A quick mid year Rant
A quick word today, the day after Independence Day. I’ve just started to read “Vietnam: A
History” by Stanley Karnow. I expect it
will be a good book, akin to the Best and Brightest by Halberstam, another good
book.
For some reason, I only have made it to page 11 when the
word “Exceptionalism” reared its ugly head.
Nothing like notions of grandeur to make a person…a nation feel
invincible, to do things and worry about the consequences later.
I have a post that will probably not go up until the Fall, that
I’ve been thinking about for at least a year, formulating it in my mind. Putting things to paper is a much more
detailed process than simply thinking about something. Thinking about something is much more
direct, “as the crow flies”, but putting it to paper is never as direct nor as
quick. It is time consuming.
As a boy and then as a young man I came across the concept
of Exceptionalism and Manifest Destiny.
The secret in America’s sauce you might say. Oh well.
Whatever. I don’t hear too much
about this in America today. For 3 days
now, in this “great country” of ours, I’ve yet been able to get online to read,
or to browse, or to conduct business.
Apparently AT&T has a server down.
So I’m told. I’m past
complaining how such a country vast in resources can have such slow, backward access
to the internet.
It does though again remind me of the ugly face of
capitalism….and the infinite patience of Government to do nothing.
The ridiculousness of Exceptionalism and Manifest Destiny
tends to lose its sheen in moments like these.
Yet there is unquestionably a strong, albeit older strand
within American Society, perhaps one quarter of the country, that still
believes in such mysticism. It drives
our faith, our belief that things here will indeed get better…well because
America is “special”. Maybe this strand of The People is older…wiser…I
dunno. Maybe it’s they just don’t use
the Internet.
A country full of cashiers, hole diggers, waitresses and gas
stations. A McDonald’s on every corner. A country where more and more of the “good
jobs”(read IT), are taken by people who speak English with a strong
accent.
Will they too drink the koolaid of Exceptionalism and Manifest Destiny?
Meanwhile another place 8000 miles away lives and breathes
the same thing. It drinks the same damn
koolaid. A fire breathing media that
can’t wait to “overrun” not only Japan but the whole South China Sea…well
because not only is it “ours”, but “always has been”. And that’s really that.
I find it ironic that despite the difference in Age and
Culture between the two Monolithic Societies of the 21st Century, that
it is China that seems “vibrant” and “young”, while America seems “old” and
“reluctant”. Lost if you will. Like an old man needing to be helped across
the street by a Boy Scout.
It is a simple fact of life that two bullies cannot occupy
the same street. One needs to either
give way or move on. With two
civilizations so totally different there can only be one King of the Hill. Accommodation is not a realistic option. No one ever thinks of that until the fight is
over. It’s just human nature. But
the Town Crier we call Modern Media eliminates any chance for either retreat or
subtlety, from either side, hence the whole town cum planet is watching. Negotiation goes out the window.
As long as both countries have a strain of its own people
believing so vociferously in its own sense of historical entitlement, than it
comes down to nothing but irresistible force meets immovable object.
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