Military

I read this very good article yesterday at Counterpunch:
Patriotism: Signs of Saturation
by JAMES ROTHENBERG
Snip:

On one of the flights (South West Airlines) there were some young, uniformed military personnel. I had noticed in the pre-flight waiting area a young man and woman, both in camouflage fatigues, she with a large backpack. As we inched to the gate at the end of one leg, an attendant solemnly requested that all passengers remain seated while these – in rough paraphrase – brave men and women who have just been deployed overseas and will be fighting on our behalf so that we may remain free have the honor of exiting first. This request was greeted by some polite applause, and then a woman began singing God Bless America. Several seemed to join her but it quickly died out. And then the troops exited to more applause.............A scene like this (familiar to many readers) renders with clarity the excellent selling job the state has done to its “appendages” in pursuance of its power arrangements. It is at once maddening, sad, and tragic.

Similar occasions do become familiar after a time in the USA. Just last weekend, watching the Kennedy Center Honors show on TV, as Garth Brooks paid tribute to Billy Joel one of the honorees, by singing Joel's song Goodnight Saigon - singing it very well too - of course an opportunity like that could not be left alone could it? Onto the stage marched a variety of military and veteran personnel. The audience rose to their feet, all was hallowed, it was as though the Messiah had entered the building. I tried to reduce my angry yell to a subdued complaint as husband shrugged his shoulders.

Yesterday glancing around Twitter I noticed a hashtag title "#AmericanvBritish", wondered what it was all about. It was mostly silly stuff about comedy or sport or celebrities, but among the "tweets" I found this:

Said by an American soldier after a tour in Iraq.

Notwithstanding my dislike of anything militaristic and overtly patriotic, I had to swallow a lump in my throat as I read it. As I recall, in the UK, people do not revere their military lads and lasses in anything comparable to the way people of the USA idolise theirs.
"Just saying"... as they say.

Exceptionally Exceptional in its Exceptionalism?

Exceptionalism = The theory or belief that something, especially a nation, does not conform to a pattern or norm.(Free Dictionary).

Glenn Greenwald's piece in The UK's Guardian yesterday:
The premises and purposes of American exceptionalism ~ :That the US is objectively "the greatest country ever to exist", is as irrational as it is destructive, yet it maintains the status of orthodoxy, caused a few hackles to rise among the four long pages of commentary there. I didn't do a count but suspect that, on balance, more commenters were in agreement with Mr Greenwald's point of view than rabidly against it , but there were accusations of anti-Americanism slung around from an opposing faction.

I was happy to note that Mr Greenwald mentioned one of my American heroes, Prof. Cornel West:

Last week, the Princeton professor Cornel West denounced Presidents Nixon, Bush and Obama as "war criminals", saying that "they have killed innocent people in the name of the struggle for freedom, but they're suspending the law, very much like Wall Street criminals". West specifically cited Obama's covert drone wars and killing of innocent people, including children. What West was doing there was rather straightforward: applying the same legal and moral rules to US aggression has he applies to other countries and which the US applies to non-friendly, disobedient regimes.

In other words, West did exactly that which is most scorned and taboo in DC policy circles. And thus he had to be attacked, belittled and dismissed as irrelevant.

My own 2011 post on Prof. West is at Dr Cornel West Speaks Out.

As for the myth of American exceptionalism - is that a myth? I think it has always been more propaganda than anything else: salesmanship on a mega-scale, aimed both inward to its captive audience of citizens and outward to anyone on the rest of planet Earth who'd listen. Salesmen are to be avoided, people who accept their spiel without independent investigation into their products are, at best careless and asking for all they'll get; at worst wide open to a descent into bigotry and hypocrisy.

The bitter, of course, goes with the sweet. To be an American is, unquestionably, to be the noblest, grandest, the proudest mammal that ever hoofed the verdure of God's green footstool. Often, in the black abysm of the night, the thought that I am one awakens me with a blast of trumpets, and I am thrown into a cold sweat by contemplation of the fact. I shall cherish it on the scaffold; it will console me in Hell. But there is no perfection under Heaven, so even an American has his small blemishes, his scarcely discernible weaknesses, his minute traces of vice and depravity.
H.L. Mencken

In fact, all that happened, back in the day, is that the USA took over the baton of exceptionalism and title of "The Greatest" after Britain's empire disintegrated, and other European empires were doing, or had already done, the same. Britain, in its turn, had remembered lessons learned long ago, from its time as part of Rome's empire - and so it went, and so it will go.....who'll be next? China? India?

