DU off to another fractious holiday morning?

[HereSince1628]

One of the traditions of American families, and virtual families like DU, is to foster dissent among ourselves. A holiday never goes by without many postings of all our national blemishes. There is no denying that as a nation the US has many ugly zits, boils, chancres, scars, and self-inflicted ugly tattoos. The obligatory period for mocking and belittling of self-indulgence, self-importance, and seemingly shallow reverence for national symbols has begun. Seemingly, we have a deep need to devalue things others have invested as ensigns of the better and brighter aspirations of our nation. So, can we do it with some class?

Some say in posts here at DU that Americans have but a short history. Personally, I think our memories are rather shorter term than our histories. As a nation of immigrants we claim the history of our many origins. This seems to be the source of some of our consternation. We want to claim the best parts of the culture of the Indus Valley, the laws of the Roman and Greek Republics, the Magna Carta, the Confederation of the Iroquis, etc. Yes, it is certainly true that as Americans we filter "our" history to provide us a view of the things that the best of our natures would aspire to be.

Not a few of us manifest great enjoyment in our cynicism of that very selectivity. And we find satisfaction in pointing to the superficial nationalistic jingoism that attends transient holiday patriotism. Indeed, our nation and our lives are replete with Americans full of themselves yet composed of nothing more substantial than the yawning vacuity of an empty teabag. But, really, this is so obvious that the mocking of Americans in their holiday myopia takes such little effort that it seems to be a very cheap shot. One might say that mockery is its own form of phony cockery itself.

So, this weekend presents a challenge…To remember with some respect the origins of the holiday in the horrors and sadness left by our own civil war; to respect those who sincerely use this holiday to remember their own families through reunions and the disappearing tradition of visitation and decoration of family grave sites, while remaining true to our cynical nationally deprecating selves.

[WCGreen]

1. Great song about memorial day by James McMurtry...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLjj7FD-CAo

[Scuba]

2. We're good at kicking ourselves.....

... the left spends time and energy thoughtfully analyzing issues, seperating facts from frantic fictions, and trying to achieve some semblance of bi-partisanship (when will Obama say "enough" to the Republicans and forge ahead???).

The RW'ers just come up with catchy slogans and repeat the mantra that is assigned to them, apparently without any thought processes involved whatsoever (one of my problems with "faith").

As one DU'er puts it in his/her signature line, ""The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts" -Bertrand Russell"