I dedicate this post to those hard-working Americans whose ancestors “built this country with their bare hands,” and who believe in a Stock Market blessing-capitalist-American Jesus. I write to those flag-waving nationalists and Bible-thumping militants who believe that Americans are the “best people” in the world—even Chris Mathews said that on TV. I call on those blessed Americans with whom anyone would love to have a beer. I know you “want your country back,” but first, let me tell you why the whole world revered America since its birth and for a long time after.
American Glory
America has always had a special place in the hearts of people all over the world. The major event that triggered America’s pristine and admirable image was its birth. America was founded on the principles of Enlightenment (when reason took over) by world-renowned intellectuals, our founding fathers.
Later, Hollywood (film, television, and music) kept this perception of Pax Americana alive, regardless of growing ugliness at home. Hollywood kept projecting these original beautiful human universals—the quest for truth; good always wins over evil; justice always prevails; the poor farmer gets his farm back from the evil hoarder; and finally the poor handsome boy, rather than the ugly rich fuck, gets the girl. The world loved us; they ate this shit up. It is Utopia. Who would not want that?
The Founders Are Not Your Fathers
There is no a priori reason for assuming that the neoconservatives of today and the Founding Fathers share similar ideologies and no amount of wishing it were so will make it so if it isn’t so. On the other hand, the differences—when admitted by some guilty right-winger—cannot be appealed to when they suit and denied when they do not.
The Founding Fathers were not common men. They were students of the Enlightenment: eggheads who learned from Kant, Descartes, Paine, Hobbes, Hume, and other, by today’s conservative standards, socialist un-American heathens. More than half of the fifty-five members of the Constitutional Convention studied in colleges in America and Europe (especially England). The other members were self-educated. Benjamin Franklin, for example, would have changed his diet immediately if he found something like Reagan or Pat Robinson in his shit. Therefore, people like Bush and Joe the plumber were hardly represented among the politicians who wrote the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States, an unmatched American marvel. Furthermore, before the writing of the constitution, James Madison presented extensive material, including books sent by Jefferson from France, on confederations and states, to his fellow delegates. The Founding Fathers did not consult God; they researched their work like men of science.
Jefferson, Franklin, Madison, John Adams, would never, even under pain of death, have a beer with Limbaugh, Bush, McCain, Palin, the death skeleton Ann Coulter or that fucking idiot Michael Steele.
Unfortunately, the Founding Fathers’ legacy did not hold for long. Gradually, the underlying American religious fundamentalism and lack of education promoted anti-intellectualism, anti-rationalism, and pseudoscience that survives today. The last of the learned prophets and defenders of American intellectualism, the great Ralph Waldo Emerson—essayist, philosopher, and orator of “The American Scholar”—was defeated.
Signing of the Constitution, senate.gov
Hollywood
American film industry has always been and will always be the best in the world. That is a fact. People all over the world from Sweden to India have always loved American movies, music and television series. The world admires the morals and lovely human sentiments Hollywood presents. They know our films and film stars even better than we do. Over twenty years ago, I was given a lecture by a French writer on the purity of the American soul based on an episode of “Little House on the Prairies” he saw. He was overwhelmed by the kindness, and beauty in the episode, and arrogantly insinuated that I, an American, could not fathom the humanity portrayed.
Did you know that cities around the world look like ghost towns at the exact local time a reputable American series is scheduled to air? I have witnessed this phenomenon myself in Europe many times, but also in the Middle East. Many years ago, in Istanbul, I asked the concierge at the hotel to get me a taxi. I also asked why there is no traffic outside. He smiled superiorly and said, “Dallas is on.” Years before I was in Cairo—the Great Pyramid is a must see—and the streets cleared because “The Fugitive” was on. This is the power of Hollywood.
How many soldiers you think it would take to clear the streets of a city as big as Cairo or Istanbul? In the late sixties, most citizens of foreign cities willingly dropped everything; cleared the streets by 7 PM, and sat down before their televisions to watch American propaganda or “Peyton Place.” This is the power of the word, written, spoken, and filmed. This is the power of art. This is diplomacy of the highest order. An American, thanks to Hollywood, used to get a free pass card anywhere in the world, not so much today. I will always remember with gratitude how Egyptians treated me with kindness and generosity just because I am an American.
Lost in the streets of Cairo at 2 AM in the morning I was picked up by some funny Egyptians, treated to a great meal—at their insistence—before they dropped me off at the Nile Hilton. I remember one of them telling me that any other Egyptian, especially the police, would have protected me and treated me with utmost respect because I am an American. Then he whispered sadly, “Americans, like rich Egyptians are protected by the police. When a poor Egyptian is murdered, no one cares. You know what the police here call a murdered poor guy…someone who won’t be missed; can you believe this, sir?” I said, “No.” Somehow, it felt cruel to ruin the Egyptian’s beautiful image of America.When we talk about power, we can never forget the monumental role of the BBC and the great services it provided to citizens all over the world, especially those who hid in their basements with their radios waiting for a word of hope.
