The diary that we have all been discussing about leaving the USA is not only ignorant, it is one of the most dangerous types of propaganda that can exist. It enables nationalism en masse and makes it acceptable to think in jingoistic, hateful terms that lead nowhere. FAST. Read on with me.
Nationalism means that you believe that a nation, history, people, culture, language, etc. is better than any other. You believe that somehow the people of a nation are somehow connected. Negative nationalism is that you believe the above things are WORSE than others. Neither of these is very applicable to the USA, in that we are not really a unified nation, we are post-national if anything. We don't really share a common language, culture, history or anything else. We are immigrants from all over the world. We are taught about George Washington in school, but most of us had no family in the US when he was around. When the Germans read about Frederick the Great, their ancestors were there. Hell, when Poles read about Kazimierz the Great in what, the 14th century (I think), their ancestors were there. We are not like that. Nationalism makes no sense for us. We are not unified. The only thing that truly ties us together is our government, and for that we can have feelings. Support for a government system is what our country generally sells us.
When people say that the USA is the best country in the world, what do they discuss? The Consitution, laws, freedom, our victories in civil rights, etc. Yes, sometimes people tack on historical things like wars or scientific developments, but there is always the sense that these things were enabled by our sense of freedom and democracy, derived from our laws. Even Bush, attacking Iraq claimed he was bringing "freedom" and "democracy". He never claimed he was bringing English or our coffee culture (I know, Starbucks jokes are fun and easy.....). The point is, that even when nationalism is approached, it's still seen in terms of our governmental system. For instance, when people claim we are the best people in the world with the best culture, they usually think that it comes out of our history of democracy. Or during the Cold War, when some people claimed we had the greatest military in the world and therefore we should dominate the world, it was always because we disagreed with the political and governmental concepts of the Soviets, not the supremacy of some historical culture.
The point is that love for our governmental system is really not nationalism at all, it's transferable. It wants to say: "If you take on our governmental system, you can be just as good as us." That's the whole premise behind our wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
We have really, very little history of nationalism, because it's difficult to define a "nation" of America. What we have is "constitutional patriotism," a term used originally by Dolf Sternberger and often attributed to Jürgen Habermas.
When you start to speak about the USA and stray away from the government, to statements about our religious belief, our city planning, aesthetics, etc. as unified concepts, you are straying into dangerous waters. Whether it's positive or negative, you accept that it is legitimate to think in terms of nations as units, thus enabling nationalism. Positive and negative nationalism are both detrimental to our way of life. They are also wildly uninformed.
It's not an accident that the diarist in question bases the principles he would like to live by on issues that apply heavily to the US. I don't see a requirement for marital rape laws, or legalized homosexuality, or free speech, etc. on his list. It is a list designed specifically with the US in mind and thus has very little credibility as some sense of high principled beliefs. On the list, genocide as a founding principle (USA) is decried, but there is no mention of genocide thereafter. It is quite impossible to name a country that has laws respecting its citizens, the arts, the environment etc. with a history without blood on its hands.
Find me a socialist country, where religion plays no role, where public transportation is great, etc. etc. etc. Scandinavia? Denmark, Sweden and Norway were imperialist to the extreme and Finland sided with the Nazis in the war. The rest of Europe is pretty much out. Japan? HA! Canada? They're relatively armed and religious compared to a lot of the world. Maybe you prefer Haiti, founded on a slave rebellion against imperialists..... heh. Africa? Nope. Australia, aborigines. The Caribbean? Laws against gays, horrible poverty and health care problems. South America! Hahaha. Wait, wait, wait, ASIA! That's the promised land.
How ridiculous is the support for this diary and the diary itself. There is nowhere to go. And we are all people connected. If it happens here, it is because of our role in the world, our geographic position and history, not because of our "nation". Shouldn't the diarist want to work to make every country, including the US better and more peaceful? No, the diarist is just going to arbitrarily pick the USA (oh, wait, it's not arbitrary at all, the USA as punching bag is about the most hackneyed option out there) and decide that we are magically bad and that there is some other magical place out there that's better.
I sure wish I were wealthy enough to run away and find a rich, enlightened country to live in so that I could leave the poor and uneducated to fester and die in bad countries of ignorant, violent, religious nations such as the USA. I wish I had that luxury. For the love of goodness, can we please stop pushing the idea that the USA is somehow a special nation, even if we think its magically bad? It's not a unified nation! Positive and negative nationalisms make no sense! We need to fix things, here, there and everywhere.
Read about nationalism, patriotism and the construction of a national past:
Benedict Anderson: Imagined Communities
Dolf Sternberger: Constitutional Patriotism (Verfassungspatriotismus)
Eric Hobsbawm: The Invention of the Past (Die Erfindung der Vergangenheit)
Friedrich Nietzsche: The Advantages and Disadvantages of History for Life (Die Nutzen und Nachteile der Historie für das Leben)