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As a kid, I kinda sorta bought the whole jingoism thing about the heroic Founding Fathers, and One Nation Under God, and all that. I never really got emotional during the National Anthem or anything, just seemed like a tradition, but I never really thought much of it.
The older I get (I'm only 21 btw), the more and more I realize most of what we consider great about America is either not true at all or isn't true in this day and age. The reality is, America is not all that free compared to a lot of countries, you can't really do anything without a permit and multiple forms of ID, pot is still illegal, the media, while technically free, is dominated by the mainstream media to the point that the influence of the alternative media is permitted only because it is not influential in comparison, we have more people in jail than any country in the world because we believe in revenge and not in rehabilitation and treatment, it costs a fortune to rent, to the point that poor people can't even live in some states.
Americans are basically raised to believe the outside world is still living in the 1800s at the latest and the stone age in many places. Most Americans have no idea that western Europe and much of Asia is far more modern in infrastructure than most of the States are, and ignore the fact that places like New Orleans are practically third world and even though we don't chop off people's hands like a few Middle Eastern countries do, we do still use the death penalty even though countries like Turkey have even gotten rid of it and put people in jail for decades for relatively minor crimes such as drug offenses. Not to mention a very large percentage of Americans probably believe the world is 6,000 years old and that evolution is a myth.
American idealism is a strange brew of Christianity, materialism, and individualism. Religion without spirituality, Christ without the compassion. Everything is about individual rights even though the average American loves to complain about how irresponsible people unlike themselves are.
Americans are the most submissive to authority people ever. Americans demand swift and cold justice to all evil-doers, unless they wear a suit, then they deserve our scorn but otherwise deserve to get off scott-free. Americans believe being in the Army automatically makes you a hero, even if you kill innocent people in other countries for fun. We constantly re-elect the same types of people into office even though they never do us any good, because we believe that strongly in the good of the status quo.
Americans would rather let people with cancer just die than have universal healthcare. Hard work is valued infinitely over having a good time; that's why most Americans only get 3 weeks off their job the WHOLE FREAKING YEAR.
I thought only a certain type of American (ie, a redneck) was super-patriotic and jingoistic, but I've come to discover a vast majority of my people basically think we're superior to everyone else.
Stop kidding yourselves guys - we are not the light of the world. Not anymore at least.
Last edited by Bo; 01-07-2011 at 03:15 PM..
Reason: Since the OP touches on two of the 3 hot-button topics at C-D, this thread was moved from General US.
Well if you read what the founding fathers actually wrote, then you could be proud of that. They were reading a lot of Rousseau at the time for instance, and in turn Rousseau was influenced by them as well. Other countries have pressing issues as well so things aren't always greener on the other side. Here is just one, how about the guilt of colonialism in Europe? How about all the mass genocides?
America is too big just to generalize.
Your rant is more tuned to, "I'm not proud of our species" more so than Americans...
As a kid, I kinda sorta bought the whole jingoism thing about the heroic Founding Fathers, and One Nation Under God, and all that. I never really got emotional during the National Anthem or anything, just seemed like a tradition, but I never really thought much of it.
The older I get (I'm only 21 btw), the more and more I realize most of what we consider great about America is either not true at all or isn't true in this day and age. The reality is, America is not all that free compared to a lot of countries, you can't really do anything without a permit and multiple forms of ID, pot is still illegal, the media, while technically free, is dominated by the mainstream media to the point that the influence of the alternative media is permitted only because it is not influential in comparison, we have more people in jail than any country in the world because we believe in revenge and not in rehabilitation and treatment, it costs a fortune to rent, to the point that poor people can't even live in some states.
Americans are basically raised to believe the outside world is still living in the 1800s at the latest and the stone age in many places. Most Americans have no idea that western Europe and much of Asia is far more modern in infrastructure than most of the States are, and ignore the fact that places like New Orleans are practically third world and even though we don't chop off people's hands like a few Middle Eastern countries do, we do still use the death penalty even though countries like Turkey have even gotten rid of it and put people in jail for decades for relatively minor crimes such as drug offenses. Not to mention a very large percentage of Americans probably believe the world is 6,000 years old and that evolution is a myth.
American idealism is a strange brew of Christianity, materialism, and individualism. Religion without spirituality, Christ without the compassion. Everything is about individual rights even though the average American loves to complain about how irresponsible people unlike themselves are.
Americans are the most submissive to authority people ever. Americans demand swift and cold justice to all evil-doers, unless they wear a suit, then they deserve our scorn but otherwise deserve to get off scott-free. Americans believe being in the Army automatically makes you a hero, even if you kill innocent people in other countries for fun. We constantly re-elect the same types of people into office even though they never do us any good, because we believe that strongly in the good of the status quo.
Americans would rather let people with cancer just die than have universal healthcare. Hard work is valued infinitely over having a good time; that's why most Americans only get 3 weeks off their job the WHOLE FREAKING YEAR.
I thought only a certain type of American (ie, a redneck) was super-patriotic and jingoistic, but I've come to discover a vast majority of my people basically think we're superior to everyone else.
Stop kidding yourselves guys - we are not the light of the world. Not anymore at least.
Go check out some of the other "gardens of Eden" on the planet and report back to me.
Very good post! I am born and raised here and do love my country, wouldn't want to live anywhere else- but most of your points are valid. We can love our country and NOT want to leave but yet acknowledge all of the faults we have- I am sure people who reply telling you to leave have no understanding of this concept.
There is a lot we can learn from the outside world- we need to get so many of our priorities in line regarding health care, spending, government, wars, economy, etc, etc.
Very good post! I am born and raised here and do love my country, wouldn't want to live anywhere else- but most of your points are valid. We can love our country and NOT want to leave but yet acknowledge all of the faults we have- I am sure people who reply telling you to leave have no understanding of this concept.
There is a lot we can learn from the outside world- we need to get so many of our priorities in line regarding health care, spending, government, wars, economy, etc, etc.
I would have to gander they are saying that because what OP stated isn't much of a revelation that everybody else and their mother contemplated over when they were 21...Yet the current people in the age bracket are probably the least likely to do something about it post WW2 era.
Spend some time in the third world and get back to me.
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