Yeah, It's Been Pretty Fucking Glorious...

A document called The New Declaration of Independence being circulated in MySpace bulletins under the title "If Ron Paul Is Not Elected" contains a statement which really gets my goat (surprise, surprise):

"The result was a glorious 200+ years which witnessed the greatest achievements, the highest standard of living, and the greatest levels of individual freedom in human history."

Hmm... Good things have happened in the history of the United States, but it's been a mixed bag at best.

If by "a glorious 200+ years" you mean

• the subjugation and near-extermination of Native Americans,

• the exploitation of the working class to fatten the coffers of a few fat cats,

• the long nightmare of racial oppression against blacks and other minorities,

• the ascendancy of religious superstition, prejudice and fear over reason and logic,

• the denial of basic rights and dignity to women,

• venal and cynical "leaders" who capitalize upon what divides us rather than what unites us,

• the Communist witch hunts of the 1950s,

• the all-out Drug War starting in the 1960s, intensifying in the '70s and continuing to the present,

• the despoilation of the environment for the sake of greedy profits to the point where the continued existence of life on the planet is iffy,

• the rise of a military-industrial complex shot through with cronyism, greed and corruption,

• the production of doomsday weapons resulting in a world wired for death,

• the establishment of a colonial empire in Iraq and elsewhere,

• the corporatization of America through the rise of a ruling class emboldened by wealth, privilege, and owning politicians who are for sale to the highest bidder,

• the fetishization of wealth and identity-through-consumerism, and

• the demonization of any sexual orientation outside that which is necessary for biological reproduction...

Then, yeah. It's been pretty fucking glorious, all right.

Otherwise, we must not be reading the same history books.

Idealizing a fictional golden age by looking backwards through a myopic, revisionist history lens is a great way to go -- if you want to make all the same mistakes again.

Otherwise, I prefer to take off the rose-colored glasses and look in the other direction, because that's the only place where we can finally get things right.

"Without debate, without criticism, no Administration and no country can succeed — and no republic can survive.” ~ John F. Kennedy