TANRailgun
Familiar Smoker
Let me start by stating two things upfront:
1) I'm a rambler..I ramble, sorry bout that...
2) Keep in mind that I DO love this country (which I will get to in a min), and it is because of this love that I criticize it, I'm trying to be constructive, not destructive in my criticism.
Like I said, I love this country. To be specific I love the idea this country was founded on: fighting what we perceive as injustice. Now, that injustice may seem a little ridiculous to us today, in the case of the American Revolution (the American Revolution and the American War for Independence weren't really the same thing for the record) we were largely fighting for the right to smuggle goods across the border because we didn't want to pay a tax for a debt which we helped to accrue without a say in how we were taxed...also the injustice of not being able to discriminate against Catholics...but that's beside the point (After all we can't really expect to apply our morals and values to a society which existed 250 years ago and expect them to come up smelling like roses). The point shouldn't be who's values were more justified by today's standards, or even who was really right or who was wrong in the end, the point is that they saw these things as injustices which needed to be corrected.
America's story isn't that special, we certainly aren't the only country born out of the need to fight injustice, but this IS our history, this is the thread that first tied us together as a people.
I feel as though we have largely lost that rebel, fight injustice no matter the cost, attitude. We still had it during the Monroe administration when we claimed the right to protect countries on our side of the world from the much more powerful and wealthy European countries. We still had it when we literally went to war with Mexico over the Texans right to leave Mexico and become part to the United States (I know it's much more complicated than that, but I doubt you want me to expound on every war America's ever been in), I would say we lost it sometime around the American Civil War era...after all, that's the point at which fighting what we saw as injustice made us "The Man", coming down on people who honestly thought that they were fighting tyranny as well. Since then we've only fought injustice with a certain level of reluctance...until recently when we've been willfully ignoring it all together and fighting wars that just don't make any damn sense because "Trying to justify my actions by the principles we all share on some level makes my brain feel funny, but hey, we gotta shoot somethin right?!".
The truth is, of course, much more complicated than that, and it has to do with how our culture has changed in recent decades and blah blah blah, you don't really care about this, do you?
I'm not saying that we as a people don't still feel the need to fight injustice, we most certainly do, and we do it regularly (though perhaps not as often or as effectively as we should) but our country, as a whole, no longer seems to represent that idea. The American flag is no longer a symbol to rally behind, but as a symbol of modern imperialism and injustice to be fought against. We have become the very embodiment of "The Man". That's fine for the so called "Baby Boomer" generation, but I think we can do better now, I think we WANT to do better, I think that we, as a society, now want to fight injustice in the world, even if it comes from us.
A surprising example of this is Anonymous. Now, Anonymous is a rather complex entity that embodies more of a concept than an actual group of people, but I really don't want to get into that right now...love 'em or hate 'em, no one can deny that Anonymous fights what it perceives as injustice in the world, even against it's self...it's also quite possibly the worlds greatest troll.... After Anonymous was accused of attacking PSN, thus causing collateral damage to everyday people, it had something of a moment of reflection, where it was simultaneously weighing the need for lulz and the need to do right by the innocent and not become that which they fought. The results of that reflection remain to be seen for the most part, but the fact that this even occurred to Anonymous is a positive thing.
So basically what I'm saying is: The ideals that America was founded on are universal, we all want each other to live happy, productive lives, free from injustice and inequality (unless you're a sociopath I guess...). Why then do we hesitate? Why then do we allow ourselves to be pandered to, all the while most of us being aware that we are being fed bread and circuses and bull s**t. Yet we accept it, or at least do noting to stop it...why?
TL;DR:
1) I'm a rambler..I ramble, sorry bout that...
2) Keep in mind that I DO love this country (which I will get to in a min), and it is because of this love that I criticize it, I'm trying to be constructive, not destructive in my criticism.
Like I said, I love this country. To be specific I love the idea this country was founded on: fighting what we perceive as injustice. Now, that injustice may seem a little ridiculous to us today, in the case of the American Revolution (the American Revolution and the American War for Independence weren't really the same thing for the record) we were largely fighting for the right to smuggle goods across the border because we didn't want to pay a tax for a debt which we helped to accrue without a say in how we were taxed...also the injustice of not being able to discriminate against Catholics...but that's beside the point (After all we can't really expect to apply our morals and values to a society which existed 250 years ago and expect them to come up smelling like roses). The point shouldn't be who's values were more justified by today's standards, or even who was really right or who was wrong in the end, the point is that they saw these things as injustices which needed to be corrected.
America's story isn't that special, we certainly aren't the only country born out of the need to fight injustice, but this IS our history, this is the thread that first tied us together as a people.
I feel as though we have largely lost that rebel, fight injustice no matter the cost, attitude. We still had it during the Monroe administration when we claimed the right to protect countries on our side of the world from the much more powerful and wealthy European countries. We still had it when we literally went to war with Mexico over the Texans right to leave Mexico and become part to the United States (I know it's much more complicated than that, but I doubt you want me to expound on every war America's ever been in), I would say we lost it sometime around the American Civil War era...after all, that's the point at which fighting what we saw as injustice made us "The Man", coming down on people who honestly thought that they were fighting tyranny as well. Since then we've only fought injustice with a certain level of reluctance...until recently when we've been willfully ignoring it all together and fighting wars that just don't make any damn sense because "Trying to justify my actions by the principles we all share on some level makes my brain feel funny, but hey, we gotta shoot somethin right?!".
The truth is, of course, much more complicated than that, and it has to do with how our culture has changed in recent decades and blah blah blah, you don't really care about this, do you?
I'm not saying that we as a people don't still feel the need to fight injustice, we most certainly do, and we do it regularly (though perhaps not as often or as effectively as we should) but our country, as a whole, no longer seems to represent that idea. The American flag is no longer a symbol to rally behind, but as a symbol of modern imperialism and injustice to be fought against. We have become the very embodiment of "The Man". That's fine for the so called "Baby Boomer" generation, but I think we can do better now, I think we WANT to do better, I think that we, as a society, now want to fight injustice in the world, even if it comes from us.
A surprising example of this is Anonymous. Now, Anonymous is a rather complex entity that embodies more of a concept than an actual group of people, but I really don't want to get into that right now...love 'em or hate 'em, no one can deny that Anonymous fights what it perceives as injustice in the world, even against it's self...it's also quite possibly the worlds greatest troll.... After Anonymous was accused of attacking PSN, thus causing collateral damage to everyday people, it had something of a moment of reflection, where it was simultaneously weighing the need for lulz and the need to do right by the innocent and not become that which they fought. The results of that reflection remain to be seen for the most part, but the fact that this even occurred to Anonymous is a positive thing.
So basically what I'm saying is: The ideals that America was founded on are universal, we all want each other to live happy, productive lives, free from injustice and inequality (unless you're a sociopath I guess...). Why then do we hesitate? Why then do we allow ourselves to be pandered to, all the while most of us being aware that we are being fed bread and circuses and bull s**t. Yet we accept it, or at least do noting to stop it...why?
TL;DR:
