Becoming just another country
A deflationary reflection for the Fourth of July
I don’t seem to have any built-in receptors for patriotism. What I find offensive in the current administration I don’t tend to think of in terms of its violation of “America.” If anything, I wish we could give up “American ideals” and just settle into being one country among others—a place with a particular history, maybe even an interesting one in some ways, but still just a place. In that spirit, the fact that the 250th anniversary is so underwhelming, that so many people are treating it almost more as the 50th anniversary of the bicentennial rather than tracing back the roots any further, could almost seem healthy.
And I would venture to suggest that the same apathy would have greeted this event even under the leadership of the nice lady from the HR training video, whose double-dipping “historic firsts” would fit snugly into a narrative of progress that no one other than elected Democrats believes in, and that somehow no one can believe they believe in.
Instead of trying to restore America, maybe we should just focus on building a life for ourselves. Instead of being the greatest nation on earth, we should try to simply get by. Not everything has to be a contest or a confrontation with destiny. We shouldn’t want to be the Kingdom of God. I would be happy if we could hit the mark of, say, Spain. That seems like a moderate, attainable goal—a country with real problems and very deep divisions but where there is at least a little room to breathe.
Australia might be a bit closer to the kind of thing you want, since our settlerist history is broadly similar to that of the USA in both achievements and crimes, but without any claims to national greatness, except on the sporting field.
Our favorite self-description "The Lucky Country" coined by Donald Horne in the 1960s, continues with "run by second-rate people who share its luck", but even those who are aware of the second clause tend to use it unironically. A slightly more boosterish version I heard in relation to a citizenship ceremony "welcome to the best club in the word".
That hasn't prevented the emergence of Trumpist politics, but is has so far kept it on the margins.
As a Spanish born Australian I say yes! - come and join the rest of the world where you don't need to incessantly be better than everyone else and always be number 1. Then maybe we can all together figure out how not to destroy our one and only home.