One of the things that I'm constantly hearing from my right leaning friends, is that I don't love my Country. They develop that opinion because of the way that I'm always calling the United States out when it does something wrong. They immediately start to point out the failings of the country that I currently abide (wherever that is at the moment). Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of things that my countries of residence do that are completely, amazingly, morally repugnant to me, but the bottom line of that is that...they're not my country. There are other American ex-patriots around me that get completely worked up about the state of Egypt and want to march with the Egyptians in every protest, but I have always questioned why. This is the main reason that I don't get worked up over the plight of Egypt or of Egyptians. Yes, there are Egyptians that I care about and for their sake I hope that their country can weather this storm, but when it comes down to it, Egypt is not my country. I can't fix what's wrong with it, nor do I think it's my place to try. I could spend the rest of my life criticizing Egypt and to be honest, I spend a lot of time doing just that, both verbally and in writing, but once again, Egypt is not my country. As they say in the south, I don't have a dog in that fight. Even though I've live in Egypt most of the last seven years, its is not, nor will it ever be home to me. When I leave Egypt for the last time, there will not be a feeling of loss. The same goes to Israel/Palestine (where I've spent the last eight (8) months. If the rest of the nations on earth voted to nuke this place to glass to end the crazy that flows from it, as long as they allowed the population to relocate before the bombers took off, I'd have no problem with that.
But as for the good old U.S of A, that's a different story entirely. There are many that believe in the tired philosophy of American Exceptionalism. They truly believe that the United States is special, superior, chosen by G_d. That tells me two things about them. 1) That they haven't spent enough time outside the United States to actually do a real comparison. No, going to Mexico does not count. If the only comparisons you have are the third world Latin American countries that you've been to, you don't get to compare. And, 2) you might spout about patriotism and liberals not having it, but what you don't understand is, that not holding your own country up for inspection, not seriously analyzing the actions of your country AND its citizendry, and accepting the belief in superiority without question, you're not being patriotic, you're being nationalistic. There is a big freakin' difference. Patriots ask their country to live up to the morals it espouses. Patriots ask their country to lead by the rightness of its example, not rhetoric. Patriots are willing to suffer the ridicule and scorn of their countrymen in order to point out the correct moral path, rather than go along with the crowd in a show of solidarity following a wrong idea. Nationalism takes none of these paths. Nationalism is the easy road. Nationalism is my country right or wrong. Nationalism seeks to exclude dissent rather than analyzing its merits. And nationalism seeks destroy that which is different, rather than to understand that difference is what has strengthened America over the last 200+ years.
So many countries go down the easy path, and their citizens follow right along with them. This is the problem in Egypt. Egyptians cannot fathom a world where they are not the best when in reality, they are at the bottom as just about everything except football. This is the reason that so much stock is put into whether they win or lose in pointless competition. They can't fathom losing a war without spinning it to try to say that they won and they can't seem to understand something as simple as history. If one more Egyptian tells me that the Prophet (PBUH) said that the Egyptian army is the strongest in the world, I think I'll start shooting. One more time, he was talking about an Egyptian army in the 8th century, a Christian army. He didn't mean the lame excuse that passes for an army now.
More and more Americans that I talk to are following this same kind of imbecilic thought process. More and more, the lack of a world view in most Americans is being translated into stupid statements about the nature of American superiority. De Tocqueville stated, that America was great because it was good. When America ceased to be good, it would cease to be good. It has become way too exceptable to many Americans for America to emulate third world nationalism. They are willing for America to take morally repellant actions around the world as long at it "keeps America on top." They don't seem to have the understanding that, doing these things is what is dragging America down. If you want any other reasons for not following the nationalist path, take a look at history. Where are all of the countries that made that choice?
But as for the good old U.S of A, that's a different story entirely. There are many that believe in the tired philosophy of American Exceptionalism. They truly believe that the United States is special, superior, chosen by G_d. That tells me two things about them. 1) That they haven't spent enough time outside the United States to actually do a real comparison. No, going to Mexico does not count. If the only comparisons you have are the third world Latin American countries that you've been to, you don't get to compare. And, 2) you might spout about patriotism and liberals not having it, but what you don't understand is, that not holding your own country up for inspection, not seriously analyzing the actions of your country AND its citizendry, and accepting the belief in superiority without question, you're not being patriotic, you're being nationalistic. There is a big freakin' difference. Patriots ask their country to live up to the morals it espouses. Patriots ask their country to lead by the rightness of its example, not rhetoric. Patriots are willing to suffer the ridicule and scorn of their countrymen in order to point out the correct moral path, rather than go along with the crowd in a show of solidarity following a wrong idea. Nationalism takes none of these paths. Nationalism is the easy road. Nationalism is my country right or wrong. Nationalism seeks to exclude dissent rather than analyzing its merits. And nationalism seeks destroy that which is different, rather than to understand that difference is what has strengthened America over the last 200+ years.
So many countries go down the easy path, and their citizens follow right along with them. This is the problem in Egypt. Egyptians cannot fathom a world where they are not the best when in reality, they are at the bottom as just about everything except football. This is the reason that so much stock is put into whether they win or lose in pointless competition. They can't fathom losing a war without spinning it to try to say that they won and they can't seem to understand something as simple as history. If one more Egyptian tells me that the Prophet (PBUH) said that the Egyptian army is the strongest in the world, I think I'll start shooting. One more time, he was talking about an Egyptian army in the 8th century, a Christian army. He didn't mean the lame excuse that passes for an army now.
More and more Americans that I talk to are following this same kind of imbecilic thought process. More and more, the lack of a world view in most Americans is being translated into stupid statements about the nature of American superiority. De Tocqueville stated, that America was great because it was good. When America ceased to be good, it would cease to be good. It has become way too exceptable to many Americans for America to emulate third world nationalism. They are willing for America to take morally repellant actions around the world as long at it "keeps America on top." They don't seem to have the understanding that, doing these things is what is dragging America down. If you want any other reasons for not following the nationalist path, take a look at history. Where are all of the countries that made that choice?
Stop the madness!
This post first appeared on Gaza Diaries: A Western View From The Inside, please read the originial post: here