Malicious Audacious Hypocrisy of the Lame
Thoth © 2009
Post Civil War and Reconstruction era in the late nineteenth century comes the Gilded Age with an explosion of population and consequent excesses of wealth and poverty. Robber Barons—like John D Rockefeller, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Andrew Carnegie, and J.P. Morgan—needed to justify their thievery. They hired none other than the Anti-Christ himself: William Graham Sumner, a Yale University political scientist, who concocted an ideologically driven pseudoscience to rationalize social injustice. Sumner, the most influential social Darwinist of his time, and his followers theorized that millionaires like J.P. Morgan are descendants of the first hominids to stand on two legs, while the poor descended from creatures that lacked opposable thumbs and stood on all fours. Sumner decided that the business titans of the Gilded Age were “a product of natural selection” and fair ‘scientific’ market competition. No one, in my opinion, has done more damage to the culture of this nation than that motherfucker has. Unfortunately, probably none of today’s right wing think tanks knows who the fuck is Sumner; I’ll tell you, he is your rightful God.
Incidentally, the United States is almost an entire continent that started out with the most abundant natural resources available on the planet. Natural resources translate into money; money buys skill, and skill builds nations. That is it. Without natural resources—that is, capital—capitalism means shit.
“First you destroy those who expose the spin. Then you destroy those who know what the spin is, and who also know that those destroyed before were in fact the ones who exposed the spin. But real barbarism begins when no one can any longer judge or know that what he does is barbaric.”
Adapted from Ryszard Kapuscinski (b. 1932), Polish Journalist. “A Warsaw Diary,” in Granta, no. 15 (Cambridge, England, 1985).
In any Kleptocracy, autocracy, corpocracy, or dictatorship, the citizens are well aware of the injustices they endure, and yet the corrupt government-run media glorify social justice and demonize inequality and nepotism 24/7. No nation on the planet, regardless of its system of government glorifies social injustice, except America. I tried very hard to find a name—something-ocracy—for our system to no avail, although, Kleptocracy is a close fit. In America, the big money owns the media, the politicians, the clergy, and many scientists. Together they promote an irrational cultural mindset leading the people to vote against their own interest; it is insanity.
For example, many billionaires from Bill Gates to Ted Turner have frequently said that they personally neither need nor want their tax breaks. Wealthy kind Americans would rather the government tax them more and spend that money on education and/or healthcare. Meanwhile, thousands of corporate media-instructed American patriots—who have inadequate, or no, healthcare, and whose children are undereducated, and malnourished—are out on the streets carrying signs against “socialized medicine,” “redistribution of wealth,” and “gay marriage.” These ferocious protestors always look and sound angry even though they do not know what cause they are fighting for; they have no clue why the pastor at church or Limbaugh on the radio told them to march. This motif of unnatural vulgarity is probably triggered by the long frustrating search for someone to spell-check their signs.
When the corporate-appointed useless middleman (for example, insurance companies) is robbing the citizens and the citizens know that they are being robbed by the middleman, but the citizens still blindly protect and promote the middleman; what do you call that? I call it malicious audacious hypocrisy of the lame.
Dear American Patriot,
You can still believe in creationism, or that the sun revolves around the earth or that dinosaurs and humans coexisted; fuck evolution. Yet I beg you to unite with the rest of us un-Americans to stop wars and eliminate greed (the middleman), take that money and provide free health care and free higher education for all Americans, including your children. After all, you don’t want your own child to grow up to be like you; no one is that evil.Thoth © 2009
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Comments
I so admire the Gates' and the Turners' and even the Buffets of the world who are wealthy beyond belief and don't piss and moan about taxes. It's ridiculous.
Preach on brother.
Rated
there is enough insanity and I too call it Ater Hypocrita Audacter Barbaria
Rated
Thanks man, I'm trying.
Cartouche,
Thanks, your encouragement is always appreciated.
junk1,
I am just telling the right wingers that they can never claim the Founding Fathers; they were a different breed of minds.
Thank you much for the comment.
Me neither.
I'm with lil' bro Blue on this. To whom much is given, much is expected.
What happened to our sense of obligation to help the less fortunate, the huddled masses, etc?
Sometimes I think of the Statue of Liberty and all that it stood for as a gift from France (and paid for by pennies from her poor) and shudder. How far can we stray without breaking? History tells the tale...governments that grow too large, too cocky, too entitled are doomed. Remember Colonial England? The Roman Empire?
