You could have been so much more America. You could have become a land of great culture, where the free exchange of ideas and created a rich culture of new and interesting art. Instead your copyrights and your intellectual properties have created a culture where the thing it is known for is shallow sensationalism only fit for mass consumption.
You could have been so much more America ((Note that for the purpose of this post, by “America”, I mean U.S.A)). You could have become a land of great culture, where the free exchange of ideas and created a rich culture of new and interesting art. Instead your copyrights and your intellectual properties have created a culture where the thing it is known for is shallow sensationalism only fit for mass consumption.
You could have been so much more America. You could have become a shining bastion of science and progress where the greatest minds in the world moved in to so that they could have the chance to express and create. Instead you are drowning in the murky pool of fundamentalism and new-age mysticism. A large part of your population is actively opposed to knowledge..
You could have been so much more America. You could have used one of the greatest and more progressive constitutions to become the Democracy everyone wants to imitate and thus change the world by example. Instead you have tried to change the world by using your power to create brutal dictators again and again and again, and then topple them when they don’t turn up to be the willing pawns you expected.
You could have been so much more America. You could have used your extraordinary wealth to extinguish poverty and suffering in your society. Instead you are trying so hard to dismantle and prevent any social security and now your poorer people have to live in fear of a sudden illness that might leave them bankrupt. Instead of taking money from the filthy rich and bettering the lives of the poor, you have taken the money from everyone under the guise of foreign aid and siphoned it to the filthy rich.
You could have been so much more America. Yours could have been the land of the truly free, but instead you are the nation of the deluded. You have exchanged away your freedoms for a false sense of security and thus deserve neither.
You could have been so much more America. You could be loved by the whole world for your status, your example or your culture. Instead practically the whole world despises your blatant imperialism, you disregard for conventions and your gun-ho attitude.
You could have been so much more America. You could have the first culture to break free from taboos where the human body is not shunned and sexuality or any orientation is not feared. Instead your puritanical culture goes into bugfuck crazy mode at the mere sight of a nipple.
You could have been so much more America. With mere billions of dollars, if not millions, you could have gone totally energy independent and helped retain our planets survivability. Instead you have wasted trillions fighting a needless war that only serves to make your corporations richer and destabilize whole countries. You have fought for the all-mighty black gold with total disregard of the rest of the world.
You could have been so much more America. You could have given the example of a just and honourable civilization acting responsibly to make the world a better place. Instead you are known as the irresponsible bully who tries to play world police, even though nobody wants you to.
You could have been so much more but you blew it America, and now your time has passed. Soon nobody is going to want to play with you anymore.
I only hope you won’t try to take your ball and go home…
You're reading way too much into this. I didn't write this as a literal criticism but with a creative and artistic spirit and this is what came out. Sure it's not great but I'm not a poet anyway 🙂
In any case, you say that you consider all forms of nationalism a load of shit. I agree. But then why do you get offended when I criticize your nation? If you were to write something similar for Greece or Germany, I wouldn't give a flying fuck.
I never blamed individuals in this, nor did I generalize over a "typical US. American". I simply explained my own feelings on the course your nation has taken. It was written with a sense of sadness and disappointment, not anger. I would have loved for USA to have truly been the land of the free, the home of intellectualism etc but I am saddened at what it has become.
So, in the end, I don't truly understand why you are annoyed. Is what I write incorrect about your country? Remember, I am not writing about individuals. I am writing about a nation in the same way one could have written about Nazi Germany or USSR as one unit.
You know, I'm as generally disgusted with my country as much as the next person, but I really dislike these sorts of posts. I make it a point to separate a country's population from its government, and more importantly, whatever concept of 'country' it has, because let's face it, all forms of nationalism for all countries is a load of shit. Also, while I might get frustrated with the actions or inaction of other countries, I would never presume to think I know where they might be coming from or what their individual situation is. While some of us have our heads screwed on straight, there is very little we can do about what's going on around us by the very nature of our 'democracy,' and sorry, but this has to get much, much worse before I condone some kind of violent revolution. The States, like every other country, is full of idiots and intellectuals. We have a complex political process which is a lot harder to contemplate than one might suspect, and just because some don't even try doesn't mean we're all a bunch of shitheads. So, come on, give us a break.
One last thing: This I have a problem with: "You have exchanged away your freedoms for a false sense of security and thus deserve neither." Wait, what? Because we've been stripped of our freedoms (please remember that a *lot* of people have been horrified to watch our Constitution shat on) we deserve neither freedom nor security? Security? This last bit here makes it sound as if it's okay to fly planes into our buildings. I don't even know how to really react to that.
Once again, you're taking this too literally. It's a paraphrase of the original quote, which was written by your own countrymen. If you are one of those horrified to have lost your freedoms, then you know this truth already. America has traded freedoms for security and will end up losing both. People who cheered on the dismantling of freedom, do not deserve it. If you are not one of them, there is not sense being insulted, unless you identify with your nation.
I came across your article whilst looking for the quotation : "Think of what America could have been & look at what she is ".
It's by one of the Beat writers I believe.
Unable to find it, I've been more than compensated for my weeks of searching by finding your post.
Thank you.
Insightful, trenchant, honest & true.
This WAS a land for a new beginning . ……& ,as you say, look at what it's become.
Narrow -minded. So-called "Christian" but punitive ,mean & stupid as Christ never was.
Money is all, the poor & weak don't matter.
How can such a rich nation not be taking care of needy citizens?
Everything you say rings true for me : I have a mind, I'm educated, very literate .
Right on , Man!
And also,I forgot to say, I'm a 70 year old female.
Replace America with Europe and it still applies.