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two americas
Topic Started: Aug 15 2010, 07:57 PM (161 Views)
bachophile
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HOLY CARP!!!
interesting piece

maybe a bit simplified, but im always appreciative when someone tries to see both sides of the coin.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/16/opinion/16douthat.html?hp
"I don't know much about classical music. For years I thought the Goldberg Variations were something Mr. and Mrs. Goldberg did on their wedding night." Woody Allen
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John D'Oh
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MAMIL
I liked it too - thanks, Mr. B.
What do you mean "we", have you got a mouse in your pocket?
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Dewey
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I think it's a bit over simplified, and the two views caracateurized. While there are indeed individuals in America who exclusively fit into one or the other of those categories - and who become the flattest of characters, to borrow a literary phrase - the reality is that most of America is something of both. It's true that the views are in tension, but the tension arises from the very nature of the country itself, and that tension is located within most individuals as they analyze and process the particulars of any issue or situation.

That shouldn't really come as any surprise, since that kind of tension is embedded in the country's most hallowed of history and founding institutions. The form of our government itself is a method of balancing the tensions between largely populated urban centers where people actually own very little or no property, and more rural areas with fewer people but who own larger amounts of property. It is a balance between democracy and republic, in an attempt to mitigate the problems and excesses of both. Even its supposed homogeneity of religious belief at its founding is a bit more myth than reality, as, while most of the founders worshipped what they felt was the same God, there was, then as now, a broad range of diversity in just what that God was like, what he expected from us (if anything), what the proper way to worship that God meant, and how that translated into political action. The nation is held in tension over wealthy and poor, north and south and east and west, industrial versus agricultural versus technological. The whole nation, as an institution and as individuals, is a system in (usually constructive) tension. Imagine a series of rubber bands interwoven, like those pot holders that it seems like everyone wove on a little rack at some camp as a kid. Imagine placing a dime somewhere on top of that interwoven mat of rubber bands, and then trying to move just one of the rubber bands with your finger without moving the dime. That's the way this country is a deliberately designed system in positive tension, intended to support and benefit the whole of the country, without any one ideology or interest obtaining too much power over the others.

Because of that underlying mindset, whether they're even conscious of it or not, that same kind of creative, balancing tension is at work in individuals in this country as they/we try to come to terms with issues facing the country. And in any given issue, it's possible - likely, even - that they will reach opinions regarding some issue that might seem (and might, in fact, be) completely contradictory to some view they held just the week before. Sometimes, that's a result of the simple human tendency toward self-centeredness, but at least as often I think it's the result of that balancing act that's instilled from birth in most Americans.

So it might be helpful on some level for an outsider to understand broadbrush, almost cartoonish descirptions of the two mindsets the author describes - and which actually do exist. But unless you understand that they're first, a bit more nuanced and complex than those summaries; and second, actually both simultaneously at work in most Americans, then they're likely to end up with a skewed and incorrect understanding of us/US.
"By nature, i prefer brevity." - John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, p. 685.

"Never waste your time trying to explain yourself to people who are committed to misunderstanding you." - Anonymous

"Oh sure, every once in a while a turd floated by, but other than that it was just fine." - Joe A., 2011

I'll answer your other comments later, but my primary priority for the rest of the evening is to get drunk." - Klaus, 12/31/14
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Axtremus
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When the "two Americas" go to war with each other and you can only choose one to which you can give your allegiance, which one will you choose?
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Dewey
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The one which most closely aligns with my views regarding the particular argument that was apparently sufficient to go to war over. So far, that's only happened once in our history, and occasional chin-music to the contrary, I don't see anything that would take us to that point anywhere in current disputes or even on the horizon. All the other arguments and backbiting, even in their most absurd expressions, have just been (yawn) part of the process of creative tension.
"By nature, i prefer brevity." - John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, p. 685.

"Never waste your time trying to explain yourself to people who are committed to misunderstanding you." - Anonymous

"Oh sure, every once in a while a turd floated by, but other than that it was just fine." - Joe A., 2011

I'll answer your other comments later, but my primary priority for the rest of the evening is to get drunk." - Klaus, 12/31/14
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John D'Oh
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MAMIL
Dewey
Aug 16 2010, 04:01 AM
I think it's a bit over simplified, and the two views caracateurized.
In other words, it's about TNCR, not about America. :lol:
What do you mean "we", have you got a mouse in your pocket?
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