Perhaps we can stop the snow ball. Perhaps not. I choose to give until it hurts, pay my rightful share, stand up for the less fortunate, and be the role model. I believe many of my friends on OS share the same sentiment. It comforts me to know that I am not alone. Perhaps outnumbered, but not alone.
Great post. Excellent rant. Wonderful points. Rated, Buddy, rated.
"I choose to give until it hurts."
I wish all people, especially those self-claimed Christians, would understand how humanely beautiful this is. This is why gracielou is the coolest. Thanks you for your civility.
Pawed!
Rated
Why, thank you my dear; You, have the flawless stuff.
rainee174,
Spoken like a political guru. Thanks for the comment.
That one killed me! Great rant, btw. You should be posting this at as many right wing blog sites you can find!
Why didn't I think of "Kleptomaniaocracy?" Do you mind if I borrow it. As far as breakfast is concerned, for you, I would make it myself.
Tayler Bloom,
Thanks my friend, glad you like.
Michael Rodgers,
I swear to you man, the self-control exercised in this post made me ill. Thank you so much for your comment.
I wish I knew about my stuff half as much as you know about video games. Thanks for the comment.
The Wanderer,
That is all I want: for us to follow the ideas of our Founding Fathers, some of the best intellectuals ever.
Thanks for the comment.
I agree. But these two cents sound to me like 4.5 million dollars.
Thanks WalkAwayHappy for your real patriotism.
Love this post and every sub post within. You have a gift for taking many diverse concepts and weaving them into a fine fabric of thought. Well done, Thoth.
Only people with your intellect and attitude have a chance opposing this overwhelming anti-rationalism that has taken over. America surely needs your help.
Thanks for the informed comment.
As always, Thoth - a tremendous amount of thought in your post.
"I simply want them to know how special it is to smell the morning air...how magical it is to look at the stars in the darkest night...how much fun it is to play outside and not worry about getting dirty...how a treehouse is better than a skyscrapper..."
This is how you raise children. This is what you teach children. Learning this they will grow up civilized. And that, my dear, is how infromed you are.
I can never overestimate the huge influence Hollywood, and especially famous TV series have on the world. Don't worry, not everything we produce is a hit abroad. I merely thank the brilliant Hollywood artists who kept our image clean all this time.
Thanks for your insight.
The founding fathers would have most of the politicians alive today tried for treason. Democrat and Republican alike, we've strayed far from their plans for this nation. Hopefully one day someone in power will understand that.
But they can leave out the whole slavery thing.
rated
As my fifteen year old self would have said, 'our huddled masses shiver alone.'
Rated.
How did I miss you comment? Yeah, I know she's a dude.
No, it's never too late, especially for such a gracious visit.
Thank you.
Having worked for years in a Biology Dept. at a major US university, I wish they would read a few real books about animal behaviors. Social Darwinism is a total crock. The fittest isn't about who is the strongest and certainly not who is the richest, since critters don't have money - it's about mating strategy and P.S. most critters are NOT monogomous (even the ones you were told were) and most critters will not die for their herd or their offspring like in a Disney movie. Fight yes, die no.
You are so right. Off course they don't know shit about the theory. They spun it the same they spin the Bible to suit their greed.
Thank you so much for such an informed comment.
Thank you so much, I appreciate it. I visited your post and you write well too. One day soon this will be mainstream; we are at the lowest point, there is no way but up.
Thank you for your comment and visit.
Rated.
I say they don't know what they're fighting for because it is much less insulting that if they knew. You may fight for a stupid cause because you are just following the tribe; that makes uniformed, stupid and ignorant. But if you believe that gays Muslims and Jews are going to hell, you are all of the above plus flat out evil.
Thank you so much for your visit and comment.
And I do pray everyday for us to see the light and stop this madness. May god protect and save your brave wife. Thank you so much for your comment and gracious visit.
There are a great many socially conservative church goers who could be supporters of the Democratic Party. Many are sympathetic to the needs of the poor who lack adequate health care, for example. Immoderate language that calls them evil or stupid for their religious beliefs will not win them over.
Fair enough; they are the bestest people everest. I and many people like me have obviously failed to convince them that the real/historical Jesus came for the poor and would definitely support socialized medicine and free higher education.
You convince them yourself or tell us how to do it. How do we tell them that Jesus' main message and goal was to ease the suffering of the poor. Tell them that Jesus was for social justice not the stock market. I mean come on, Jesus Christ Superstar, what do we do to convince them that Jesus was not a war monger.
Thank you again for your patience and comment.