Peace!

It’s been bred into our bones, it seems, to think ourselves the guardian and enforcer of the world’s morals. Our perpetual war standing since WWII is not coincidentally synchronous with our now utterly casual belief that we are justified in behavior toward other nations–war, special ops incursions, spy and warplane overflights, sanctions, detainees–that we wouldn’t countenance for a moment. It’s a little surreal to discuss politics with my local auto mechanic, who’s a smart guy, and hear the same world view of our “right” to set the world straight that you might hear from any crazed academic neocon.

The average American is a bit of Jekyll and Hyde. Generous and friendly but typically not thoughtful, and a vengeful maniac toward those he thinks threaten us or are upstarts in any way. Maybe insecure too, as all those who monarchically think they are in charge are. We don’t want any economic or military organization to form without us at least in the background, and the only sphere of influence we will allow is our own.

For me, I just wish we would mind our own garden and let the world be. Fat chance.

An excellent answer, and one which hadn’t yet occurred to me. Imperial dominance breeds self-regard of the basest kind. I daresay one would find similar pathologies in Rome or Britain during their respective zeniths. But the depth of ignorance, I think, can also partially be imputed to the conspicuous absence of any real notion of civics or even, I would venture, the “public space”, from the American psyche. Sure, they’ll vote, but they don’t wish to involve themselves in politics and all that it entails, least it distract them from their pusuit of consumerist nirvana. But the self-absorbtion seems to be individual as well as collective, so a certain measure of it seems to be embedded in the ersatz culture of America. What do you think? Mind you, I’m only nineteen years of age, and I’ve lived in Canada since eleven, but I’ve had ample opportunity to read about and observe America from afar, as well as personally encounter some of its output, and it seems that a certain deficit of empathy, of emotional imagination, toward even individuals viewed as equals is a part of the “national character”. Has this been true in your experience? What, in your encounters, does the average American seem like?

“Cross your legs – your breath smells”??

LOL>….

Jewish Carpenter mythology and other nonsensical religions help them justify their crimes against HUMANITY!

Now they have a Black Terrorist in Chief, just proves that skin color doesn’t have much to do with morality or RESPECT for human beings.

Did the typical ancient Roman ever wonder about some obscure Teutonic tribe shivering on the Rhine, or reflect on the suffering that his proud Roman armies inflicted across much of the known world? You can bet the Greeks tagging along with Alexander the Great didn’t much afflict themselves with introspection about the “barbarians” they routinely slapped about. It’s a sort of unconscious hubris. Why take effort to learn about or empathize with people lower on the civilized ladder than you are?

To have a buck for every time some poltroon yaps about America being the richest, the most powerful, the finest, the freest country on earth! He never says the most beautiful city on a hill, or light unto the nations, but usually some imperialistic piece of buffoonery. We suffer from what Bill Kauffman calls “aggressive ignorance.” It’s not necessarily stupidity–I’ve met lots of people who are accomplished, can fix things, figure out arcane problems, and in general run mental rings around me. But they lack critical and analytical skills, see no need for such things anyway, and are content to see or be told the world is a footstool for America and its values.

A certain amount of self-regard is normal and healthy for any nation. Americans, never much of a contemplative people to begin with, carry that regard to the extreme. As the most evolved (so we think) culture, we are constitutionally incapable of putting ourselves into others’ shoes. That’s why it makes perfect sense to many of us that we should war with Russia (even with its 12,000 nukes) over Georgia so we can use the latter as a staging point for attacks on Iran, which has never threatened us. And yet were we to be treated even slightly like we treat others, in our rage we would call down fire from the heavens upon our enemies.