Here I pondered aloud the chances of America's Reputation in a post Bush world. This generated a certain amount of assumption that I'm prone to romantic views about America's image in the world.
But no. I was raised, basically, to think of America as a self interested empire... I was weened on knowledge of it's crimes from the genocide of the Indians on through to the Shah of Iran. I have known that Custer was on what would be his final campaign to massacre Indians to look good for America and possibly run for office. That might not even be true! But I knew it.
I don't think the world had a great view of us prior to Bush, per se. Yes it's worse now, which is why we must discuss the subject and figure out what we're going to do about it now and when we get the chance to affect policy more directly.
One response was advice that America needs to work on it's self image.
I'll consider two facets of reality:
- America has a dark past!
- America is a shining guardian of freedom!
These are facets that are not so unique. Every nation and culture on Earth seems to suffer from this dichotomy. Imagine. It's terrible. If Europe's conscience is clear it's only from the passage of time and the fact that things got SO bad that major social upheavals overturned those societies, making them feel cleansed. I hope it doesn't get that far here. I don't want an actual Hitler in order to wise up.
But that's not a cop out. I am not saying it's fine because others sin... I'm not suggesting we can subtract out the sin as a baseline. No, it's shit.
We benefit from a lot of this shit. From my family genealogy I can say with some confidence that my ancestors never owned slaves (not in the last couple hundred years anyway). But I live in a country that was built in part on slave labor, and so I benfit.
When I buy gas, I benefit... my life is soiled by the actions of my nation... no doubt about it.
But I don't see America as an evil entity, just a human one. Not perfectly bad, not perfect at all.
America is still the land of the Democratic Experiment. My self image of America is multifold... I see three major types of American stretching back in time.
(1) Democratic Revolutionaries, liberation loving people willing to fight for freedom and to vocalize the thoughts of a subculture that never acknowledged the power of Kings.
(2) Dogmatists, tories, sycophantic sops and immoral puritans. Damn pain in the ass, this group. Proof that some of the people getting a hard time in England really were hard to put up with and we got em.
(3) The "huh?" group. Also known as "swing" voters. These Americans love freedom, but not fighting for it. They like partying! Woop woop! They've kept American music strong, always strong, if not on the radio or mainstream, then underground. They give props to the ideals of America but I wouldn't trust them alone with them.
Americans have been very creative in defining the era of freedom and what it entails. We do have a concept of civil disobedience and a willingess to destroy old notions of propriety. Sometimes that's bad taste and selfishness, sometimes it's a really good idea.
America is a great nation, I have the utmost respect for groups (1) and (3)... I'm really sick of (2)... really really. It's a religious neurosis. The world can look at the US and think of these puritans as purely American... but right... I don't think so. This type has been everywhere. We're just still processing them. It's not an American invention, there is a concentration here because they were unwelcome in Europe. Maybe Europe should have been more accepting and they could have burnt themselves out in proper time instead of prospering in America. This was a decision made even before America was free. What? We should do with them? We're coping.
America has to come to grip with her crimes... Americans have to know each of them, admit them, realize them. We need to accept that. And we need to repair these problems, but even more we need to fix the future. We need to protect the future.
We are not doing that right now. This is very agrivating to me and you. We need to give a shit. I do, you do. Right now we're building up more bad karma and more things to repair. Ok that sucks.
But I don't accept this means we are not still part of a good America. We still have the sentiments that make us America the Democratic Experiment. One of the American traditions is a tendency to not trust politics. Who is to say the American people have ever had much political power in the end? To me, America is Mark Twain, Woodie Guthrie, Will Rogers, Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Feel free to attempt to correct my vision of America. Good luck!