Howard Zinn: America’s Blinders

From the Progressive:

It seems to me there are two reasons, which go deep into our national culture, and which help explain the vulnerability of the press and of the citizenry to outrageous lies whose consequences bring death to tens of thousands of people. If we can understand those reasons, we can guard ourselves better against being deceived.

One is in the dimension of time, that is, an absence of historical perspective. The other is in the dimension of space, that is, an inability to think outside the boundaries of nationalism. We are penned in by the arrogant idea that this country is the center of the universe, exceptionally virtuous, admirable, superior.

And

It becomes necessary then, if we are going to protect ourselves and our fellow citizens against policies that will be disastrous not only for other people but for Americans too, that we face some facts that disturb the idea of a uniquely virtuous nation.

These facts are embarrassing, but must be faced if we are to be honest. We must face our long history of ethnic cleansing, in which millions of Indians were driven off their land by means of massacres and forced evacuations. And our long history, still not behind us, of slavery, segregation, and racism. We must face our record of imperial conquest, in the Caribbean and in the Pacific, our shameful wars against small countries a tenth our size: Vietnam, Grenada, Panama, Afghanistan, Iraq. And the lingering memory of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It is not a history of which we can be proud.

Our leaders have taken it for granted, and planted that belief in the minds of many people, that we are entitled, because of our moral superiority, to dominate the world.

Click here for the rest.

I love this country. For starters, it is the land of my culture and my version of the English language; it is my home. There is no other place like it, and there are countless marvelous aspects of my country that don't exist anywhere else, our near-absolute freedom of speech, just to name one. I also love the American people in all their diversity. I'm a white American, yes, but I also claim national kinship with African-Americans, Native Americans, Asian Americans, and more: they are all my people. We are all Americans.

But I'd be a fool, indeed, if I swept the countless injustices for which my country is responsible under the rug. This nation's past, and its present, too, are not pretty. Indeed, much of America's history is about how it doesn't live up to its own stated values and principles. But you know what? I believe in those principles; they're a big part of what makes us Americans. I, for one, insist that we become the people we think we are. No jingoistic, bullying, piece-of-shit, warmongering Nazi-Americans are going to stop me from doing that. Really, calling our government to task for defying our deeply held morals is the responsibility of all Americans. But, seeing as how so many of us clearly don't understand what we're supposed to be, the task is obviously on the shoulders of Americans who do understand.

Everyone who sees how fucked up things are has a patriotic obligation to rant and rave in people's faces until, well, forever. That's what being an American is all about.

God, I love Howard Zinn.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$