It is easy to bash America for all of its faults, and there are many faults. But it is also equally easy to bash Americans, which, as time goes on and I feel ashamed at my own participation in this, I find to be mostly gratuitous, unwarranted, and unfair.
I’m coming to this as a bit of an outsider. My ancestors didn’t settle or build this country or fight in the Revolutionary War or the War of 1812 or the Civil War or the Spanish-American war or World War I. I bring this up to explain why my journey to being so disillusioned by America's foundational myths has been easier—I have absolutely zero personal stake in any of them. Tales of Revolutionary War or WWI bravery are cool and all, but it’s like reading Roman history to me, whereas tales of the Greeks beating the Persians twice, or finally throwing off the yoke of Turkish rule, get my blood flowing. This makes looking at, and potentially accepting, counter-narratives a more intellectual than emotional endeavor for me. Hence the criticisms, the, dare I say it, critical, analysis. Some may call it jaundiced, which is fair, though I always preferred to call myself an optimistic cynic.
Anyway, while the negatives are easy to come by, do not think I don’t appreciate the good things about this country, its people, and its ideals. So let’s be positive for a change. There’s enough blackpilling to give one an overdose, and blackpilling is ultimately little more than self-pleasure.
One overarching point I want to state up-front before we begin is an important one:
A nation is not a state.
In other words, lots of criticisms of the state don’t necessarily apply to the nation, despite the nation (allegedly) selecting those who lead the state.
The Country
By “country,” I mean the physical environment itself. And I have to say that America knocks it out of the park. A total grand-slam on nearly every level. God Himself did a chef’s kiss after creating this land. One, it’s huge. And two, it’s varied. How many biomes do we have? like 493 Are you into forests? We’ve got forests. Deserts? Got them too. Beaches? Two thousand-mile coasts’ worth. Swamps? Hills? Plains? Big Mountains? Little mountains? Snowy mountains? Tundras? Taigas? We've even got tropical islands, as in multiple. Lakes? only some of the world's biggest, and about 4 billion smaller ones in addition to some six-hundred-thousand rivers. My numbers might be slightly off, but I’d consider them fake, but accurate.
It really is a gorgeous country, and I dont think it gets enough credit. It’s so gorgeous, I got bored of the breathtaking mountain views of the small central-New Hampshire town I grew up in. My mind was blown when I learned people came from all over the country to look at the changing foliage in the fall—“leaf peepers,” they were called—and to ski. And I took it for granted.
I haven’t been to every state, but I have been to and spent an appreciable amount of time in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Virginia, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, Texas, Oklahoma, Nevada, Washington, California, and Hawaii, and it’s all wonderful. Well, maybe not New Jersey—I’ve technically “been” there, but only driving through. Maybe another time, New Jersey.
The People
This is a strange aspect, because what even is an American? Someone born in America? By one reckoning, sure. But if my wife and I move to Nigeria and have a child, are they “Nigerian” by virtue of being born in Nigeria? Of course not. So we can say Americans are, at base, descendants of the settlers and Revolutionaries. I go one step further than some by including the descendants of African slaves into this group—they were here close enough to the beginning. Everyone else, my family included, are guests.
And this is the first thing I like about America: the people are, by and large, really welcoming. I think the talk of “xenophobic Americans” is bunk, word- wizardry that relies on changing the definition of “xenophobic” to “justifiably objecting to rapid, rampant, unchecked, and destructive mass-immigration nobody voted for.” This is only “xenophobic” to lawyers and journalists and celebrities and politicians tell you.
I mean, let’s look at different groups. Blacks have been mistreated for so long, but now have an impact on American culture that far outpaces their numbers. Ditto American Jews, many who came here to flee persecution abroad. The first waves of immigrants—Italians, Irish, Jewish, Polish, German, and so on—have become integral parts of American society. Later groups like Hispanic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Arab, Persian, Armenian, and Indian, just to name a few, are doing great—though things got dicey for the Chinese and Japanese in the late 19th and early/mid 20th centuries. Now, Nigerian immigrants are killing it. And so on. This is still a land of opportunity. I only wish the American Indians could better be a part of it, but that’s a very troubled and complicated history I’m not going to tackle in this post. Obviously, some may say this is a bad thing, and this tendency has been abused for nefarious reasons,1but by and large, America welcomes others . . . even loudmouth Greeks.
