The thing is, there's a lot of smoke and mirrors there. First, I did serve in the US Navy, and was honorably discharged after my 4 year contract was finished. But it's probably a stretch to say I served all that honorably. Don't get me wrong, I didn't commit espionage or piss in the potable water on the boat or anything, but I was generally useless. It should be said that I camouflage my uselessness like a fucking artist, but I was still pretty useless. I spent the better part of two deployments reading fantasy novels and hoping not to call any real attention to myself whilst doing virtually nothing of consequence. In fact, you can probably just etch that last part into my epitaph...
At any rate, the rest of my uber-patriotic veneer can be boiled down to one thing: marrying a saint. She has extricated me from a nugatory life of bad credit and rock-bottom existence. So now I have a mortgage, a really nice car, a pretty good job that has benefits for my progeny and a paycheck. Other than that I am really only as useful to society as a pathologically lazy turd can be.
So, now that we know my tangible contribution is poor, what about my philosophical one? I think my love of country can be best expressed in my sincere belief that the system of government devised by the founders of this nation is simply unrivaled in human history. It has done, up until recently, a pretty good job of keeping the worst of human impulses from setting our collective dumpster on fire. It has kept the religious zealots and ideological ne'er do wells from hijacking the plane and crashing us into the side of the mountain.
Other than that, I could really care less. I don't actually know how hard I would fight to keep those forces, which are stronger than ever and have already set the trash ablaze, from finishing the job. In some ways I feel like my contribution to this project has been keeping myself informed, taking my role as a voter seriously, and using that power to do good as I see it.
Ben Franklin (might have) said, “A nation of well-informed men, who have been taught to know and prize the rights which God has given them, cannot be enslaved.” (This quote is attributed to Ben, but may have been done so erroneously.) Regardless, it is quite obvious that a nation of uninformed window-lickers are, on the other hand, perfectly capable of razing a nation to the ground. This is what we are currently witnessing, and yet I feel as though I am watching from an emotional distance. If these idiots can't fathom the gift that they were given, then it should be taken from them. Unfortunately it is also being taken from me, and more importantly, my children.
Maybe it's the fantasy that, should the American experiment be ended, I can simply retreat to a small corner of the world and carve out an existence that suits me. The quarrels and quandaries of the narcissistic elite can be relegated, with modern technology, to the background, and we can use the gifts that we have been given (like growing up white in America, and thus being replete with resources) to start a new experiment.
But I can't help but acknowledge that this attitude might be not only selfish, but delusional. It's possible that I am just a bad American, and that I should resolve to fight, with my last breath if necessary, to protect what's left of the greatest political experiment ever conceived. History may look back and declare that those of us who could have done something and didn't were the most culpable; and contemptible. That being said, not sure what I can realistically do, other than what I am doing, which is paying attention and exercising my freedoms and responsibilities responsibly. Maybe not Captain America, but a private in the infantry?
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