USA! USA! (Serioiusly)

Anyone who has read this blog for a while (1, 2) or Losing My Religions knows I’m not a patriot. 

I’m not proud to be an American. I’m fucking lucky as hell to have been born a straight white male to educated parents in the second half of the 20th century. 

But I would like to point out two truly great things about the USA:

1. After WW II – by far the worst war humanity has ever seen – the US helped rebuild Germany and led the reconstruction of Japan.
   
   This broke with almost all of human history. Instead of simply crushing the defeated countries indefinitely, the United States ultimately helped turn its two principal wartime enemies into prosperous democracies and allies.
   
   That is freakin’ incredible. And two military men – George Marshall and Douglas MacArthur – were key to these efforts. 
   
   
2. Theoretically, anyone can become an American. Not merely a citizen of the United States, but an American. That distinction is important.
   
   This simply isn’t true in most countries. (My time in Japan made this very clear.) But with luck and good timing, anyone can become American.
   
   Directly across the street is a family from the former Soviet Union – the father from Ukraine, the mother from Moscow. They, and their first-born, are as American as the US-born youngest. Even our current jingoistic right-wing government hasn’t changed that.

PS: What I admire in both cases isn’t so much “America” so much as humanity at its best. I love this definition of “liberalism” from EconTalk:

Liberalism, to me, is a combination of two things: humility and tolerance. Humility is the assumption that I may not be right. Tolerance is the assumption that you may not be wrong.

Now, obviously, in our hearts, we don’t believe either of those things. Clearly, I am correct, and you are mistaken. [LOL – funny ‘cuz it’s true!] So, when I say it’s an assumption, you have to adopt that as a position, and that takes a great deal of self-control. I cannot force you – and it doesn’t mean that I’m not capable of it; suppose I am capable of it. So, I have to forbear. So, liberalism requires that I forbear acting as if I know I am correct or acting as if I know you are incorrect.