4th of July and other historical inaccuracies
2003-07-05 @ 6:45 p.m.

Thought of the Day:

Okay, bear with me, I'm going to muddle around in this entry and try to work out what it is about the 4th that cheeses me off so. Now entering the Sarah Zone, where things don't make sense to begin with, the thought process is chaotic, and nothing much gets resolved.

All right - I love America. Well, maybe not love. I like living here most of the time, I've got a helluva lot of respect for the ideas behind it and the men who had the chutzpa to found it, and I think we have one of the better governmental systems. So, let's, for the sake of saving time, let's call me a "pro-American". The word "patriot" is much too loaded and it's been bandied about so often that it holds little real (by which I mean precise) meaning for me. My pro-American sentiments, however, have not blinded me to what's wrong with, well, everything: Iraq and their errant WMDs, undemocratic (and I use that word in a very precise way) election processes, the Patriot Act (for any government screeners scanning this for potential threats: You fascist pig bastards; but, hey, you've got job security - good for you), the general apathy/ignorance/ malaise of the public, personality politics, and etc etc etc. So, for the sake of precision (which is becoming a theme, blame it on the education), let's call me a rational pro-American. I realize the faults and limitations of the system but have faith (or something of the like) in it anyway. I might not like what those in charge are doing in the country's name or for the sake of "patriotism" but that doesn't mean I think we should chuck the whole system or that I think any less of the system - just that things need to be fixed, that there's room for adaptation if not evolution, that sane responses can be found for catastrophic problems. It's folly to support something blindly, to keep trotting down the same path, to ignore or gloss over problems when it's obvious that things need to change out of block-headed loyalty to an outmoded conditioned response or tradition.

Ah. There it is.

The blind, vulgar, mindless flag waving. The abandonment of reasoned discourse in favor of bright lights, loud noises, and barbecue. A posthumous fuck you to a monarchy that no longer exists in any real sense and has been, for the last 150 years or so, one of our closest allies. Not that we don't need the bread and circuses once in a while, not that we don't deserve to be proud of what the founders accomplished, not that I don't enjoy the barbecue and fireworks (I could do with out the noise, however). It just seems to me that every day, every political event is becoming more like the Fourth: more flash, less substance, more bread and circuses for the masses, the diminishment of reasoned patriotism.

I suppose this makes me cynical if not some sort of pinko intellectual, or what ever they're calling us now. The worst part is that there's no one to blame. It didn't start with G.W. Bush, or even Reagan. You can't trace it back to either political party. Maybe it's an inherrent property of rule by the masses - apathy, degeneration. No amount of partisan mucking about, compassionate conservatism, or New Leftism is going to fix it. Neither is anyone else. And now I've gone and got up on a soapbox. I hate when I do that. Sorry - I guess what I'm really trying to say here is that I hate saurkraut. Or, more precisely, I intensly dislike people that follow a course of action based on gut instinct - such as patriotism in a time of adversity - with out doing the necessary intellectual leg work to back up their convictions.

And that's why the 4th cheeses me off. Mostly. I think.

before ~ after

Failing Miserably - 2004-10-08
So Not Dead/Catching Up - 2004-09-20
Murphy's Law - 2,629,163,298, Sarah - 2 - 2004-08-23
Listmainia! continues - 2004-08-04
Continuing the list - 2004-08-02