“The Greatest Nation In the History of the World”
Welp, there goes that theory
As a child of the 1950s, I grew up with endless patriotic messages. My teachers, my parents, TV commercials, you name it. “This is the greatest nation that has ever existed on earth! Land of the free and home of the brave. Other countries envy us for our freedom.”
I believed it. When I learned about the Roman Empire, I thought it must have been a practice nation. You know, until the Founding Fathers could perfect the formula.
I celebrated the Centennial in 1975. I waved my flag, sang the anthem and swelled with pride that I was an American. On some level, I felt bad for those poor unfortunates who were born in Canada, which I considered America’s amusing but incompetent baby brother. As the grandchild of immigrants, I thought that Italy was poor and run down. And don’t get me started on those pitiful Germans. I mean, seriously, they allowed the Nazis to flourish! I was absolutely positive that nothing like that could ever happen here in the good ol’ US of A.
I was an idiot. An indoctrinated idiot.
Of course, my belief in American Exceptionalism has faded tremendously over the years. I saw the wars, the riots, and the racism that occupied the news every night. I became a bit more realistic about capitalism and all of its pitfalls.
