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'Greatest Nation' Rhetoric Roars Back
My greatness as a writer is simply a fact.
You don't agree? Well, then obviously you are churlish or malevolent.
If I were serious about such a claim of superiority, now would be the time to stop reading -- on the reasonable assumption that I'm a dull-witted bore with no capacity for critical self-reflection. What applies to individual declarations is also true of nations, yet in the United States such statements about our greatness are common.
Rich Lowry of the National Review closed out 2010 with a particularly bombastic piece reasserting U.S. greatness. Though Lowry is a conservative, his argument is conventional: The United States has brought prosperity to the world, protecting all that is decent against evil. Yes, we've had to muscle others out of the way on occasion, but that was necessary to bring order and liberty. Yes, we've made some mistakes along the way, but those are all safely in the past and, besides, they have to be understood in context.
His conclusion: "Our greatness is simply a fact. Only the churlish or malevolent can deny it, or even get irked at its assertion." ("Yes, the Greatest Country Ever".)
This expression of American exceptionalism is unexceptional in U.S. political history, but it roared back stronger than ever in 2010, especially in the rhetoric of the Tea Party movement. As it becomes harder to ignore the United States' decline as an economic power -- which will limit the capacity for imperial marauding around the world -- the inclination of most mainstream politicians to assert our greatness will intensify.
Those of us with radical or progressive politics need to challenge these kinds of slogans when we talk with friends, family, and co-workers. In my 2004 book Citizens of the Empire: The Struggle to Claim Our Humanity, I offered common-sense responses in plain language, and as we get ready for a more right-wing Congress and the political discussions that lie ahead, I thought it would be helpful to revisit some of those points.
With the permission of publisher City Lights Books, I have posted online two chapters from that book -- one that deconstructs "the greatest nation" rhetoric and another that challenges the concept of patriotism.
It is neither churlish nor malevolent to want to honestly assess the accomplishments and failures of one's country. Rather, it is the obligation of every citizen.
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52 Comments so far
Show All("Yes, the Greatest Country Ever".)*
* for the 2%-ers.
The US lives its myths born of the supremacy of the colonists in the 17th century.
Not much has changed in terms of outlook, racism,violence...
See: FACING WEST... by Richard Drinnon.
Nemesis is waiting for Rich Lowry of the National Review, she's checking him and the country out.
One simple act would put lowry in his place. A thorough and complete investigation of the false flag attack of 9/11/01. If nothing else, it would make those responsible reveal themselves as the horrible people they really are.
George Carlin was right in saying that there will never be a real investigation of 9/11. Calling for an investigation is nice, but really, who would do it? Besides, enough investigation has been done to prove that it was a false flag, and such an obvious false flag that people will have to face up to their gullibility.
At that point, we'll have to start explaining to them that psychiatry is bullshit too, so the masses won't be dosed with neuroleptics when they have their nervous breakdowns.
Actually there is a lot to know about it. If nothing else, the way all 3 buildings fell and what hit the pentagon and why the fuck the fbi won't release videos of what hit the pentagon. But hey, the msm or fawning corporate media assures us that for the fragile american people, erasing and forgetting history is the best way to move on and deal with life, let there be NO beginnings, go shopping.
What are you? some kind of pinko, commie, terrerist lubin sykopath? Of course the Amurikan ded are moar impotent than those evildoers we sent to gawd in vengence for their deads. They might not have participated, but by gawd they were happy that it happened. I don't care where teh vids came from that showed the chears.
If it don't happen int he states, it didn't happen.
/sillyness.
Sorry, I couldn't resist making a reply that parodied the view that some have on the issue.
Oh I get it all right, from my first comment you jumped on with enthusiasm as if you for some reason don't want anyone thinking about what happened on 9/11/01. Then you can ADD the million dead Iraqis to the lies to invade a couple or three foreign sovereign nations. You or some others are right, it won't be investigated in our life times and the criminals responsible are will be and are still running free. And NOT EVEN the world court will be able to bring these people to justice. So we forget the past and our children's children's children will have to deal with the repeat when the neocon's have to create another PEARL HARBOR TO GAIN CONTROL.
As it becomes harder to ignore the United States' decline as an economic power -- which will limit the capacity for imperial marauding around the world --
Marauding will take place with capacity or not. Why? Because there will always be compacity for the MIC.
If we have to ration food as a nation, it will happen to fund the MIC.
Maurauding will happen. That is just fact.
And when our food is rationed to pay for the MIC, we will feel so patriotic for the sacrifice!
Until half way through the first winter, maybe. Any longer than that...
No, as the old Roman Empire found to its cost, if you cut the bread or the circus' you're doomed. If the poor can't afford the bread, they'll eventually roll out the guillotines.
Easy solution: Soylent Green.
Only on Tuesdays. ;-)
How about Sundays? "This is my body, this is my blood." I always thought Mass reeked of cannibalism.
