On Fri, 7 Feb 2003, Dan Minette wrote: > Because that type of idealism is at the foundation of the US. Lincoln said > the US was "the last, best hope of mankind." > > > Is manifest destiny the only language of idealism at hand? > > Why do you keep on using loaded terms that do not relate to the question at > hand? Manifest Destiny refers to the concept that God gave the swath of > land that is now the continuous 48 states to the United States, and that we > had a right to take that land by any means necessary. The idealism that I > hear Bush speak of is that, having been blessed with both liberty and > power, we have an obligation to protect and expand that liberty worldwide.
What I hear coming through Bush is a belief on the part of the Republican leadership and his administration that the US is God's instrument for cleansing the world of evil. The implication is that the US deserves to have enormous latitude in the means it chooses to do so, and nobody else really has a right to protest or moderate or to push alternatives to the means chosen by this administration in particular. Because the US is "chosen," so to speak, and they aren't. If we humor and listen to the POV's and interests of other nations, it's just because we're gracious, not because we ought to or need to. Manifest destiny seems the appropriate historical analogy to such an attitude. That said, I will grant that my reading is filtered through my own massive levels and distrust and fear of the man and his associates. I am biased. But I don't think I'm far wrong. > Spiderman is a closer comparison: with great power comes great > responsibility. Spider-Man accepted that he was a lucky/unlucky (depending on his mood) guy and constantly questions the use of the power he's privileged to have. Such humility on the part of Bush & Co. would be refreshing. Maybe I'm just a fan of existential crisis. > But you seem uncomfortable with the very thought of objective morality. It > sounds that the assumption that we can know right from wrong and act upon > it is at the core of your discomfort. (I chose "sounds like" very > deliberately, because I certainly am not in a position to tell you what is > at the core of your discomfort. I am merely in a position to tell you what > your posts sound like to me. I'd appreciate clarification.) The core of my discomfort is my feeling that this administration embraces and encourages the belief that the US has been chosen to be a unique instrument of objective morality by the Objective Moralizer. I agree it's something of an American tradition to do so. But I fear the consequences of hubris. Marvin Long Austin, Texas Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Poindexter & Ashcroft, LLP (Formerly the USA) http://www.breakyourchains.org/john_poindexter.htm _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