Commenter "riggbeck" aptly quoted Percy Bysshe Shelley adding that, "Empires come and go, and they all think they're exceptional. Shelley had it right".

Ozymandias

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away".


While reading that poem this scene sprang to mind (from Planet of the Apes)~~

PATRIOTISM (again)

Patriotism, British astrologer C.E.O. Carter told us, in his Enclyclopedia of Psychological Astrology, is "a Cancerian trait and most patriots have this sign prominent". I'm not sure that works for me - I have natal Cancer rising, but don't consider myself patriotic, except with regard to the Earth as my home.

Mr. Carter went on to say

"But many who are so called, and who perhaps have even performed deeds of great value to their country, have been actuated by such motives as duty (Saturn), resistance to aggression (Mars) or love of freedom (Jupiter or Uranus). Astrology enables true patriotism to be detected, and at the same time, although few national horoscopes are obtainable, it may usually be judged that a person who has many planets strong in a certain sign will do well for himself when in a country ruled by that sign, and, in turn, may benefit the country."

A variety of astrological charts are used by astrologers to represent the birth of the USA, rising signs differ, but Sun in the sign of Cancer is a common factor. I'm not a fan of astrological charts for countries. I feel that a chart set up for an inanimate entity describes a moment in time - nothing more, a moment whose "imprint" has no flesh and blood upon which to imprint itself (except of course upon babies born at that precise moment). I'm not a professional astrologer though, and could be wrong. Assuming that I am wrong, if the USA's Sun sign is Cancer, and C.E.O Carter was right about the sign of Cancer being related to patriotism, then it's hardly surprising that the USA has always inspired its citizens with great patriotism.

What worries me, as a comparative newcomer, though now a naturalized US citizen, is that a good proportion of people in the USA can see no wrong in their country, or its political system, its militarism, the decisions of its Supreme Court, and interpretation of the Constitution. They see their own attitudes as patriotism, and anyone disagreeing or questioning these things as "unpatriotic".

C.E.O. Carter's assessment of patriotism may have been correct for his own time, and for his own country (Britain). We now live in different times, are considering a different country, with different needs. I'd say the astrological signature for patriotism nowadays would have to include some good Mercury and/or Virgo aspects to enable clear, critical thinking, and a little bit of forward-looking Uranus/Aquarius to enable us as citizens of the world, rather than of any particular country. Oh - and what about compassion? Now that's an element of which this country, and its administration, and the opposition, are in serious need right now. Compassion has been thrown out in exchange for wealth, greed and "I'm not prepared to pay for "their" health care, "their kids" education, or to put out a fire when "their home is burning down, because they didn't PAY!"

I wish America could see itself as part of the wider world instead of a large self-contained world of its own - best of all worlds, which can do no wrong. The plea "God Bless America", to my ears is all wrong! "God Bless the World" is the way forward now, the only way, in fact. If the sensation or emotion we call patriotism were to be be re-jigged, re-aligned to encompass the planet and all its peoples, we might see a flicker of hope for the future of this sad and sick old world.

"I have no country to fight for; my country is the earth, and I am a citizen of the world." (Eugene V. Debs)

(Above is a lightly edited and updated version of a post first published in 2007. "Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose")

COMMENTS FROM OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2007 by two natural born Americans:

anyjazz said...
Whether it is called "Patriotism" or something else, it seems there must be some common thread that holds a nation or macro community together. Whether it is a common goal, a common pride or a common defense, there is a place for some element to create a bond.

In a country the size of America, "patriotism" seems the simplest way to give people a common thread. There are simply too many religions, cults, languages, customs, races, climates and cultures in America to find much of a common thread in any of these. There must be some bonding thread. In times of national crisis, there must be something that sets a people together as an entity. Humans as a whole seem to function best when there is a strength and unity of numbers.

Abraham Lincoln who was most fearful of some states separating from the Union said, "A house divided against itself cannot stand." But Mr. Lincoln makes no allusion to blindly following the current leadership. He speaks of cultivating and maintaining a common bond that will sustain a nation. Current leadership appears to say the opposite with phrasing like "if you are not with me you are against me."

Today, easily accessible transportation and communication have drawn close the people of once distant countries. Nations must become neighbors with a common thread of world patriotism.