Overall, Americans are really nice. Some may say naive, but I think its more an unpretentiousness. This lack of world-weary sophistication is actually part of the charm. As an aside, contrary to the “ugly American” tourist stereotypes, I’ve had multiple people from Europe and Latin America tell me that Americans are actually the best tourists because (1) they’re are polite, and (2) they pay their bills. WhenAmerican tourists show up, the hosts have a 99 percent chance of knowing they will get paid.2
Americans are also very tolerant. They put up with a lot. Much of this is, I think cultural—many remember or have family who remember things working as advertised, so they have this optimistic expectation that things will improve. I like that.
I like the American sense of humor and general distrust of authority. This seems contradictory to my above point regarding American tolerance, but I don’t think the two points are at odds. Distrust of authority and, dare I say it, rebellion doesn’t have to be violent. There are many other ways to resist. Humor is one. I think, unfortunately, America is entering into a Soviet-style era of gallows humor used to cope with governmental abuses. Mockery is the best medicine, though, so keep thumbing your nose at authority.
I also appreciate how Americans really believe in the nation’s ideals (more on those later). The desire for consensus, to do what’s best for all Americans and not just voting blocs, is still alive in a sizable chunk of the country, maybe more than half. This is healthy because it will curb against abuses of power when we win.
America’s religiosity compared to other western nations is also a bright point. While it’s mostly either various Protestant denominations (Puritanism, Evangelicalism, Baptism, Congregationalism, etc.) or Catholic and not Orthodox, that people that talk openly about God and Jesus are happy to embrace any brother in Christ. Bonus points to the Americans still fighting to keep Christ in the public square. This religiosity is also manifest in Americans’ willingness to recognize unfair treatment and do something about it. Sometimes it goes overboard, sometimes it distorts Christian principles, but the impulse towards equality under the law and correcting itself is a healthy one.
Other good ideals are the willingness to accept newcomers—if they play by the rules—and the idea that no one is above the law. Are these ideals perfectly implemented? No. Are some of them somewhat fraudulent? Sure. But I am glad to live in a nation where probably over half the population wants to defend my right to speak from government and big tech/big business encroachment, and where I still have the right to own guns, over a nation that doesn’t have these things.
This brings us to what might be my favorite thing about the American people: there’s an earnestness that Europeans like to scoff at, but they shouldn’t. This earnestness translates into a stubbornness that, I think, makes Americans unusually resistant to bad ideas. It’s hard to stand up for something when you’re cynical and full of ennui.
Don’t laugh! I mean, look at the populations of many other western nations. They mostly buy in to what their governments inflict upon them. Not here. There’s always some group unafraid to call b.s. on the shit sandwich Uncle Sam is trying to tell us is filet mignon . . . and at great personal cost. Why? Because they’re sincere people who believe in America’s foundations principles and think everyone should adhere to them, even leaders at all levels of government.
You see, if you attack a people’s myths and replace them with something else, you’re committed one of the biggest brainwashing coups possible. You’ve literally changed history by changing people’s perceptions of it, changing what is taught and how, and changing what sources are acceptable instead of letting everyone see the full record and come to their own conclusions. But change the past, change the symbols, change the nation’s raison d’etre, and you can change the people themselves. Make them more pliant to a new set of ideals.
That’s been tried in America for a few generations, but unlike too many European nations who sit and gladly take the desecration of what their ancestors built, Americans have actually been protesting and preventing the destruction and removal of statues and other symbols where the can, and refusing to shut up about it where they can’t. This is because the disconnect between belief in how things should be, and how they actually aren’t living up to those foundations ideals. Maybe it’s childlike and naive. Maybe the chuds are a few generations behind all the elite human capital.3 But at least the chuds believe in place and in keeping the works of their ancestors alive and not letting technocratic modernity bury them without a fight.
