Date: Mon, 3 Mar 2003 08:12:40 -0500 (EST) From: dan combs <dcombs-AT-bloomington.in.us> Subject: RE: amerikan hegemony On Mon, 3 Mar 2003, Dave Coull wrote: > > No, not recently. However, I do know that somewhere > between a million and two million people (nobody > is exactly sure) demonstrated in London against war > recently. I do know that if anybody suggested that > English schoolchildren should be required to recite > a "pledge of allegiance to the flag" every day, > they would be laughed at as some sort of lunatic. > And yet I also know that precisely that act of madness > does takes place every day in American schools, > and is taken for granted as something "normal". Actually, you are WAY out of line here. The pledge almost never happens in the school I am at, nor did it happen at the last one--the only time at this school was after 9-11-01 and I told all of the students I came into contact they weren't required to do it. A great number declined. Kids do that, when they know they have choices. The pledge has not been required since 1943; anyone can opt out and kids do so in droves when it comes up. But it comes up far less frequently than you seem to assert. Yes, there have been one or two loopy school districts adopt resolutions since 2001 requiring its recitiation, but they are not enforcable nor do many people pay attention to them. You seem to have taken these one or two news reports and applied them to the 50,000 or so school districts around the nation. This is the most dangerous kind of stereotyping based on a shrill news media dedicated more to fright and propaganda than to reality reporting. So you see, Dave, it is this kind of mindless US-bashing that pisses a lot of us off; reporting rumors as fact and then condemning all of us for it IS EXACTLY what you condemn us for. Perhaps you should inform yourself a bit better before you start casting stones. > the unspoken implication is "so I'm not going to do > very much to oppose what 'my' government is doing > to the rest of the world". I am not saying that is > so in _your_ case, Scott, but I am quite sure that > it is in others'. This is absolute bullshit. If anything this is *your* perception of what is going on, and you are simply worng. > We are not having some interesting > philosophical discussion about whether or not, in > an abstract world, all nationalisms are equally > repugnant. We are talking about whether, in a world > with just one super-power which is throwing its weight > around ever more aggressively, those citizens of that > super-power who claim to be anarchists or libertarians > or anti-authoritarians of some kind ought to take > quite such a relaxed view of their _own_ Nationalism. Now you encourage discriminatory critiques. This is bullshit of the highest magnitude. Exactly WHO has a relaxed view of their nationalism? So relaxed that it tempers their view and activities regarding resisting the rule and role of the state? You've spouted a lot of Holier-Than-Thou-Chickenshit-Sort-Of-Nitpicking in the past, Dave, but this one is the corker. Actually, what it sounds like is you are jealous that you don't live in that superpower. > Whether or not it is any worse than any other country > would be "in its place" is not the point. No other > country IS in its place. And this "we're no worse > than anybody else would be in our place" can be, > and I am quite sure _is_ , used as an excuse > for inaction. If you add them up, more people turned out for anti-war marches in the US than everywhere else combined. Also there is a strong anti-war element that has taken to the airwaves and print media. Good numbers of people are financing well done commercials that tell the truth about the Iraq situation. Even more are participating in a massive print-media drive that puts full-page ads in our newspapers on a daily basis. The message is out and it is the subject of much discussion everywhere. The polls show numbers that are extremely qualified, and also are part of the ongoing media deman for some Big Event to happen that will boost their ratings. Exactly what is it you would have people do, Dave? carp
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