Twilight said...
Yes, Anyjazz, I appreciate your point about a vast country like the USA needing some sense of community. What I find worrying is the inability by some elments of society to see any wrong in what goes on in their country or in their name. The "my country right or wrong" attitude. What they see as loyalty is just lack of critical thinking in my book.I agree 100% with your last paragraph.

The Next President of The United States said...
As with so many statements people quote as support for the argument, "my country right or wrong" is only part of the content from the original quote by Carl Schurz, who was a German revolutionary, a Union Army general in the Civil War, a Sec. of the Interior after the war and a 19th century reformer.

The full quote: "Our country right or wrong. When right, to be kept right; when wrong, to be put right." Kinda puts a different slant on image the super-patriots like to conjure up, doesn't it? Schurz is actually an interesting fellow, whose thoughts on Americanism aren't anything like those of some who constantly misuse his quote.

Twilight said...
I didn't know that - thanks TNPOTUS. The sad thing is though, even if 'they' managed to quote the whole quotation accurately, 'they' still wouldn't recognise if and when their country was "in the wrong". Blind, blinkered and brainwashed - I doubt there's any cure for it. :-(

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Patriotism

Patriotism, astrologer C.E.O. Carter told us, in his Enclyclopedia of Psychological Astrology, is "a Cancerian trait and most patriots have this sign prominent". I'm not sure that works for me - I have natal Cancer rising, but don't consider myself patriotic - except in regard to the Earth.

He goes on to say "But many who are so called, and who perhaps have even performed deeds of great value to their country, have been actuated by such motives as duty (Saturn), resistance to aggression (Mars) or love of freedom (Jupiter or Uranus). Astrology enables true patriotism to be detected, and at the same time, although few national horoscopes are obtainable, it may usually be judged that a person who has many planets strong in a certain sign will do well for himself when in a country ruled by that sign, and, in turn, may benefit the country."

A variety of astrological charts are used by astrologers to represent the birth of the USA, rising signs differ, but I think that the Sun always lies in the sign of Cancer. I'm not a fan of astrological charts for countries. I feel that a chart set up for an inanimate entity describes a moment in time - nothing more, a moment whose "imprint" has no flesh and blood upon which to imprint itself (except of course upon babies born at that precise moment). I'm not a professional astrologer though, and am probably wrong. Assuming that I am wrong, if the USA's Sun sign is Cancer, and C.E.O Carter was right about the sign of Cancer being related to patriotism, then it's hardly surprising that the USA has always inspired its citizens with great patriotism.

What worries me a lot, as an alien here, is that a good proportion of people in the USA can see no wrong in their country. They see this as patriotism. There's also, thankfully, a growing group of more enlightened folk who see things as they actually are, accept that there are faults, and work towards change and progress. In my book, these are the true patriots.

Last week, at a local concert, a singer (well known country star) performed a self-penned song of praise for America and Americans, written after he'd felt outrage about a news article seen while doing a gig in the north-east. The article in question had criticised current conditions in the USA, and the US administration. At the end of the song the whole audience stood and cheered. If that song had been in protest about the war in Iraq, or likely bombing of Iran by the US, or about the poor in this country who have no social welfare safety net, or the children and families without access to health care.......or about what we are doing to the planet....or.....well, you get my drift....I'd have been on my feet cheering louder than anybody. It wasn't. I sat with my head bowed, feeling deeply disturbed.

When "America the Beautiful" was sung though, earlier the same evening, I had applauded along with everyone else, because the land is amazingly beautiful, it would be hard not to fall in love with certain parts of it.

C.E.O. Carter's assessment of patriotism may have been correct for his own time, and for his own country (Britain). We now live in different times, are considering a different country, with different needs. I'd say the astrological signature for patriotism nowadays would have to include some good Mercury and/or Virgo aspects to enable clear, critical thinking, and a little bit of forward-looking Uranus/Aquarius to enable us as citizens of the world, rather than of any particular country.

I wish America could see itself as part of the wider world instead of a large self-contained world of its own - best of all worlds, which can do no wrong. The plea "God Bless America", to my ears is all wrong! "God Bless the World" is the way forward now, the only way, in fact. If the sensation or emotion we call patriotism were to be be re-jigged, re-aligned to encompass the planet and all its peoples, we might see a flicker of hope for the future of this sad old world.

"The love of one's country is a splendid thing. But why should love stop at the border?" (Pablo Casals)

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