Authentic America

[SuburbanFarmer]

Back to OP:

The unique thing about America is that it’s a nation of immigrants, naturally bordered by 2 oceans from any competing powers. It’s the worlds laboratory. Here, a mass of different peoples forged an empire, free from competition or outside pressure. It gave us a unique opportunity to develop independently of any power balance.

Then some dirt farmers scared us, and we threw it all away. The end.

What is America now? It’s a mass of isolated people, ignoring their massive police state, and avoiding responsibility for the actions of our government. Most of us are just waiting for the fucking mess to collapse/transform into something familiar again.

We don’t have a culture anymore, outside of our megacorp drip feed. We don’t have any unifying principles, except to care for our families. We’re all in a state of low-level warfare over resources, and holding on to our mortgages for dear life. We all have our own little interests, but they’re only shared with a select few.

I don’t know what America is. I only know what it’s not.

[Hastur]

[Zlaxer]

Hah...……………….. Everything is big in Texas, especially the Lies.

[C-Mag]

Hah...……………….. Everything is big in Texas, especially the Lies.

I see you've had the same experience with Texans that I've had

[Fife]

Boulder isn't my Amerika. Sorry Dan C.

Here's a good one for all of us old enough to actually remember All in the Family (I don't even know if it's accessible any more for you younger guys):

Caldara: progressives should embrace their inner-Archie Bunker

If All in the Family were rebooted today, Archie would be a progressive. Love it or leave it.

I live in Boulder, the progressive town that buys billboard space to advertise its tolerance, acceptance and diversity.

I remember being in the checkout line at my neighborhood King Soopers. The gentleman next to me stared and said, “Aren’t you that Caldara guy?” I smiled, put out my hand, “Hi, I’m Jon Caldara.” His response, “Why don’t you just (expletive) leave.” To which I could only reply, “and miss all the tolerance and acceptance Boulder has to offer?”
. . .

For those curious to see what the Boulder-ization of Colorado will look like, look no further than last week’s swearing-in ceremony of Gov. Polis. In front of the Orwellian backdrop of “Colorado for All” banners an orgy of self-righteous diversity signaling was on parade. From prayers by the head priest of the Sikh Temple to blessings from the Ute Mountain Tribe, identity politics and victim celebration was at its best.

In the opening prayer, which was almost entirely a tirade over Trump’s immigration policies, Rev. Dr. James Peters Jr. said, “Jared Polis stands today as one who has suffered as a victim of racism and bigotry because of who he is.”

Jared Polis? Born to a privileged family, Princeton grad, the richest Democrat in congress, he has suffered as a victim? Give me some of that victimhood.

But the us-versus-them politics of separation at this haughty ceremony was best articulated by the recitation from poet Anne Waldman, founder of the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at the Naropa University in, where else, Boulder.

Her Alan Ginsberg-esque poem declared Polis’s victory as the “Antidote to dystopian reality.”

Her best applause line asserted Polis as being: “Antidote to psychotic dystopian governance, to unethical, unlawful, homophobic, misogynistic, racist, sexist, elitist, disaster governance.”

[GloryofGreece]

Back to OP:

The unique thing about America is that it’s a nation of immigrants, naturally bordered by 2 oceans from any competing powers. It’s the worlds laboratory. Here, a mass of different peoples forged an empire, free from competition or outside pressure. It gave us a unique opportunity to develop independently of any power balance.

Then some dirt farmers scared us, and we threw it all away. The end.

What is America now? It’s a mass of isolated people, ignoring their massive police state, and avoiding responsibility for the actions of our government. Most of us are just waiting for the fucking mess to collapse/transform into something familiar again.

We don’t have a culture anymore, outside of our megacorp drip feed. We don’t have any unifying principles, except to care for our families. We’re all in a state of low-level warfare over resources, and holding on to our mortgages for dear life. We all have our own little interests, but they’re only shared with a select few.

I don’t know what America is. I only know what it’s not.

I sympathize with what I think your saying overall, but I don't agree with some of your explicit points.

What do you mean by "dirt farmers" scared us?

I don't think most people are waiting or anticipating the collapse. They don't act that way or talk about it in daily life.

People have always had their own proclivities and temperaments etc. There is a case to be made that America once had a more or less unified direction overall. That is certainly fragmenting and for all intents and purposes gone.

[SuburbanFarmer]

Back to OP:

The unique thing about America is that it’s a nation of immigrants, naturally bordered by 2 oceans from any competing powers. It’s the worlds laboratory. Here, a mass of different peoples forged an empire, free from competition or outside pressure. It gave us a unique opportunity to develop independently of any power balance.

Then some dirt farmers scared us, and we threw it all away. The end.

What is America now? It’s a mass of isolated people, ignoring their massive police state, and avoiding responsibility for the actions of our government. Most of us are just waiting for the fucking mess to collapse/transform into something familiar again.

We don’t have a culture anymore, outside of our megacorp drip feed. We don’t have any unifying principles, except to care for our families. We’re all in a state of low-level warfare over resources, and holding on to our mortgages for dear life. We all have our own little interests, but they’re only shared with a select few.

I don’t know what America is. I only know what it’s not.

I sympathize with what I think your saying overall, but I don't agree with some of your explicit points.

What do you mean by "dirt farmers" scared us?

I don't think most people are waiting or anticipating the collapse. They don't act that way or talk about it in daily life.

People have always had their own proclivities and temperaments etc. There is a case to be made that America once had a more or less unified direction overall. That is certainly fragmenting and for all intents and purposes gone.

I was referring to 9/11 and the police state.

I don’t think many are waiting for a true collapse, but certainly some kind of reformation.

[GloryofGreece]

I'm not picking your comments out and focusing on them only, but the idea that you can define oneself or anything simply with what it is not can be very problematic. For inspiration, motivation, striving etc. we need to define out values with what we are and what they are etc. not just what America is not. Evil is a convenient thing to point to when you're looking for "good", but good isn't just the opposite of evil. In any case a country/nation/community has to define what it is, not just what it is not. In the deconstructionist, post modern fragmented world we live in it is difficult to set parameters. I think it should be done.

[SuburbanFarmer]

Agree. But we need a genuine existentithreat for that kind of consolidation.

I really don’t see this ending any other way.

[DrYouth]

You did run a massive experiment.

You created the first "real" liberal state.

You created a state that was meant to be immune to tyranny... and came the closest any nation has come so far to holding on to this ideal... and for the longest.

Utopian certainly, but successful at a less than utopian level.

Beyond that of course you have your Puritan streak, your Corporate origins, your Honour Society at odds with your Industrial Merchant society... you have your Indiginous tensions, your lost cause, your slave society and civil rights story your ambivalence with your immigrants that keep changing who you are... but not really. You have your World War good guys story, Your Cold War champion story, your disavowed overt and covert imperialism and your Hippie/Boomer/New Age story.

Y'all are kinda a mess... but a beautiful mess that still shines like a flickering neon sign in a beautiful part of town that is getting kinda seedy.