly well for us...and now, though, it is falling apart..and nothing works as it should, we think...something is not right with the dream...but it will come back?????????? most of us hold onto that...and will continue to do so...until there is no hope for us to believe anymore. it will, i think..take a huge hammer to slam that into us though because we have been programed and programed well to believe that america is the GREATEST country on earth, etc.

[katty]

3. American 'exceptionalism' has been dissected and I've come

to the conclusion that it's better for the child to experience a system of learning that promotes self-esteem and the expression of individual talent (not to the exclusion of what is good for the group)with emphasis on the group as well. Even though American exceptionalism is an entertaining fantasy, it is better for the child (in this case 'the citizen')to believe in their abilities/talents and expect some recognition from their environment-including expecting caring, intelligent action from their government-there is a hitch, when the government (aka 'collective parent'figure)disappoints the child (they become an adult) and the parent/government is 'only human' (flawed) afterall, they have to have built up enough inner strength and knowledge of the world to withstand the crisis of their new perception: Reality, and their new relationship to the government-this is not easy for a collective group who is raised to believe they are 'special'. American government is more like how people experience Disneyland, 'the magic, the specialness, is in the individual and group perception of it', not in the Reality of what it FAILS to provide to ALL of its citizens. Nevertheless, America, that special idea/experiment has so often been a facilitator of imagination, creation, ideals and promise of new and better days for all-that flawed, shallow, corrupt people in government cannot destroy the essence of that idea forever.

[KoKo]

6. "American government is more like how people experience Disneyland..."

....not in the Reality of what it FAILS to provide ALL of it's citizens...

So, true. The way you express it...and very sad. I hope we can change this for the future because I do believe that our "innovation" when it isn't "Crushed" like now...is our best quality.

The Bushies and their ilk never asked us to be better and to sacrifice for a better world...they want us to grovel in their vision of doom and death and destruction with endless shadow enemies we will always persue but never capture.

The best of our innovation came after times of crisis. But sometimes it brought forth the worst of our greed. If only we could find leaders who understand "balance. :shrug:

[Faygo Kid]

4. We hold these truths to be self evident.

I for one do not nor will I ever give up about what we stand for - about what Jefferson wrote, Washington fought for, Lincoln redefined, FDR saved, and the Kennedys and King died for. And the millions who built this country. Slaves, immigrants, owners, whatever. Bring it. I am here.

[KoKo]

8. I agree....I had too many folks in my history who tried to build America

coming here for opportunity and freedom to be who they were, to not owe a debt of obligation to all of them who sacrificed what I couldn't imagine to give ME and MINE a LIFE they couldn't have where they were.

Those of us who honor those who "brung us here" have such a huge stake in trying to UPHOLD THE DREAMS of THOSE WHO LOOKED AT AMERICA as a NEW DREAM For ENLIGHTENMENT.

It's so hard to keep fighting...but those who wrote our Consitution and
Bill of Rights...KNEW it would be the HARDEST THING ON EARTH...to TRY to keep our Governance a Beacon for HOPE in our future.

They were "mortals like us." They did know what Fundies were (Salem Witch Trials and all the rest) but they hoped that what they wrote would last for many centuries. We aren't doing such a good job of keeping their HOPE for CIVILIZATION alive...are we..:shrug:

[LastDemocratInSC]

5. America has always been simultaneously great and awful

Our Constitution was a brilliant document when it was written but would not have been ratified without the first hastily written 10 amendments that granted our basic liberties.

The Civil War redefined our nation's concepts of liberty and the role of central government but the privileges of too many citizens remained severely restricted for the next 100 years.

During the First World War our soldiers made the world "safe for democracy" but within a few years were attacked, shot, and burned on the National Mall by troops under General Douglas MacArthur while protesting for their war pensions.

The first "ownership society", which was a real blast for many during the "flapper twenties", collapsed in a heap of financial speculation. The decade turned out to be the "flopper twenties" and many lost far more than their shirts.

The Second World War was a period in which we fought to establish the ideals of freedom for Europe and Asia while failing to provide it in our own homeland for so many who fought so bravely for our side.

Our nation won the race to the moon with our monetary and industrial treasure, which is certainly among our greatest hours, but we sacrificed the even greater treasure of our youth defending a corrupt regime half-way around the world.

And so the story continues today ...

[AlCzervik]

7. i'd like us to do good things and be humble about it

[Karenina]

9. When the American people

rise up and put a FULL STOP on the globalized fascist corporate monster spawned on their soil, they will go down in whatever history we have left (Mo' Nature is PISSED and my bets are on HER rather than the infected DICKS think dey runnin' da place) as the greatest people having SUCESSFULLY wrested their spiritual/political heritage from the jaws of a cornered *tyrannasauras rex obsessed with his own blood...

[KoKo]

10. How many Presidents have called us to Greatness? Have asked us

to prove that we could be a beacon to the world for good? Getting our financial house in order and our priorities straight without creating endless wars would be a good start.

And, the only President that I know was John Kennedy. Yet, he got us into Vietnam. Even though evidence is that he didn't intend for it to escalate...we still ended up there. Clinton had the charisma in offering his "Man from Hope" campaign slogan...but he let us down...didn't really fulfill getting us going on fixing our infrastructure, education needs and health care for all.

I worry that American Presidents somehow know that America always needs "an enemy over there" because we can't get together to get our own house in order. :-( Look at the Clinton years...time of prosperity (forget that there was rot underneath at least it was a good time) but the Repugs went after him and made HIM the ENEMY. They no longer had the "Cold War" to fight so they invented the Monica thing as a "new war."

I wonder if it's in our genes...this American Enemy thing that keeps popping up. I, for one, would be happy for a period of "Isolation" for awhile. Just for a breather.