Dear Shirley, you asked, I answer. What means America -- the Beautiful and the Hypocritical?
In the past few weeks, the US has been crisis central, followed by Israel, the Gulf Oil Crisis that will not end for generations (if the Exxon Valdez is used as a unit of environmental cleanup timekeeping), and the ongoing economic meltdown that has gone in stages begun on that loathsome Jekyll island retreat held by our soon to be world masters in the opening decades of the 20th Century. Perhaps it all began, as Wilson moaned, with the intentional destruction of the Republic, back when he was President. After all, money drives America, always has, always will. Yet, in the second decade of that past century, the US threw Constitutional money regulation to the privateers of the banking internationalists that govern us to this day.
All these events have been examined in history, some of which is admittedly short at present due to the recent nature of events, and others in detail. Some events are only examined through emotion, others are shaped by sloganeering.
Remember the Maine, The Yanks were coming, then arrived, then did their military magic, then turned it all over to the others, and we went on to a generation or two of more military action than this nation had seen in its entire history. The Twentieth Century saw, even in the recently past generation, more war emanating from the US than attacks upon this nation.
We have defeated Nazis, or not. That depends on what websites you watch. We have made the world safe for democracy, or not, depending on whether or not the election in question elected the right person/party/philosophy.
We are asked to believe that a military action begun on the high seas, in international waters, was a action taken to protect a particular nations' interest, without consideration of the fundamental question. Is an act of aggression done in international waters defensible as protectionist or preemptive warmaking?
We have taken over the rich oil fields of Iraq after launching preemptive war against a nation that mere months, to say nothing of years prior, was determined to be no threat to the US. And we didn't ask the question? Is an act of aggression done against a nation that had done nothing to the US, a violation of the laws of war? A violation of US law? A violation of treaties?
We have not been asking the critical questions.
We have not asked the question of whether our demand for cheap energy was worth the price of destruction of the Gulf of Mexico, possibly due to the cost savings that made that cheap energy possible was done at the price of not having safety equipment ready, of not having a plan in place at the scene of the blow out in the first place.
To ask those questions today can be seen as doubting the Exceptionalism that makes America exceptional in so many patriotic eyes. To ask those questions of the America of the Fourth of July bunting and parades, the fireworks that recreate the rockets red glare over forts where wars were won and the Constitution was defended, really defended, and a nation unlike any that had been envisioned in the entire short history of man was launched, is to ask a question too many for us all today. To ask is to criticize these days, and to criticize is not patriotic.
Perhaps to criticize without thought behind it, to criticize with jingoistic ardor is mistaken for asking a critical question. A well placed critical question. A question that must be critically considered and critically asked and its answer critically considered.
And yet, questions must be asked. Critical questions. Critical views are not necessarily criticism. Critical questioning though requires critical thinking. Critical thinking demands looking at the various fundamental principles that are foundations for our thoughts about ourselves, our nation, our patriotism, our actions.
We live in times where criticism abounds. Are your suits red enough to be rightously Republican ladies? Do your ties have the right shade of Democratic blue guys? Are your veins filled with the right mixture of bankers cash, lobbyists love notes that are really marching orders, and do you belong to the good clubs and know the things to say that will get you elected and kept in office, as you entertain dreams of offices in the most powerful clubs in the world, and pass legislation that you never bother to read? If you can answer yes, you can be a Senator.
And yet, and yet, getting into that club, especially in this year of primaries and elections that could change the way things work, but won't, the same problem exists.
Criticism is not critical thinking. Criticism is often founded upon false foundations such as those that don't agree with me are wrong. Period. Full Stop.
We in the U. S. of A., are getting our hackles up at being called hypocritical by foreign critics, yet forget one approach to the word hypocritical. Hypocritical, dissected, means less than critical. Less than critical thinking. Lacking in the critical. Lacking in the one way that allows an unbiased look at reality.
Take the word apart. Hypocritical. Hypo generally gets the under, lower than, or even less than definition. As in lacking. The whole Belshazzar's feast of lacking, complete with handwriting on the wall, writ large by the very hand of God. That kind of less than is the "hypo" that I'm talking about.
Combine it with critical, as in evaluative, considering, questioning, and one has to admit that being critical is not always a bad thing. Critical can be good. Critics evaluate, consider things, set standards, demand we meet them, or at least they do that with movies and plays. Perhaps such critical thinking should be more applied to what we are doing -- the big picture.
Are we on the wrong side at times? Like now? Are we doing wrong things? Pursuing wrong goals? Enriching the wrong people, leaving too many Americans out of the discussion? Are we wrong to send our manufacturing overseas? Is seeking the lowest possible price and the highest possible profit a good way to operate? Is greed good? Is preemptive anything good?
Bring on the education. Bring on the discussion. Let us loose our hypo-critical thinking and thereby lose the label of America the hypocritical. When we examine, critically, we can then go forward with the best, not just for the immediate future, but for the long term.
Bring on the Critical Thinking. Lose the label, tear down the jingoistic signs, embrace the difficult, and if necessary change the road we are traveling. It will be tough, it will be difficult, but America doesn't shy away from the difficult. Not the real America. Critical Thinking, the way to get us to the America we love -- America the truly beautiful.
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