What drives me crazy is the in-your-face mendacity that permeates the national myth-making.
Sure America may have been a shining light, with excellent social mobility and opportunity, unimpeachable integrity in its justice system, a country that did not torture, did not assassinate, did not spy on its citizens, did not commit war crimes like bombing doctors and children in hospital beds, did not support brutal anti-democratic regimes, did not play footsie with terror groups, did not use national policy simply as a tool of corrupt corporate interests. But America is no longer that country.
Yet the myth of the shining light persists. The disconnect between the myth and the reality can only persist for so long. America needs to come out of the closet, face up to the reality of what it is and what it does, or just shut up. Lying to itself and the world will only be sustainable for so long.
What drives me crazy is the in-your-face mendacity that permeates the national myth-making.
Sure America may have been a shining light, with excellent social mobility and opportunity, unimpeachable integrity in its justice system, a country that did not torture, did not assassinate, did not spy on its citizens, did not commit war crimes like bombing doctors and children in hospital beds, did not support brutal anti-democratic regimes, did not play footsie with terror groups, did not use national policy simply as a tool of corrupt corporate interests. But America is no longer that country.
Yet the myth of the shining light persists. The disconnect between the myth and the reality can only persist for so long. America needs to come out of the closet, face up to the reality of what it is and what it does, or just shut up. Lying to itself and the world will only be sustainable for so long.