We are an Odd country

Yes we are. [Link]

Well, as a country the US is an Odd.  If it were a kid, it would read SF/F and be able to give you the statistics on the bestselling books going back to 1940.  It would do it, too.  In public.  At parties.  And it would dress funny, not that it’s not completely able to analyze how people dress for various occasions, but because it spent time in front of the mirror overthinking it.  “They said business casual, so that means no tie.  But you always dress a bit above the norm, right, because when you’re new to the club… so, tie.”  This would result in its showing up three hours late, wearing a tux shirt and bow tie, with a sweater over to loosen it up, cerise pants to show its playful side, a loafer on his left foot and a tennis shoe on the right.

And this is what other nations see us like.

When they “get” us at all.  Half the time they don’t get us at all, and tend to assume we’re just like them.  And we assume they’re just like us.  And both of them are close to fatal errors.

What I mean is this: deprived of a unity of blood or a reason for existing as a nation other than our constitution – words on paper and principles agreed on – we think and argue and live by our constitution.  There have only been two nations in history formed by law and the other one had blood too.

We don’t.  We’re a nation of principles, of paper, of laws.  Take our law away and we’re nothing: a group of unrelated peoples living in a common area, that’s it.  Okay, genetically some other nations have great variety, but they also have history in common.  Our history of continuous immigration means we don’t have even that.

We have the laws, we have the papers, we have the principles.

We are like a little kid who grew up in books and doesn’t understand life outside them.  He expects the principles of the books to apply in the playground: honor, duty, right and wrong.  And he’s going to be pounded on by everyone until he learns that out here that doesn’t apply, only the self-interest and the casual cruelty of the playground.

Unless she – me – is a big moose, in which case she will run around imposing honor and duty and loyalty and all those things that she read about in books, until the entire class is a very odd one and makes the teacher puzzled.

In a way the US is like me in that playground.  Because we believe in things like that nations are constituted for the benefit of their citizens, we run around making it so.  Or we fall down on the side that claims to want so – sometimes with disastrous results.

The end is that we end up making the world a better place – a place where sometimes, occasionally, even outside this nation, the welfare of individuals counts.

But it also means the rest of the world hates us.  Even our allies think we’re weird and that’s at the best of times.  When we go a little nuts and try to prove how wonderful we are by electing someone who has confessed by word and deed that he hates us, well… our allies have reasons to keep their distance.

And yet, which odd kid hasn’t tried that in the past.  “If I’m nice to the bully, maybe he’ll reform.”  And while your friends look on in horror, you give them the cold shoulder and try to make up to the bully… until he betrays you, and then you wake up and it’s back to your old friends.

It’s very important that we, as a nation, understand that the world doesn’t work like we do.  Out there, on the world playground, the rule is instinct, self-serving, and the casual cruelty of children.

It’s no use coming out with things like “China will take over being the world’s policemen and make a good one because they were once victims” – that’s not how other nations work.  That’s not how anything works outside certain pious books.  China will act according to its self interests and subjugate all in its path if it serves them.

Yes, other countries have constitutions but to none of  THOSE are a raison d’etre.  They’re more the corporate statement.  And you know how much those matter.

It’s not use saying things like “but how could Iraq have WMD, they don’t even have clean water.”

These countries have different priorities.  Study their history.  Study the history of the European wars, and the shifting alliances.  None of it matters much, other than the ego of the kings or rulers.

No other country has ever beat itself over its moral (or lack there of) contribution to History.  The English make French jokes, they don’t go “If we hadn’t invaded them, and they hadn’t—“

We do that sort of thing.  We do that sort of thing to such an extent that, our seriously misstaught intellectuals view it as proof only we are culpable.

And the first comment:

My favorite was when the Europeans sneeringly referred to Bush (and/or his foreign policy) as a “cowboy”, little realizing that cowboyis not an insult in the United States and more like like a compliment: self-reliant, brave, tough, facing all sorts of dangers and crap weather with equanimity, ARMED, and doing a hard, thankless job just for the privilege of being a self-employed contractor.

Every single one of the above is the opposite of the typical European characteristics.