This sort of rot is a problem most everywhere on earth. In most every country there is a segment of the population who demand an intentionally distorted teaching of their national history because they imagine that the purpose of history class is to train our descendents to live in thrall to their ancestors.
If one Jill Smith were to demand her local school district teach children as fact that Jill Smith was inherently superior to the average person; she'd be universally recognized as precisely the vainglorious loon she is. To demand our children be taught as fact that the United States is innately superior to other nations is exactly the same thing and couching this demand in the language of duty country and sacrifice does nothing to hide the juicy smell of masturbatory self-regard.
It is quite as simple is this; if you declare that a belief in America's superiority is a minimal requirement for loving our country at all; you are a fucking liar, and a God damned disgrace to those who actually worked to make freedom happen, to those who faced our cultural failings with clear eyes and suffered for that for the very reason that they loved the United States and wanted it make it a better place for all of us. The real United States you understand, our living common people, not the standard cartoon cutout version of the "founding Fathers" or any other such 'Great Men'. Fuck Great Men. While the people live love suffer stumble and thrive in the way of Whitman and Ellison the authoritarians' vile submission to Great Men will will earn themselves no such reverence from beyond the grave but only the same oblivion that awaits us all.
No comments:
Post a Comment