American Perfection – Part II
250 Years On...
While the storm clouds gather far across the sea,
Let us swear allegiance to a land that’s free.
Let us all be grateful for a land so fair,
As we raise our voices in a solemn prayer:
God bless America, land that I love,
Stand beside her and guide her
Through the night with a light from above.
From the mountains, to the prairies,
To the oceans white with foam,
God bless America,
My home sweet home.
—Irving Berlin
Our last instalment was spent attempting to debunk the widely held belief – maintained by such as columnist David Brooks and a great many others – that the United States of America are only worthy of our love if they are “good” – whatever that may mean. For Mr Brooks, President Trump’s treatment of our allies has caused him to feel that we have lost our “goodness.” My assertion was that we never had it, in the sense that he and so many others mean it. Of course, these are folk who drank deeply at the well of our American civic religion. For others, long-term meditation on the European-Americans’ ultimately victorious struggle with the Indian tribes and the practice of slavery have led to the adoption of Wokery – so far from being the “Shining City on the Hill” and the “Last Best Hope of Mankind” as once taught, these United States are the worst country that ever was, founded as they are on genocide, and built by slaves. Thus, Wokery emerges as a sort of Unitarian revolt against American Exceptionalism, as Unitarianism rose out of and broke away from Calvinism.
As a result, neither those of Mr Brooks’ persuasion nor the Woke are keen on celebrating this country’s 250th anniversary – leaving it entirely either to Mr Trump’s supporters who retain the old national faith, and to re-enactors at the specific places where those momentous events occurred, starting with Boston, Lexington, Concord, Arlington, and a few other towns in Massachusetts. For many, realisation that either the nation’s past or present does not live up to some set or other of abstract ideals (which themselves may or may not be true) has destroyed their patriotism.