Note: I was AFK yesterday and this unable to post. I figured I post what I wrote yesterday before I write tonight…
A long time ago, back when Rand was a name you’d expect to find in a Jeremy Piven comedy and not in a serious contender for the presidency, we used to be a nation that could make fun of itself. I remember those days. I remember them being as recent as the birth of ‘The Apprentice’ as opposed to a time where that man was leading the polls for the presidency. This time before feels like nostalgia to me, solely because I was a different person then. I was young enough to still capture the idea that America the Beautiful was a country that wanted to make the world a better place and not a country that wanted to give the world more profitable corporate structures. I guess I’ve become jaded or perhaps even more of a realist about the capitalist system.
Here’s a fact: we are a country that puts itself above all else. While we have our flaws and our problems they are best not spoken about by other countries because we will not tolerate anyone talking down to us. We are a nation that preaches freedom of religion—so long as your religion doesn’t seem to have a fundamental problem with us (in which case you will get bombed by unmanned orbital deathstalkers and then we will arm your opposers and leave it to them to light you up).
We are a country that expects to rule the world both economically and militarily and, of course, we do. This is the gift of the United States—a country that has the power and audacity to call itself America, ignoring the multitude of foreign nations attached to the continents.
Here is the kicker: I say such things about the nation not because I hate it, but because I love it and with all things I love, I want to be honest about who and what they are. For all of these flaws I illustrate, for all of the caricatures of ourself that we perpetrate we are still an incredible nation of people who give so much to this reality and always will.