That America hasn’t yet gone into full-blown totalitarianism is a testament to this spirit. Imperfect though it may be, late to the party Americans might seem, there is at least a cultural intolerance to the worst excesses of the worst ideas. Is it enough to pull this nation back from the brink of destruction? I pray that it is.
The Ideals (and Idealism)
For how jaded I am about the actual operations of the Republic and the Constitution’s ability to safeguard the rights of the regular people from tyranny,4 I am convinced there is a reason America is seen as the final boss to the forces hellbent on world domination, and it is these ideals.
No matter how imperfectly implemented in practice, they remain powerful enough to spook. the bad guys. Good. That’s enough for me.
I also think the idea of Federalism, of the states having a lot of autonomy from the central government. This, I think, is going to help states reassert their independence from Washington, D.C., and hopefully allow all the different nations within America to coexist. In other words, freedom of association is another great American ideal worth celebrating and protecting.
Americans need to learn that voting isn’t about a reasoned and informed analysis of the issues, but about getting your guy in power and empowering him to do as much for you and yours as you can. Lucky, for normal Americans who care deeply about the nation their ancestors built, this would redound to the benefit of most everyone.
Conclusion
America is big. It is open. It is open-hearted. And it is real. The government and its functionaries are a different story—most of them don’t count as American, because they fundamentally reject its people and its ideals. They’re less American than me. Because America has adopted my family and has been good to us. For all that I dont feel like an American, to Americans, I am one of them. That is really powerful, and really cool.
So is America an idea? No. But the ideas help shape America. For America is a nation and a people, just like every other nation. My wish is for Americans to be prouder of what they and their ancestors have created beyond the superficial. I wish Americans had Greek-levels of ethno-narcissism, because America has so much going for it. Though beaten, battered, robbed, and bruised, it still hasn’t been brought it down. God willing, it will rise again and truly embrace its destiny as a beacon of hope for the world. This will require a drastic change in philosophy and personnel of the people currently running things. For as we said earlier: The nation is not the state.
So three cheers for the U.S. of A. I really think she's gonna make it.
- Alexander
I hope you enjoyed a little burst of sunshine, and thank you for reading if you’ve come this far. I always appreciate the discussion and interaction and your support. If you liked what you read, you can further support my work by checking out my fiction here. You can also support the site by throwing a few drachmas into the tip jar over at Buy Me A Coffee. Thank you for reading and God bless.
Votes and cheap labor, namely.
For the record, I’ve been told that British and German tourists are the worst.
Chuds are associated with Trump voters specifically and red-state Americans generally, but there are blue-state chuds (the hicklib phenomenon) just as there are red-staters/conservatives who consider themselves to be elite human capital.
The Constitution, like all laws, only means what judges say it means, and what the executives are willing to enforce and against whom.
While I don’t want to be associated with a naive view of Latino immigrants, I’ve been around some and managing a crew of guys who are strivers in the sense that remind me of my Scots-Irish forebears. Tough, right wing, jocular types who give me some hope.
A lovely piece full of fine sentiments and observations. I've got very little to add, for very little needs to be.
One little fun fact, though. Did you know the term "chud" came from a movie of the same name? It was an admittedly schlocky and government critical 80's sci-fi horror movie titled C.H.U.D. which was said to stand for "cannibalistic humanoid underground dweller" by the agency stooge trying to cover up the movie's central problem. I won't say what it really stands for if you haven't seen the movie since I think you might enjoy it, given your openly professed love of many things 80's. Doubly so since it's got a checklist of the kind of stuff that made movies from that decade fun - man eating mutants, government conspiracies, neon green blood spray, and a couple normal people with gumption who solve the primary mystery.