That was the initial criticism of xtianity when the Romans first heard of it. I was first creeped out by the pictures in the Catholic school of hearts and blood and gore with halos... Later, when I learned of the fate of those who had lived before jayzeus being sent to hell, I thought the entire religious thing sounded like really really bad fiction.
On the Soylent Green note, would it go well with beer?
Only Dead Guy Ale, by Rogue Brewing.
I'm vegan. Only Soylent Red and Yellow for me.
You guys crack me up.
oh, that's bad. You want Soylent Blue. Otherwise you're eating people that ate other people who occasionally had a bug or two in their diet.
Soylent Blue is certified that's it's made solely of people who ate people who ate people who ate people who only once had a salad.
If you have some time you might want to listen to Robert Jensen's talk:
Robert Jensen - The American Dream dead? (58 minutes)
Video URL: www.youtube.com/watch?v=w25sFJxEsX8
Thank you for the link. I will be watching it soon. I just finished watching economist Richard Wolff's lecture "Capitalism Hits the Fan", based on his book of the same name. It was an amazing talk! Here is the link to that if anyone is interested:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZU3wfjtIJY
The American infatuation with its flag has always bothered me.
My own personal experience is that Australians do not have this infatuation. Australians are patriotic, yes. Witness their bodypaint and uniforms at, e.g., the Olympic Games: Green and gold. One of Australia's most popular alternate flags is the Eureka flag, a white Southern Cross against a blue background, and a strong contender should Australia replace the present Union-Jack based flag. Another popular flag is the Aboriginal flag, a yellow sun over a red Earth with nighttime sky. The sense I get is that Australians prefer patriotic colors that are rooted in the land, the green and gold of the wattle, the sun and red Earth. You generally don't see the Australian flag flying over homes, and the alternate flags are more often seen.
I fear that Americans confuse patriotism with nationalism.
with respect, it is you who is confused.
the two are symbiotic.
patriot |ˈpātrēət|
noun
1 a person who vigorously supports their country and is prepared to defend it against enemies or detractors.
nationalism |ˈna sh ənəˌlizəm|
noun
patriotic feeling, principles, or efforts.
• an extreme form of this, esp. marked by a feeling of superiority over other countries.
I've always viewed nationalists as chanting "my country, right or wrong", and patriots chanting "my country, as we try to make it better".
a fair distinction, but it's the whole world community that needs our attention.
Unfortunately there's many 'patriotic' (nationlistic) Australians who love to fly the Australian flag just as bad as Americans it seems these days. You see it by them flying it at the front of their houses (ugh!), and sticking flags on their cars but that's also being ingrained a bit as 'fashion' not to mention the old-age pensioner drivers habits of putting a flag or ribbon on their cars just so they can find their own car easier in the shopping centre carparks. ;-)
The Eureka flag has also been co-opted by a building union and they fly it from high-rise cranes etc., though their take on it is probably more to do with an adversarial approach than anything.
Australians have been extremely nationalistic in the past, steadfastly ready to sacrifice life and prosperity for ol' England, and nowadays we're being conned yet again into doing the same for the USA.
Younger Australians either take up waving stupid Australian flags around either because they think its cool or fashionable, or to be American wannabes but with an Australian flag instead of the stars and stripes.
Flags mean an allegiance to something, either a collective or cause. And they're just as pathetic as a front for nationalistic dogma.
How mentally ingrained can somebody's manic close-mindedness be? - Just try burning a flag and see what responses it gets with many actually threatening bodily harm for anyone even considering to do such an apparent 'sacrilege'.
Flags....just another aspect of bullshit.
Interesting comment. My, how things have changed.... for the worse.
>>OldBeforeHisTime wrote: "Flags mean an allegiance to something, either a collective or cause. And they're just as pathetic as a front for nationalistic dogma.
How mentally ingrained can somebody's manic close-mindedness be? - Just try burning a flag and see what responses it gets with many actually threatening bodily harm for anyone even considering to do such an apparent 'sacrilege'."<<
So true. I find it ridiculous when people drive around with flags of their sports team, for God's sake! And on the day of a big game, the "loyalty" of these fan(atic)s is damn scary. Forget national flag - try burning one of these sports teams' flags! Or try cheering for the "wrong" team at the wrong place! But I don't think that such insanity is limited to any one country.
I don't know about it being a sin, but I do know it's really stupid.
the grate-est nation
The authoritarian conservative mindset has asserted itself with often very negative results in country after country as conservative nationalists assailed their political adversaries as being not patriotic enough or not loving their country in the 'right' way...conservatives want ideological conformity and compliance (on their terms of course) not open dialogue and especially not ideological diversity.
All this reminds me of a slogan: "Humans aren't the only species. They just act that way."
And some are more superior than others.
more equal than others.
