John D. Giorgis wrote:
>O.k. I am going to leave aside the already-discussed topic of whether
>arrogance is ever justified/reasonable/appropriate, etc. - and simply
>tackle the substance of your last sentence year. Do you truly believe
>that there is "not a lot of reason" for Americans to be arrogant?
Hmmmm...
>Let's see what Americans have in their favor....... For starters, we have
>bailed the rest of the World out of not one, not two, but THREE real big
>one's in the past 100 years. When Europe hurtled toward
>self-annihilation in the Great War, we entered in and turned the tide.
>When the World was threatened with the evil, genocidal, empires of the Axis
>- it was America that provided the decisive difference. And following
>that war, America pulled a feat that was all but unprecedented in World
>History. Showing "malice towards none, mercy towards all" when the entire
>World threatened to fall unde the dark shadows of communism, it was America
>that organized the Marshall Plan, NATO, and the United Nations.
Dear sweet God. "The evil, genocidal, empires of the Axis"? "The entire
World threatened?" "dark shadows of communism?" You sound like you're
selling me a computer game. And not a particularly good one.
I don't know enough history to argue you this one, although I have the
vague memory that we didn't do a hell of a lot in WWI and WWII was just a
mess. We certainly didn't singlehandedly save the bloody world.
And even if you're completely, utterly, irrifutably historically correct
on this one:
We can kill people really well. Woo Hoo.
As for the "dark shadows of communism", turned out to be more a "sort of
grey spot on the wall that America used as an excuse to kill hundreds of
thousands of people, spend millions of billions of dollars, and make a
lot of noise," didn't it?
>Among our many achievements, we count perhaps the greatest triumph in the
>history of manking - landing a man on the moon.
Eh, I'm a sci-fi fan too, but I still would have gone for penicillin.
> We continue to remain a
>leader in the arts, including music, theatre, and motion picture. Our
>athletes easily rank among the best trained and most highly skilled in the
>world. We are also the world's leader in research in a great many fields
>from economics to medicine.
This isn't fact: this is opinion. We probably win music (although England
might- they've still got *tons* of credit left over from Clapton and the
Beatles), we are basically the only people who make movies so we get that
one too, but we certainly don't get theatre, John. What America are you
living in, anyway? I've seen more good theatre in three months here than
I did in 19 years in America.
>This is, of course, not to say that America is perfect.
Nice that you noticed. I'd been wondering myself.
>Then again, no place on Earth is a utopia - and many of our problems are
>shared in one degree or another by a great many of the other nations on
>Earth. Neverthless, looking around us at the other nations on this
>planet, it would be very difficult for almost any human to not feel just a
>little bit proud about all of the things we have done right - and not be
>just a little self-confident that we'll be solving many of these problems
>someday soon.
John, I'm sorry. I'm having a hell of a time taking this post seriously,
probably because it reads like a cross between a propagandist textbook
and the lead-in for a B-grade film.
Believe it or not, I'm also pretty proud of America. I think we're an
innovative people; I think we're tough; and I think we're perfectionists,
always pushing to go just a little further and be a little better.
These are all childish traits. We're also very, very childish. We boast
(right, John?). We don't necessarily consider the consequences of our
actions. We aren't real good at foresight. We throw temper tantrums and
sulks when things don't go our way ("Well, if you're not going to play
with *my* political system, then *I'm* not speaking to you! So there!")
and we're easily spooked and very easily distracted. And we're arrogant.
Arrogance is a terribly childish thing.
Is our arrogance justified? No. We've got a mistake for every single
triumph, and it's time we recognized it. And, besides, believing you're
the center of the universe is so... immature.
Kat Feete
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In the Beginning there was nothing, which exploded.
- Terry Pratchett
