- As defined by “The Devil's Dictionary” - Ambrose Bierce
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- 'PATRIOT, n.
- One to whom the interests of a part seem superior to those of the whole. The dupe of statesmen and the tool of conquerors.'
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Of course, one might think it insane to quote anything from a book called “The Devil's Dictionary” and try to put sincerity to it, as we would those sentiments that ring so true when we hustle out to buy the most cliché of materialistic and worn out gifts on days like that of Saint Valentine or one of my personal favorites, the third anniversary diamond ring. Is that, by chance, the third anniversary of the day the little villager's mom got raped by the rebel soldier whose war was funded by the blood diamonds you bought? Yeah. That's what I call sentiment. Look for certified “conflict free” diamonds. www.brilliantearth.com is a good place to start. Now back to the patriotism. I grew up in the countryside of a beautiful small town in upstate New York. Mom and Dad were working class and they were my heroes. Proud Americans. Gotta love em. Dad loved watching the baseball games and cheering for the underdog (so, no – he never rooted for the Yankees...). Mom loved Halloween, trips to Vermont and my ever so perfect all-american fiance. In fact, looking back, I think Mom picked her and let me think I did. She did really good on that one. She did good on most things. The two things that stick out most in my life, things which I have to question when it comes to my beloved late parents...
- 1) Why do you have to earn respect? Shouldn't you be respectful
to everyone until they earn otherwise? I just never got the earning
it part.
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2) What is it about being a proud patriot? Am I a better person
because of the geographical location of my birth?
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The first one I no longer wrestle with. I just be as respectful as
possible to everyone and hope they return the favor. When they
don't, I find I don't usually lose much sleep over it anyway. The
latter, on the other hand, I wrestle with greatly. I have spent a
lifetime telling people “The American system has its flaws, but
it's the best anywhere...” Is it? I've never lived in another
country to be honest. I hear Sweden, Norway and Australia have it
pretty good. I hear Germany has a socialized medical healthcare
system that isn't profit driven and yet the best doctors in the
world stay and work there. I hear all over Europe, they have an
educational system in which the money allocated for education by the
governments follows the students. Your student goes to a school that
doesn't perform well? You now have the ability to send them to a
better one and the new school will not be burdened by more students,
whereas the schools that cannot pull up to speed will fade out in to
nothingness. Kind of like capitalism when you think about it.
No one should forget the brave souls who fought to give us the
freedom we have. Not ever. I think, by the same token, no one should
use it as a crutch to lean on nor a blindfold to wear. Those men who
died fighting England, France, Germany or at times even each other
did not do so in vain, at least I do not believe so.
They also did not die so that you, as an American, could sit on
your fat lazy ass touting the greatness of our nation when we now
live in a shrinking world that requires us to think on a bit of a
broader scale. Simple ignorance will no longer suffice in lieu of an
excuse for phrases like “If you're going to be in America, learn
to speak English...” It's been said before, but I'm pretty sure
the Wampanoag, Cherokee and Hopi tribes all spoke something other
than English, at least until we stole their land and murdered their
families and forced the forgiving, humble and gentle values of the
Christian bible so far down their throat that they could either
repeat it word for word or choke trying to do otherwise. I can't
actually find a percentage, but many of the European settlers also
spoke no English then either. Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, French,
German. Not that you have any of that blood in you, of course,
right?
For the record, stating that it would be OK to 'wipe those
camel-jockeys off the face of the map' is not much better than
saying “I'm going to kill an American dog in the name of Allah!”
Perhaps, when you get down to it, it's pretty much the same. Maybe
the only difference lies in the set of core values instilled upon
each of us as human beings. Maybe, just maybe, that wouldn't depend
as much on geography if the lines we drew across the landscape
changed just a little bit – perhaps even disappeared. If nothing
else, at least maps would be cheaper to print.
What would happen if there were no more countries? Well, mass chaos
would ensure initially, it would take a long time to phase something
like that in. There would be massive power struggles. Nationalists
from around the globe would rise up to defend the imaginary lines
that they believe make them who they are. Millions would die. It
wouldn't be pretty, of this I am sure.
What if we could peaceably get the entire world to knock down
border gates and declare themselves... just people? Would the world
be a better place? With such wide margins in global economies, would
it wipe out our entire financial structure globally to equalize
minimum wage across the entire world? Everyone getting a fair and
livable wage? Wal-Mart would go out of business. So would half of
the technology companies in the world. Things would get expensive
for whatever form of government was responsible for roads if every
island with a population of 50 got it's own half-billion dollar
bridge. This would require millions of minds working together, just
to engineer the whole thing. Economists, teachers, technology
professionals. Oh, goodness. Wait. I'm sorry. I've created jobs.
Oops.
It would take a while to accomplish all of this. There would be
massive land rushes. People would be trying to gobble up real estate
left and right. Developments would go up. Uh oh. Massive
construction of residential housing. Construction jobs.
Don't get me wrong. This is definitely not a peaches n cream
scenario. In fact, as I stated earlier, mass chaos would ensue.
Mostly from guys named Vlad and George declaring that this isn't
right and that their father's never would have let such a thing
happen. It is, however, a reality. It's happening every day. If you
don't see it, you're just not paying close enough attention.
Remember 20 years ago when Uncle Art (or whatever philosophical
relative you had) told you that in 20 years, everything would be run
by computers and people wouldn't remember how to function without
them? It was pretty much already there. Again, pay more attention.
Remember when they told you someday all you would have to do is take
a pill and sleep your life away? No further comment should be
necessary. Remember when people were born not knowing what the
internet was? Your kids will never know that. A time when a long
distance call existed? Does it seem like travel, aside from
terrorist checking of shoes in airports, has become much easier and
much more widely used? Teenagers are darting from country to country
with no parents by their side while still in high school.
It's
happening. The world is getting smaller. So why can't we wrap our
minds around an idea in which things are smaller?
I don't have the rest of my marriage, which I would suspect would
be greatly shortened if I continued this inasmuch, to explain the
differences between qualitative and quantitative attributes. I do
want those of you reading this to wake up tomorrow and think,
“Someday, my children won't know color from country or continent
from coastline, other than what their history books tell them used
to define peoples' ideals. Someday, my children will be able to go
to Paris, Moscow, Sydney or Beijing and the same driver's license
will be good everywhere. They will be a citizen of Earth.”
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