(ducks and runs away)
It's been my experience that people (individuals, groups, nor nationstates) who feel the need to loudly proclaim their greatness are displaying their own doubt about the same and, by doing so, betraying unadmitted awareness of untruthfulness of their assertion.
That goes for white people yelling about white supremacy and white "power," that was true of Muhammed Ali back when he was Cassius Clay and yelling "I am the greatest!" (he was psyching himself up, not bragging), it goes for Judge Judy who always insists that she's the smartest, and for all those "pro" wrestlers and cage fighters who beat their chests before performing.
It especially goes for Mainstream U.S. political culture when they talk about "American Exceptionalism" and when they get all weepy when they think about about America being the greatest nation that ever was or will be.
I smile and ask them, "What if it's not true?"
Yes, when one proclaims one's own greatness that arrogance itself pretty much negates any such greatness. It's up to others to judge if you are great; one who calls himself great looks foolish; real greatness is too busy working. The U.S. has had periods of greatness. This isn't one of them. And your theory is proving correct as the jackals howl ever louder about this greatness, thinking howling louder will make it so-- unless they really think having a lot of bombs makes a nation great.
It all depends on your point of view.
If greatness can be acknowledged in humility,
the nature if greatness must be acknowledged too,
so we do not all bow down in servility.
Strength is not a sign of moral worth,
but once only gifts of Natures full endowment
Many others serve unwilling beneath
as blood and bones compost of the present.
Greatness is not a warrant for damage,
to abuse all, and spread your excrement,
While the media hides your bloody ravage,
To yourself you smell like heavens scent.
Robert,
Thank you for stating that this 'greatest Nation' meme must be challenged.
There is a book (March of Folly by Barbara Tuchman) that addresses this issue quite well.
I swear, these PR goons that work for our criminal government are so drunk on their successes of the past 30 years that they think they can feed us shit and convince us it's chocolate. But it's happened before...
As soon as by one's own propaganda even a glimpse of right on the other side is admitted, the cause for doubting one's own right is laid.
Adolf Hitler
By the skillful and sustained use of propaganda, one can make a people see even heaven as hell or an extremely wretched life as paradise.
Adolf Hitler
I don't know about those in your neighborhood, but in mine, many of those neighbors who set out big bright flags after 9/11 have let them go to tatters. The far end of my nearest neighbor's tattered flag across the street snagged on the pole and fluttered like a bird with a broken wing for well over a year before they finally took it down and chose not replace it.
And have you noticed that for the most part french fries and "freedom" fries no longer exist? They're now just "fries." Takes less space on the back-lit fast food menu.
My sense is that when war taxes and foreclosures and unemployment are hollowing out your neighborhood and you are spending as much time repairing your car as you are driving it, that "greatest nation" rhetoric is growing a little tinny.
And poor John Boehner! As a kid he actually had to help clean his father's tavern. Of course he would never admit it if the tavern was a bookie joint and now that he's Speaker of the House, we'll never know one way or the other. Patriotism, the last refuge of scoundrels...
-30-
Very fine reading. The two chapters posted by author late in the article. Echoed by some of the comments. Truly to be shown to the uber patriot chest pounders. If in fact they could read the deep stuff and comprende.
for many it's the only refuge.
these have no sense of self.
From Bartleby.com, Dictionary of Quotations;
“In Dr. Johnson’s famous dictionary patriotism is defined as the last resort of a scoundrel. With all due respect to an enlightened but inferior lexicographer, I beg to submit that it is the first.”—Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary, at entry for patriotism, The Collected Writings of Ambrose Bierce, p. 323 (1946, reprinted 1973).
H. L. Mencken added this to Johnson’s dictum: “But there is something even worse: it is the first, last, and middle range of fools.”—The World, New York City, November 7, 1926, p. 3E.
Are there truly good, great, and respectable people in the US? Of course. Are there losers, crooks, liars, etc. too? Yes. The same can be said of every nation throughout human history. The idea that some people are better simply because they popped out of a v*gina on US soil is simply foolish.
Every country has its good sides and its bad sides. But not every country is "mature" enough to admit when it is wrong - and that is the problem with the US: always in denial, no matter how much it is harming the entire world. Greates nation? My foot!!!
Who are you people??
Could it possibly have to do with humble gratitude for the accident of having being born into a place at a time in the history of this planet that is supremely fortunate? And having made the choice of recognizing and appreciating the good, recognizing what needs to be made better, and having a system and the laws that allows each of us to continually improve ourselves and the system for the good of all – and recognizing and valuing each individual life? All of this because of and for the greater good that lies within each of us that creates the bond.
Or, in the words of the song of my youth, “Ya gotta accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative, latch on to the affirmative and don’t mess with mister in between.”
Oh! And see in history and around us that the long arc of the moral universe bends towards justice. We aiin’t there yet – but we’re on the dirt road of life, with the sun shining on us, the wind at our back, the road rising to meet us, with bare feet and headed in the right direction.
Faith, sisters and brothers!