America Is Not The Greatest Country in the World (the Newsroom, HBO)
The above clip is from HBO's new series, the Newsroom, starring Jeff Daniels as a cynical anchor of an all news network. He is speaking at a university with two other pundits (one liberal, one conservative) and was reluctant to give a serious viewpoint concerning political alignment. Although the first episode deals primarily with the aftermath of his tirade (which he blames on vertigo medication), there is something that just resonates with the audience and, of course, with the audience watching the show at home. It is not fair to just show the first half and leave out his lamenting yet hopeful call for true American greatness. As Sorkenesque as the writing may be, I felt the above clip summarized very much what I feel about the United States as it stands today....not just because I feel that America is not the greatest country in the world (I think it's on par with other first world nations) but because of that second half.
"Sure used to be. We stood up for what was right. We fought for moral reasons. We passed laws, struck down laws, for moral reasons. We waged wars on poverty, not poor people. We sacrificed. We cared about our neighbors. We put our money where our mouths were. And we never beat our chest.
We built great big things, made ungodly technological advances, explored the universe, cured diseases, and we cultivated the world’s greatest artists and the world’s greatest economy...We reached for the stars. Acted like men.
We aspired to intelligence. We didn’t belittle it—it didn’t make us feel inferior.
We didn’t identify ourselves by who we voted for in the last election, and we didn’t, oh, we didn’t scare so easy. Ha. We were able to be all these things and do all these things because we were informed. By great men. Men who were revered. First step in solving any problem is recognizing there is one. America is not the greatest country in the world anymore."
I am an American patriot.
A lot of people may disagree with this sentiment. "You don't think America is the greatest? How can you be patriotic?". That's easy. How do you love another person despite all of their inherit flaws? Or dark spots in their history? How can you love something even though sometimes things don't work out the way you want them? That, for me, is patriotism. It is not Nationalism, the blind idea that one's country is the best and can do no wrong (and for the record, EVERY nation has citizens with this belief. Please don't think I'm trying to ruffle my own countrymen's feathers with that statement). And yes, Will's statement is a little white-washed in and of itself and the kind of call to "a simpler time" that usually makes me roll my eyes...
...On the other hand, in school, I always loved hearing about the Great Depression and World War II. Not so much because I have a macabre fascination with history and suffering (which I do, but that's beside the point), but because things were done because they were right. I'm not talking about the mess that led us to the economic nightmare that was the Great Depression; I'm talking about the aftermath. The Civilian Conservation Corps, part of the New Deal, gave jobs to millions of out of work young men and helped make our country not only more beautiful but more accessible to every citizen. Relief and recovery were given to EVERYONE in need and no one batted an eye about helping those less fortunate because everyone was in the same boat together. Government handouts weren't considered a Marxist wet-dream so much as the government serving it's people. Then the United States became involved with World War II, and despite my personal disgust at isolationists for taking so long in getting involved, one must still feel a sense of pride at seeing those old posters for the war efforts. Victory gardens, rationing, reminding every citizen that they had something to sacrifice - by giving up these new found comforts that come with a booming economy, we were helping our boys overseas. World War II was fought with a clear directive, an almost too perfect "good vs. evil" (gray areas such as Stalin aside) scenario that literally everyone in the world could get behind. This is why I have a hard time taking people's word on supporting wars today and comparing it to the WWII war effort. Nothing is that clear cut, and motives are much more rooted and covered. Maybe it was then, too. I don't know.
What I do know, though, even if hindsight is 20-20; for every dark spot on our record as a nation we have spots of genuine goodness, integrity, and innovation. One of my favorite essayists, Sarah Vowell (really, check out her books, she's amazing) said in her book the Partly Cloudy Patriot that "The true American patriot is by definition skeptical of the government". I agree with this statement, as I find myself agreeing with many things Ms. Vowell has to say. However, it's not the government itself that I find myself being skeptical about. So many other things factor in.
People who believe others can't be true "Americans" because they disagree. People who twist the Constitution to support their own agenda, partisanship in general, historical white-washers, people who couldn't even pass an American history course yet are speaking and acting in office as though history does not repeat itself, people who don't understand how taxes work or what socialism really is. But if anything, today is not a day to dwell on all that. Not for me.
Today is a day when we celebrate the crazy notion that the will of the people are what make a nation and not the government; that the government must serve it's people. Today is the day where we remember that sometimes the underdogs who want it more (and yes, with help from a boatload of French guys), can come out on top. Today is the day where we get to pat ourselves on the back for all the amazing things America has accomplished, that Americans have contributed to the global community. Today should also be the day that we look to the future for upcoming accomplishments, to not say "remember when things were simpler?", but to instead say "what can we accomplish as a nation in the next 100 years?". Today is the kind of day where I hope that the promise of an easier, better tomorrow, where science is not feared but celebrated, where civil rights and basic freedoms can be upheld, and where every child really can follow their ambitions because they received the education and community support they needed. That, to me, is the American dream. I am fortunate to live in this country because it can change hats and become greater than it ever has before. I love this entire world dearly, but I will always be an American.
Tomorrow, let's not pat ourselves on the back anymore and instead start doing again. We live in a beautiful country filled with natural wonders and amazing cultural diversity found nowhere else on the planet. We should be celebrating the promise of our future every other day of the year. As citizens, we should all work on being kinder, being more open minded, and learn to really research what's going on around us. We shouldn't ride the coat-tails of our past success but instead observe and create.
So yeah, I don't think that the United States is the greatest country in the world. We are not the only ones who enjoy freedom. We're a little behind in accepting progress when we built our entire foundation on progress, but things can always change. My American dream is what I believe in, why I love this country because it CAN happen, and why I am an American patriot.
Although I agree with a lot of what Aaron Sork...oops, I mean Will McAvoy said, I think he still comes off as a bit of a old crank. However, HBO has been pretty big on shows with main characters who aren't necessarily entirely sympathetic (see Girls, Enlightened, every Game of Thrones character who isn't a Stark or the Mother of Dragons), but that is a point for another day.
ReplyDeleteI have to admit that I am not a big fan of going all out with flag-waving and chest thumping. Most of this is because I am sick of the idea of American Exceptionalism, which bugs the shit out of me. Yeah, we were kind of exceptional back in 1776 when the rest of the world was ruled by absolutist monarchs, theocracies, or constitutional monarchies dominated by aristocrats. But it is the 21st century. Most of what made us exceptional in a good way is now rather commonplace in most of the world, and what's left makes us look rather backwards. For us to be a nation that once again reaches it's potential, we have to accept that we aren't exceptional. As the clip said, once we recognize the problem, we can then go about fixing it.
The great thing about the United States is that we've never accepted that the state of today is necessarily the state of tomorrow. We're forever striving towards that more perfect union. Obviously we will never get there, but damn we've come a long way since those hot muggy June and July days in Philadelphia so long, long ago.
(Sorry I'm so late on making this comment, but I promised one, so here it is)