Naturally, a lot of patriotic slogans have sprung up in the post 9-11 era. One particularly popular bumpersticker theme features a flag and notes that "These colors don't run."
I saw one such sticker on a bumper in traffic yesterday on the back of a car plastered full of them. Only, drawing closer I saw that it was a bunch of pinko lefty stuff, and the central one said, "These colors don't run... the world."
This sparks a couple of thoughts. For one thing, hate to bust your bubble, but that's simply factually incorrect. The US does, in fact, to a significant extent run the world. In terms of commerce, military, art and language, the US dominates the world. Sorry to disappoint the lefties in their spite, but it's the truth.
But why do such people resent our dominance? Besides the fact that the USA is our home team, we're also in fact the good guys. Rand knows that I'm not one to say "My country, right or wrong" or such foolishness. If this were Germany 1940, I hopefully wouldn't be rooting for the home team. But we are in fact largely a force for good in the world.
Rather than US running the world, who would you like to be the dominant power instead? Would leftists think we were better off if Castro was calling the shots? Would the world be better off with China in charge?
This puts me in mind of something that caught my attention on television a few weeks ago. I didn't see the whole thing, but there was a scene from "All in the Family" with Mike and Gloria talking at their kitchen table. It was not about politics at all, but some kind of baby beauty contest being sponsored by a local supermarket. Michael was cracking on Gloria for her enthusiasm about entering their little baby Joey in this contest. See, she just wants to walk the aisles of the store and have all the other mothers know that her baby was the best.
Article comments
1 - Michael J. West
Al, I don't think the point of "These colors don't run the world" is intended to be that far-reaching. It's a (very) oversimplified way of saying, "The U.S. doesn't have the right to decide how every other nation and/or ethnic group in the world conducts policy."
I, as a leftist, don't have any problem with our economic and cultural reach — we're capitalists and that's how capitalists work. And that's not the message I take away from those bumper stickers. What I do take away is that just because we are so economically and culturally dominant, it doesn't give us the right to make all of the rules for everybody else.
2 - Les Slater
I’m not a lefty by I do believe that those colors do not run the world.
Ask Allan Greenspan if he thinks those colors are running anything.
Those colors may be running, but only temporarily fast enough not to trip and fall on their face.
They try to avoid crises by looking for more bubbles to inflate. They’re gonna pop.
3 - Luke
Those colours sure as hell run my country (Australia), we're like America's red headed illegitimate step child, but at least we have countries of our own that we can boss around, like New Zealand, and any place in Indonesia, so America runs us and we run them, it's a big long chain of command with America at the top.
Ps. America is a player, but this game doesn't have good guys and bad guys.
4 - 1Potato
Luke:
There are good countries and bad countries, more or less. What makes a country good is its constitution. If a country has a constitution that is good (e.g. has protections for life and liberty and prohibitions against cruelty)AND taken seriously (not just some paper a dictator walks all over) than the country is generally good, at least by comparison.
Of course, the constitution is for citizens. But 260,000,000 people of all different backgrounds get treated pretty well here. It's a prosperous and generous country. Women do not get buried to their necks and stoned to death like in Iran. That's illegal.
So even if we are not the "good" guys, we are certainly the "not as bad guys". no?
5 - Luke
How a country treats it's citizens isn't anything to do with how it treats citizens in other countries, so I still stick with what I said, the game doesn't have good guys and bad guys.
6 - RJ
"the game doesn't have good guys and bad guys."
So, moral equivalence?
Castro and Saddam and Hitler and Stalin are/were just "players" in the "game" and weren't really "bad"? And Lincoln and Churchill and Lech Walesa and Mahatma Gandhi were just "players" in the "game" and weren't really "good"?
7 - 1Potato
How does America treat citizens of foreign countries? For one, we welcome people to visit our country and are good hosts. Some countries won't allow anyone with, say, an Israeli passport to enter their country. In the US, foreign citizens can openly practice whatever religion or politics they choose. No so in China, Iran, etc.
As for citizens that are not our guests?
We give more foreign aid then any other country, more private charity, more help during catasrophes. Does that count at all?
As for day to day dealings with citizens of other countries, we are primarily business oriented which means we have to treat people pretty well. Who are we treating poorly, anyhow? What citizens from what countries?
If you are a moral relativist, however, nothing can or will convince you.
