insight from some canadian who we'll call...

not too sure where to put this one... working on it for a little while now in between work and posting...

Plenty has been written in the papers linking yesterday's events to a sign of America in decline with parallels drawn to Rome's arrogance of power just before it slipped into its irreversible demise. But before we all dust off our mouldy American flags and torch them in the streets, and before we fire our AK47's in the air, dance and celebrate we should be careful about what we plan on giving up. America HAS preserved civilization as we know it in the 20th century. We need only to look to WWII and the Cold War as examples. On both these occasions, and by no coincidence, the U.S. was pitted against utopian inspired political systems that revealed themselves to be what all utopian projects turn out to be - hell on earth.

Why is this important?

As we know, Rome's collapse did not usher in an era of unending prosperity and enlightenment. The Dark Ages that followed were a time of brutality, xenophobia and superstition. Power and wealth was not re-distributed to the needy, but became even more concentrated and unachievable and operated in most cases without the rule of law. Obviously this is the 21st century but the lesson shouldn't be forgotten. There are many utopian inspired world views today competing for our attention (many of them propagated by the veterans of the "Battle of Seattle" etc.) and most of them share one common element - the identification of the U.S. as an obstacle to social progress.

How many experiments are we willing to endure before we realize that no society, like no person, can be perfect. For all of America's greatness it is also a place of extreme decadence. It has made terrible mistakes too. Yes, it will soon become general knowledge that Bin Laden was an American puppet that went bad. But unlike other societies, this dirty laundry will be hung out to dry for all of us to see and judge. Perhaps it won't be regarded as poorly. After all, Bin Laden was a tool used to fight communism - a system responsible for more death and brutality than any other the world has seen (although this point may be hard to find in the papers).

As a Canadian I always restrain myself from the natural tendency we have to criticize the U.S. I was amazed at how many people I heard say, when they saw the WTC coming

down, "I'm glad I'm Canadian". That lack of identification with a country that has preserved so much of what we regard as essential to being Canadian is sickening. We talk of human rights as if they actually exist outside the liberal inspired institutions that make them real. Institutions that are still defended by the U.S. in very real ways. In Canada we buried a "national hero" who among other claims to fame earned his stripes by cozying up to Castro in Cuba. We applauded this example of Canadian independence from U.S. foreign policy. While we stab our allies in the back we send comedy troupes to American cities to laugh at how they don't know who our PM is and how they think we live in igloos. We require beer commercials and a man named Joe to inspire what's left of our identity. How pathetically narcissistic can a nation be?

We have come a long way from our

glory days in WWII when we fought for the ideals we seem to think simply exist because we say they do.

As a politically neutered nation (as we are today but weren't before) it is natural for us to take the high road and criticize. When you don't have to share the burden of "action" then

criticism is easy. Unfortunately, as the leader of the free world, the U.S. carries the burden of "action" as well the envy and scorn that it attracts from those it has protected and still

protects. Action creates consequences. In most cases the choices that must be made do not fit our simple good v.s. evil conception of the world. This simple moral framework that

manages to reduce complex issues to their basest levels will obviously manage to make America's commitments appear equivalent to Iraq's. Most of us know better.

But hey man, that's just my opinion.

......great insight on your surroundings...........reks 1-63........

Originally posted by bigpoppa.k:

 

As a politically neutered nation (as we are today but weren't before) it is natural for us to take the high road and criticize. When you don't have to share the burden of "action" then

criticism is easy. Unfortunately, as the leader of the free world, the U.S. carries the burden of "action" as well the envy and scorn that it attracts from those it has protected and still

protects. Action creates consequences. In most cases the choices that must be made do not fit our simple good v.s. evil conception of the world. This simple moral framework that

manages to reduce complex issues to their basest levels will obviously manage to make America's commitments appear equivalent to Iraq's. Most of us know better.

 

But hey man, that's just my opinion.

true, true.

^i'll 2nd that.

good read.

[This message has been edited by freddy kreuger (edited 09-13-2001).]

i'll just keep it to my own threads..

thought this was intersting... http://mailbits.com/goto/pride

Here here. Very well written.

like i said the first time i read this, good post.

[This message has been edited by T.T Boy (edited 09-14-2001).]

Read this again, and it deserves another bump. very thoughtful and well-put.

I don't care what anyone says...-you canadians are alright!

mr.mac