Passing Thoughts

America. Home of the Brave, land of the free. Or at least it used to be. I am not so sure any more. Have you tried discussing the (say it quietly) negative side of America with an American. Or in fact trying to criticse an American. Its just not acceptable - its not considered constructive. Business seems to be done like this too - you can't point out problems so everything takes ten times as long while people do it wrong, realize and then try to find a way of doing it right without admiting they did it wrong the first time.

There have been a number of things that illustrate this lately - one was on American Pop Idol where they couldn't accept Simon Cowells criticism. Now I am the first to admit that Simon Cowell is harsh and probably insensitive but these people want to work in a harsh soulless industry that doens't care one itoa about anything but making money. If they are going to deal with this without having their lives utterly destroyed then they should be able to deal with criticism. This article by Brian Eno is considered over the top, too much. I've seen comments on message boards saying things like - "America does more for humanity than anyone else - people criticising should remember that". What!. I am sorry but when you start to belive your own propaganda you are on a slippery slope. Do you think that ordinary Germans under the Third Reich all suddenly turned in to evil murderers? Or, as was really the case, do you think that they where simply being patriotic - beliving that they where helping build the greatest nation on earth, turning a blind eye to the attrocities of their leaders because not doing so was unpatriotic. Now I am not suggessting that the American government is going to start killing its people or anything like that but if people stop questioning then the interests of those with money - The Oil companies, the media companies etc will start directing the way America goes. Patriotism is not blind unswerving condonment of everything your governmenet does not matter how stupid. Patriotism is making sure that the values of your country are upheld by everyone including the government.

And for the rest of us? Well what happens when America decides it needs to start annexing other countries to help preserve democracy. Who is going to stand up to them? They already think like that, that the American way is the only way. They already bomb countries in the name of democracy...

On a lighter note someone has decided to run Pepys diary as a daily weblog. A great way to read this rather overwhelming but fascinating work. Check it out.