8 - JR
Naturally, a lot of patriotic slogans have sprung up in the post 9-11 era. One particularly popular bumpersticker theme features a flag and notes that "These colors don't run."
It was remarkable how quickly the colors faded on those bumperstickers.
9 - Dave Nalle
Personally, I wish these colors did not HAVE to run the world. We ought to be finding ways to encourage other countries to solve their own problems and take responsibility for their own needs and not keep getting put in a position where we have to clean up the messes.
Dave
10 - Al Barger
At least broadly speaking, Bush is pushing in the right direction that way by moving away from the Kissinger-type realpolitik idea and really trying to encourage democracy and self-rule. If we can get something even halfway resembling constitutional democracy going in Afghanistan and Iraq, we'll be making big strides in the right direction of US not having to run things.
11 - LegendaryMonkey
Maybe we should take a moment to realize that forced democracy isn't democracy at all... and then, from that worldview, we might not see as many "messes."
12 - Roblaw
Ok. I'm not a leftist, in fact, I am a hard-line capitalist conservative. That being said, U.S. - get over yourself already. There is a reason Americans typically are avoided while travelling abroad - and it's not jealousy - it's this, "aren't we great" attitude that Al continues to trumpet. Trust me, the world would be fine without you. Democracy would, eventually, develop in most countries, just perhaps not at the pace that facists like Pat Robertson would like...
Before you get too smug, take a look at your beat-down of the retired school teacher in New Orleans this week... Speaking of New Orleans, would the response to a hurricane have been different if the tragedy occurred in Malibu or West Palm Beach? Oh, and by the way, you kill more of your own people than any other democracy in the world - and are only lagging behind China, Iran and Vietnam with respect to the rate that you kill your own citizens...but you are still outkilling Yemen, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Belarus. So, don't be so sure you are the "good guys".
13 - Dave Nalle
I wasn't aware that I or we as a nation had 'beat down' a retired school teacher in New Orleans. Tell me more. Inquiring minds want to know WTF you're talking about.
And having travelled among every sort of tourist all over the world, I can assure you that American tourists don't hold a candle to German tourists in obnoxiousness.
Dave
14 - Roblaw
Oh... don't sell yourselves short - you Americans are extremely obnoxious -and could easily give the Germans a run for their money ;)
And the New Orleans comment is a microcosm of the "might makes right" attitude that is apparent in your domestic and foreign policy.. and a not completely unrealistic reminder to those in your country that you are not free of tyranny of the state. Little thing called the "Patriot Act"?
15 - Dave Nalle
Good lord, we certainly aren't free of the tyrrany of the state, but here we are at least aware of it and object in large numbers. In most European nations the majority of the population is desensitized to the point where they just accept whatever the state chooses to do and hardly notice as their fundamental rights are whittled away. Incrementalism is an amazing thing.
Dave
16 - Dinachka
Actually, “These colors don't run the world for nothing” - that bumper sticker didn't go far enough. The attitude of this American is that "right makes might" - not the other way around. Psalm 33:12 "Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD."
That is, those nations who stay closest to Christ get the power. Hence, the overwhelming ascendancy of formerly primitive, loser Western Europe (& subsequently the USA) over every other non-Christian culture in the world. And similarly, the unrelenting downtrend into poverty, oppressiveness, and backwardness for the formerly most powerful nations of the world who made the mistake of following Islam. For comparison, the total GDP of all 57 OIC (Muslim) nations is less than that of merely our state of California. (The only reason they have even that much is because we found and extracted their oil for them, having invented things that use it in significant quantities). 1400 years of denouement should be enough to prove the worthlessness of any belief system. Muslims are otherwise decent human beings who have been greatly deceived by centuries of an oppressive “convert-or-die” religion. (Not to mention that any religion that’s “convert or die” CAN’T be that good or you wouldn’t have to hold a gun to someone’s head to believe it.)
BTW, if the US gets prideful and immoral and thinks our power is from anyone but God, He'll just take us down like He does every other civilization that gets full of itself and forgets Him. Lastly, just so you know, I don't think the US isn't perfect - we're just currently the least of all evils.
17 - Dinachka
Oops - I meant, "I don't think the US IS perfect - we're just currently the least of all evils."
18 - Christopher Rose
Dinachka: I think the presumption behind "the least of all evils" to be a large part of the cause of the US' problems. If you can't see reality, you can't fix it.
Hi from 25 European countries that don't see things that way, never mind say, Japan, Malaysia, India, Brazil...