Fall from Grace
Aug. 17th, 2006 02:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sen_no_ongakuOne of the chapters in Barbara Tuchman’s The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War, focuses on the political and social turmoil surrounding the United States’ first foray into Imperialism: the Spanish-American War and the resultant annexation of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines.
Many, both home and abroad, were distraught by America’s eagerness to throw away the principles on which it was founded and happily join the game of exploitation played by the decadent, reactionary, damned powers of Europe. People all over the world lamented the loss of their beacon of hope, its transformation from a new kind of nation into just another power-hungry state for whom liberty and sovereignty for others were annoyances to be discarded when inconvenient.
But the real tragedy escaped me until I was eating breakfast in a café[FN 1] in which one wall displays a small shrine to John Wayne, while on the opposite hang homages to the Native American.
No, the real tragedy was that America had already fallen from grace decades before; and nobody noticed. America represented the (Western) world's dream of a new kind of state uncorrupted by imperialism, whose aim was peace and justice for all; but the focus of their optimism had long ago announced that power corrupts even those with the noblest of beginnings, the highest of intentions.
Anyhow, just wanted to post this while I 1) was thinking about it and 2) had wireless access. (Our hotel has WiFi; back in Utah my brother's computer can piggyback on a local network but mine can't find the signal.)
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(1)The Bear Claw in St. George, Utah, which serves perhaps the best breakfast I have had. Ever.
Many, both home and abroad, were distraught by America’s eagerness to throw away the principles on which it was founded and happily join the game of exploitation played by the decadent, reactionary, damned powers of Europe. People all over the world lamented the loss of their beacon of hope, its transformation from a new kind of nation into just another power-hungry state for whom liberty and sovereignty for others were annoyances to be discarded when inconvenient.
But the real tragedy escaped me until I was eating breakfast in a café[FN 1] in which one wall displays a small shrine to John Wayne, while on the opposite hang homages to the Native American.
No, the real tragedy was that America had already fallen from grace decades before; and nobody noticed. America represented the (Western) world's dream of a new kind of state uncorrupted by imperialism, whose aim was peace and justice for all; but the focus of their optimism had long ago announced that power corrupts even those with the noblest of beginnings, the highest of intentions.
Anyhow, just wanted to post this while I 1) was thinking about it and 2) had wireless access. (Our hotel has WiFi; back in Utah my brother's computer can piggyback on a local network but mine can't find the signal.)
___
(1)The Bear Claw in St. George, Utah, which serves perhaps the best breakfast I have had. Ever.
