Exceptional
An op-ed piece written by William T. Vollmann and published in today's Los Angeles Times did more to wake me up than the weak warm brown water that I laughingly refer to as coffee did. Here's a longish quote from this rather interesting bit of analysis.
We are Americans, and so until recently, we knew that we were the best. Because so many people wanted to be us, we could act as we pleased — and we did, because we were the Great Exception; we were America the Blessed. Hence our complacent belief, so long borne out by the facts, that American movies and American brands would always sell. Hence also our comforting faith that the Kyoto Protocol did not apply to us, so that we could spew out all the greenhouse gases we liked, and use a pig's share of the world's resources. (Just this week, I learned of the U.S.' new plan for energy independence: coal plants, subsidized for the next 25 years.)
Being America the Perfect, we invented the doctrine, even before 9/11, that we could seize war criminals in any part of the globe and whisk them off to The Hague. Of course, we insisted that should we ever commit war crimes, we would remain immune to prosecution in that court. Well, after all, how could Americans do any wrong?
Our current administration of torturers (this word sounds so shrill, so preposterous in relation to the America I believe in, that I have to remind myself over and over that it is literally accurate, that this president and his two attorneys general have quite literally legalized torture) has gone further in this direction than I ever could have imagined. President Bush's modus operandi is this: Bull your way ahead. If you meet obstacles, overcome them with arrogant bluster. If this fails, proceed to vicious, mendacious brutality.
I wish I could blame him alone for the degradation of the America I loved. Unfortunately, Americans not only voted for this man, but after he proved himself to be a criminal, they reelected him. As one of my friends replied when I asked why we should attack Iraq when Iraq had done nothing to us: "Why not attack Iraq?"
We were Americans, you see. Why not do whatever suited our whims?
Unfortunately, even exceptional people have to face the consequences of their foolish actions, and we seem to be rapidly approaching that day of reckoning. Whether at the pump or at the grocery check stand, the price of gasoline is directly affecting most American budgets and the economy at large. The multi-trillion dollar misadventure in Iraq has weakened our military and caused the deaths and maiming of tens of thousands of American troops, and has ruined whatever reputation we had in the Middle East. Our flagrant wastefulness has deepened the global warming crisis for the entire world, and it is becoming clear that, exceptional or not, we will be as affected as every other nation. Yet, we do little, if anything, to stop the madness of the current criminal regime.
The irony is that now, when we need to draw on those qualities that made us exceptional as a nation, we seem to be stuck in a kind of passivity. This does not bode well for us.
We are Americans, and so until recently, we knew that we were the best. Because so many people wanted to be us, we could act as we pleased — and we did, because we were the Great Exception; we were America the Blessed. Hence our complacent belief, so long borne out by the facts, that American movies and American brands would always sell. Hence also our comforting faith that the Kyoto Protocol did not apply to us, so that we could spew out all the greenhouse gases we liked, and use a pig's share of the world's resources. (Just this week, I learned of the U.S.' new plan for energy independence: coal plants, subsidized for the next 25 years.)
Being America the Perfect, we invented the doctrine, even before 9/11, that we could seize war criminals in any part of the globe and whisk them off to The Hague. Of course, we insisted that should we ever commit war crimes, we would remain immune to prosecution in that court. Well, after all, how could Americans do any wrong?
Our current administration of torturers (this word sounds so shrill, so preposterous in relation to the America I believe in, that I have to remind myself over and over that it is literally accurate, that this president and his two attorneys general have quite literally legalized torture) has gone further in this direction than I ever could have imagined. President Bush's modus operandi is this: Bull your way ahead. If you meet obstacles, overcome them with arrogant bluster. If this fails, proceed to vicious, mendacious brutality.
I wish I could blame him alone for the degradation of the America I loved. Unfortunately, Americans not only voted for this man, but after he proved himself to be a criminal, they reelected him. As one of my friends replied when I asked why we should attack Iraq when Iraq had done nothing to us: "Why not attack Iraq?"
We were Americans, you see. Why not do whatever suited our whims?
Unfortunately, even exceptional people have to face the consequences of their foolish actions, and we seem to be rapidly approaching that day of reckoning. Whether at the pump or at the grocery check stand, the price of gasoline is directly affecting most American budgets and the economy at large. The multi-trillion dollar misadventure in Iraq has weakened our military and caused the deaths and maiming of tens of thousands of American troops, and has ruined whatever reputation we had in the Middle East. Our flagrant wastefulness has deepened the global warming crisis for the entire world, and it is becoming clear that, exceptional or not, we will be as affected as every other nation. Yet, we do little, if anything, to stop the madness of the current criminal regime.
The irony is that now, when we need to draw on those qualities that made us exceptional as a nation, we seem to be stuck in a kind of passivity. This does not bode well for us.
posted by Diane at 4:39 AM
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