PROMETHEAN ANTAGONIST

By now, most have seen the many videos made by Europeans and others during the World Cup and their travels in America. In addition to praising everything from the general friendly attitude of Americans to the excessive size of food portions, several have noted the blatant dishonesty regarding the country by media and entertainment sources. Sources that warned that Americans were cold, selfish, and of course “greedy.” Americans themselves are critiqued daily by mainstream venues as heartless, shallow, and ignorant.

I wouldn’t include myself among those mocked as “flag-waving” jingoists but I think America is not only okay but in several regards ideal if one values their living conditions and opportunities for advancement. Of course all countries have their pockets of failure. It seems that many in media and “education” are obsessed with America’s flaws going so far as to regularly obsess on conditions a hundred-and-sixty years ago.

I hold the view that nations and cultures have something akin to a personality. The patterns in their behavior are not unlike what one finds in individuals. Some lash out at everyone. Some are notably kind. There are introverted and extroverted nations.

The individual, family, local community, and nation replicate like a fractal echoing through a social system. Some of us like the niche we occupy and cheer on “our team.” Some of us don’t. There are now many among us who despise the larger family we exist within and they want you to share their bitterness and disenchantments.

Patriotism is part of a complex dynamic that exists upon a spectrum from blind admiration to it’s opposite, utter disdain.

Degrees of patriotism are when you like the broader family you belong to. To like the nation one is a part of does not require allegiance to its governing structure. Government is only one part of a complex matrix of culture. Personally, I think it’s pretty stupid to “love”your government. We can appreciate the structure of a government and how much benefit citizens may experience under it but that’s quite different from honoring the values and character of a people, their history, and creative spirit.

The clowns of journalism have recently made a fuss over the President’s attempts to make America’s Smithsonian museum system depict the nation in a more positive light. Many exhibits sound like they were written by Marxist college professors. In their eyes there is nothing good to be said about America. It’s reasonable to occasionally dwell with misgivings on times in our life when we may not have have been our best but who makes it a point to view our entire existence as negative. “I/we suck” is hardly sane or reasonable yet, following the schemes of leftist bureaucrats and “educators,” America is one horrid enterprise of racism, violence, and autocratic cruelty. The irony is that, when measured to numerous historical precedents, the nation is one of the better examples of how well a people can live, materially and culturally.

Self-criticism is certainly warranted at times but the leftist industrial complex has made it their sole enterprise. The scheming paradox in the left’s hatred of America is that they can point their finger, conjuring a distance from their target of contempt while pretending to be self-effacing. “America and Americans are terrible. We’re terrible…but, I’m not one of them.”

I won’t even elaborate on the utter ridiculousness of expressing hatred for America based on one’s hatred for an elected president with a little over two years remaining in his term. “I hate America because…Orange man bad.”

There is such an abundance of videos now available by Europeans discovering for the first time the real America seldom shown by establishment media elites, that American citizens themselves may realize, “maybe we really aren’t that bad.”

Maybe some Americans will come to see that It’s a good thing to love one’s family, community, …and nation.

# posted by Promethean Antagonist @ 9:01 PM