Independence Day came and went with a wave of patriotic posts. So I figured I'd take an afternoon to deconstruct them.
It has been an interesting week on Blogcritics. Having never been an American, or ever had the chance to check out the soil, I have taken to watching the celebrations unfold by browsing patriotic posts and listening to Bruce Shapiro talk to Philip Adams on Late Night Live.…
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26 - pimpinpretti
we americans are in love with what we think is our history and present because its difficult for us to face the truth. the truth of who we are and what the world looks like. we are in fear of this history so much so that we dont even want to include the truth about the genocidal Columbus or our slave owning founding fathers in high school history books (see Lies My Teacher Told Me). The real loving starts when we wrestle with our true national identity: yes, there is mass injustice, yes classism, racism all exist in covert and overt ways, yes, we are divided nation of haves and have nots...yes, there is oppression that our government is funding abroad with our tax dollars are we stare at MTV, we have zealots too of the Klux Klan and Nazi flavor too: thats my great USA!
27 - matissemonster
Hi America!
It might be helpful to point out (this comment is by an Australian, by the way) that most countries are a little confused by rhetoric we hear from America relating to "freedom".
Most countries (when they look to the inspiration for their democracies) look to the Westminster system in Britain, perhaps France and the Revolution, or maybe ancient Greece. Very few look to America as an inspiration towards "freedom". America is simply too young - a brother or sister democratic country perhaps, but not a parent. Most countries are democratic and have their own individual histories of how they got there, just as the US does.
Perhaps that helps describe why the rest of the world sees America as "just another country". We all think our own country special - politically, aesthetically or otherwise.