My wife and kids are American. I don't understand them either. Love them, but no idea what they are talking about half the time. No one outside of the U.S. really understands this country. It's Las Vegas meets Disneyland meets Deliverance. It has an embedded optimism other countries don't have. When I moved to the U.S. in '93, the population was 260 million, now it's 320 million. Basically, the country added two Canadas in twenty two years, no sweat - granted, totally unsustainable.
When I came here, I thought the best part of the U.S., relative to Canada, was the abundance of large corporations - endless opportunity. We all know how that turned out i.e. stagnant oligopoly cannibalizing the real economy in a quest for ever-greater profit.
America's core strength is measured in ideas, not aircraft carriers...
In reality - and the purpose of this post - the essence of America is the openness to ideas. Americans are not easily offended. I've tried. Canadians can be offended, Europeans can be offended, the rest of the world is constantly offended over religious cartoons and other bullshit. Americans, good luck. If you want to create your own religion, fly at it. If the ATF burns down your cult's compound, you will be a martyr to libertarians everywhere. It's testament to the fact that Americans from birth are taught to think big and defy convention. There is no monarchy in America. No one is presumed to be better than anyone else. Therefore, it's the continuous amalgamation of new ideas that makes America strong and vital, not drones bombing foreigners into oblivion.
In reality - and the purpose of this post - the essence of America is the openness to ideas. Americans are not easily offended. I've tried. Canadians can be offended, Europeans can be offended, the rest of the world is constantly offended over religious cartoons and other bullshit. Americans, good luck. If you want to create your own religion, fly at it. If the ATF burns down your cult's compound, you will be a martyr to libertarians everywhere. It's testament to the fact that Americans from birth are taught to think big and defy convention. There is no monarchy in America. No one is presumed to be better than anyone else. Therefore, it's the continuous amalgamation of new ideas that makes America strong and vital, not drones bombing foreigners into oblivion.
Faux News: America's Pravda
But, if that exchange of ideas gets lost, then there is no more America. It will no longer exist. America doesn't belong to the conformists waving flags at sporting events - that's empire. That's dumbfuckistan. What defines America is the person willing to challenge convention, because other countries, predicated upon an ordered pre-ordained hierarchy, don't allow that to happen. And more and more this country doesn't allow it either.
But, if that exchange of ideas gets lost, then there is no more America. It will no longer exist. America doesn't belong to the conformists waving flags at sporting events - that's empire. That's dumbfuckistan. What defines America is the person willing to challenge convention, because other countries, predicated upon an ordered pre-ordained hierarchy, don't allow that to happen. And more and more this country doesn't allow it either.
Dissent has been silenced by denial
Faux News is destroying the soul of this country by creating the all-important disingenuous one-sided debate. American Pravda - for the ever-more costly defense of the indefensible empire. The First Amendment - Freedom of Speech - has been hijacked and used as a bastion for empire-building lies propagated on a massive scale. Corporations will come and go, but if the openness and honesty is lost, then America goes back to being an idea instead of a place. The day the addiction to half truths ends, things can begin to improve, but not one day sooner. Denial is merely weakness masquerading as strength.
Faux News is destroying the soul of this country by creating the all-important disingenuous one-sided debate. American Pravda - for the ever-more costly defense of the indefensible empire. The First Amendment - Freedom of Speech - has been hijacked and used as a bastion for empire-building lies propagated on a massive scale. Corporations will come and go, but if the openness and honesty is lost, then America goes back to being an idea instead of a place. The day the addiction to half truths ends, things can begin to improve, but not one day sooner. Denial is merely weakness masquerading as strength.
