Maggie's Farm

One of the issues I've been grappling with during all the recent nonsense is the idea, somehow, the U.S. is 'flawed'.  In this article, Dr. Benedict Beckeld discusses what is best described as 'self-hatred' or fear of the familiar, oikophobia, as it relates to the U.S.

Sure, of course our nation is flawed.  Those flaws are, in a way, our best feature, because they require constant discussion.  Our Constitution memorialized free speech to ensure that discussion takes place.  A friend asked if we're racist.  Answering 'Yes' would imply everyone is racist and all our institutions are racist.  So the only answer is 'No'.  What IS true is we're more open about the racism which still exists.  We show it, we talk about it on the news, we deplore it even as we work our way through it.  Our dirty laundry is regularly on display for the world.  Other nations either suppress their discussions, or are heterogeneous enough that racism isn't an issue they need to deal with too much.  That allows them to judge us, and their judgments reach people in the U.S. and resonates.  There is a strange self-loathing which sometimes accompanies wealth and success.  

If we, as a nation, have a detrimental flaw, it's the hatred of what we are and what we've accomplished, and engaging that self-loathing.  To that end, I can never be a leftist, let alone a Democrat.  I hear too much about hate from them.  They hate Trump, they hate what the U.S. represents, they hate our history, they ignore our accomplishments, somehow assuming these accomplishments rationalize the errors of our past.  Accomplishments don't rationalize anything, they're just accomplishments. 

Some of our citizens just need to learn to stop hating themselves.  They need to learn to love our history with all its mistakes, and by default, our nation again. We have fixed so many mistakes.  Why focus only on errors?  We build on our successes, we don't build by focusing on failures.  We can use the failures to improve, if we approach them constructively.

P.S. - I was sharing thoughts with a friend about what binds us as a nation.  It is the Constitution, from my perspective.  I know most of the people I referred to in this post, if they hate the U.S. and what it stands for, then they hate the Constitution.  But the Constitution is, still today, an astounding and outstanding achievement.  It does not grant rights, it protects them.  Its amendments attempts to enumerate some of these rights, but makes it clear those listed are not all there are.  This is very different than almost every other nation's basis.  From this point of view, we are very much a nation, since the right to oppose, or hate, the Constitution is enshrined in the Constitution itself.