I came across the following, in the combox to a Eunomia post. The contributor, known as Grumpy Old Man, usually has good things to say and his site can be found, here.
My bitter rant of the month:
There’s something deeply hypocritical about a country that took away a third of a neighbor’s territory in war, that went to war when Saddam Hussein did the same thing.
There’s something deeply hypocritical about the one country that used atomic weapons against inhabited cities threatening war because a distant rival might be manufacturing the same type of weapons.
There’s something deeply hypocritical about a country that fought a bloody war to keep eleven states from seceding, abetting secession from the heartland of a distant country three times as old, whose soil is thick with the blood of its martyrs.
There’s something deeply hypocritical about a country that wallows in trade and fiscal deficits preaching austerity and creditworthiness to the poorest nations on earth.
There’s something deeply hypocritical about a country that fancies itself a City on a Hill imagining it is enlightening the world with fast food, gangsta rap, celebriporn, and explosion-and-chase movies.
America, America
God mend thine every flaw!
Confirm thy goal in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!
As if.
Sorry, but to me...
ReplyDeleteThere’s something deeply dishonest and intellectually shallow about comparing the Mexican-American War and the Persian Gulf War.
There’s something deeply dishonest and intellectually shallow about attempting to draw a moral equivalence between the U.S. [whose action ended WWII with fewer casualties to both sides than the conventional alternative would have] and Iran [which has publicly proclaimed it's intent to annihilate the state of Israel and finish what Hitler started].
There’s something deeply dishonest and intellectually shallow about attempting parallels between events so far removed in time, geography, culture, history and demographics as the mid 19th cent. U.S. and the late 20th century Balkans.
There’s something deeply dishonest and intellectually shallow about... aech, you get the idea... about stretching for the most improbable and specious comparisons in order to vent- well, now I'm stumped. What IS it you're venting?
"There’s something deeply hypocritical about a country that fancies itself a City on a Hill imagining it is enlightening the world with fast food, gangsta rap, celebriporn, and explosion-and-chase movies."
Nobody I know, or have ever heard of, imagines that the flaws you mention are what make us a "City on a Hill", or are products to be proud of. Rather it is, of course, the ideals of liberty, freedom, equality of opportunity and the rule of law that have, and continue to be, the beacon of hope to the world. If people have chosen to use their liberty and freedom in ways you find unworthy, to pursue their lower nature rather than their higher, then don't blame the system that provided them the freedom to do so.
Or would you find more admirable a tyrannical dictatorship of The Enlightened who could legislate Utopia into existence and compel by force the compliance of it's resentful citizens?
That's been tried. Didn't work out as hoped.
America, America
God mend thine every flaw!
Confirm thy goal in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!
As if.