|
Some random opinions on America:
1. It's history is grand. The fact it actually made it into existence defied all probabilities. The group of really wonkish wealthy landowners who guided the country to split from England had some very fantastic ideals.
2. It is the model of a constitutional democracy. While there are many variations on the theme, it was here that it was done, done first, done well, and we honor that tradition by keeping the same document unchanged, proving (with a lot of argument about it) that a document from 200 years ago contains the convential wisdom to run this country for all time. We preserve that document under glass in a vacuum container for a reason, and that is that it is one of the milestones of human evolution of thought.
3. No matter how you may dislike the current administration, American *pop* culture, the Hollywood bling-bling, or all the BS, you can still come here a poor immigrant and become a very powerful person. Someone mentioned Arnie having no business running CA. I wholeheartedly disagree. He is exactly what America is about, despite his personal flaws.
4. In the last 50 years, America has become very complicated to analyze. In many many senses, it embarrasses me. However, it has held true to George Washington's directive that it be a country of neither permanent allies or permanent enemies, always striving to get the best for itself and its people in foreign relations, and beholden to no one at the end of the day.
5. America is a conundrum at base, one based on multiple other conundrums. We are all free, meaning the thing which links us is that nothing links us. Our totem is one of unity through individuality. We strive for liberty and equality, and common sense dictates you can't have both. The balance of power from one to the other makes us seem waffley at times, but in truth there is a dialectic our country has with itself on the issue throughout history. And, here is some of the greatest beauty of America for me, the very complicated self-analysis and dialectical arrangement.
6. America is one heck of a piece of real estate. You can travel the globe and have a hard time finding one unified country with so many diverse lands all run basically the same way. In this respect, we simply lucked out.
7. Americans are proud, damnit, though we may not know why. We have a strong sense of "us" vs. "them" even though the "us" is made up of a mutt-bred hodgepodge of peoples and colors from everywhere, including (literally) Timbuktu. It really is the melting pot experiment, for all its good and ill. Our amazing diversity is our greatest strength as well as our greatest weakness.
[ 11-17-2003, 10:44 AM: Message edited by: Timber Loftis ]
__________________
 
|