On Thu, Aug 23, 2001 at 07:03:38AM +1000, Miriam English wrote:
> At 02:21 PM 21/08/2001 -0700, Damien Sullivan wrote:
>
> >"America has invested her religion as well as her morality in sound
> >income-paying securities. She has adopted the unassailable position
of
> a
> >nation blessed because it deserves to be blessed; and her sons,
> whatever
> >other theologies they may affect or disregard, subscribe unreservedly
> to
> >this national creed."
> > -- Agnes Repplier, _Times and Tendencies_
>
>
> Good on you Damien. I am relieved that some Americans have noticed
this
> too. It seems obvious to others outside USA, but it is rarely
mentioned
> by anybody.
To be honest, I got the quotation from Neil Gaiman's _American Gods_,
and
Neil's an expatriate Brit. And I don't know who Agnes Repplier was.
But at least you can be relieved some Americans can appreciate the
observation. :)
> I am sure that if Oz was a major super-power there would be plenty
here
> who thought that we were the best and deserved our position. Hopefully
I
Do you need to be a super-power? I've read New Zealand had, if not has,
a
strong "God's Own Country" complex. More pro-Empire than the British
when
there was an Empire.
> not be one of them. Patriotism is down there with religion as one of
the
> darkest and most dangerous memes.
Blind patriotism, yeah. I can be proud of America too, and pick on some
current changes in Britain... of course, I have this cute habit of
claiming
the Netherlands are the vanguard of Western civlization.
-xx- Damien X-)
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Fri Oct 12 2001 - 14:40:13 MDT