Moments of Permanence - Idly

From: willow Date: February 19th, 2012 02:02 pm (UTC) (Link)

Something I've run into, is saying I love the country of my birth, and the countries I hold natural citizenship in more than the USA. Just love. Not saying they're better than the USA, but I love them more.

And many times the response I or others get, is that by not loving the USA more I am being ungrateful at the chance of living here. Some even think it means I don't deserve to live here anymore.

So, having strong positive feelings about one's non USA homeland, whether a sense of nationalistic pride or ethnic pride etc; is damn near a declaration of personal war. I've begun to ponder if it's the Imperial mindset. I do remember how the press and random people treated now First Lady Michelle Obam when she said her husband being able to run for President was the 1st time she'd been proud of her country. The kick out from that? Huuuuge.

The USA, to me, has been mentally stuck in a three year period post WW2, when everyone was supposed to love and admire it and grovel before it and absolutely forget they didn't give a DAMN about the Holocaust and what was happening in Europe, until Pearl Harbour. And also forget Japanese Internment Camps, Nagasaki and Hiroshima, and the fact that blacks were mainly allowed into active military service because things were more perilous than they'd thought - when they weren't involved and could sneer at the Europeans struggling in the fight, and also, they didn't want Hitler to point at them and laugh at their talk about 'freedoms'.

It's a selective idolatry and I've found myself thinking that saying you don't love the USA as much / or that you think your country is better? Is akin in their eyes to saying you don't believe in G-d to a devoutly religious person (while also spitting in their eye).

(Reply)