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Much of the pain we experience in life (on a deep level, perhaps all of it) comes from loving something that is deeply flawed. Of course, it is precisely the joining of good and bad in the same entity that makes this so difficult. If something is really worthless, it’s pretty easy just to chuck it. It’s the things that are good enough to love, but not as good as they should be, that make us hurt. All of us, in one way or another, experience this in the people we love… perhaps most of all in ourselves. We experience it with respect to places or organizations or institutions that we care about. And for most of us, a love of country provokes this same pain, at least now and then. Patriotism, in due measure, is fitting; it is one manifestation of the love of one’s own, which is natural to mankind. It is right that we should feel affection for the land of our birth, and the society that fostered us from our early days. But it is often a painful love, since, as long as nations are built and administered by men, they will be deeply flawed.
At Mass last week, the Doctor and I were treated to a homily about how we are experiencing the dying throes of a nation rapidly making its way down to hell. We couldn’t help but be entertained by the hyperbolic modes of expression (which are particularly hard to take seriously given that doom and gloom sermons are the regular fare at this particular parish, but never mind), but the sentiments are common enough. It’s hard to feel too proud of a country that’s trying to rally the UN to push universal access to “family planning” (read: the killing of the unborn), that is aggressively chipping away at the integrity of family and community life, and that recently elected a man whose principles are arguably as hostile to a Catholic worldview as any president we’ve ever had.
Sometimes, in trying times, the patriot is able to look backwards, and ground his love in an older tradition, and the memory of a proud nation and people who once did their country’s name more credit than they currently do. For American Catholics, though, this would be difficult. While I certainly think there have been times better than now, I also think we have to admit that our country was founded on gravely faulty principles, by modernist men who most certainly were not Catholic either in formal confession or in outlook. There is certainly no American golden age for Catholics to look back on with happy nostalgia.
And yet, and yet, and yet. There are a few things about the United States of America, surely, that even we traditional Catholics can admire? Aspects of our history and culture that we can look back on without shame? We devote plenty of words to complaining about the ills of the world, but, this being Independence Day, I thought I would open a thread and invite people to suggest some things (however small) that are good and admirable about this country. I have a few ideas of my own, but I think I’ll leave the thread open to others for awhile. What’s to like about the US of A?
St. Louis-Marie de Montfort,
Pope St. Pius X,
St. Joseph,
St. Ambrose of Milan,
St. Thomas Aquinas,
St. Francis (and St. Clare),
St. Catherine of Siena,
St. Alphonsus Ligouri,
St. John Chrysostom,
Clara, I figured football would, by itself, almost make up for the other ills.
Our federal govt. and many of our states still execute people for capital offenses despite the fact that most of the Western world has utterly abandoned this just and salutary custom. I for one was shocked and edified that Scott Peterson was justly sentenced to death for murdering his pregnant wife — in California no less!
As of right now, our military still dismisses people who are known to be homosexuals.
We have the Second Amendment and love our guns.
Bluegrass music. I’d mention several other forms of music that America has invented, but we would not agree on their effects on the soul.
For most things, we still use English Common Units instead of metric.
Demo derbies and tractor pulls. The demo derby in particular is the epitome of grassroots, amateur, manly “virtus” in action. You have to be a skilled mechanic and then a skilled driver. You build to destroy. The skills of the charioteer and the gladiator combined.
We generally know how to hold gigantic sporting events without murdering the fans of the opposite team in riots or stampedes. Also, we tend not to cut in lines or jostle one another. Europeans tend to have a different conception of personal space, to say the least.
Unlike Europeans, we bathe or shower regularly and try not to stink.
The Western genre in literature, drama, and film.
We still prosecute Israeli spies. Israel must have spies throughout Europe, but I do not know if they are ever caught or prosecuted. America is Israel’s biggest supporter, yet somehow we still send their agents to prison when they really get out of line. Not even Bill Clinton or George W. Bush let Jonathan Pollard out.
Where I grew up, there were informal networks for dispersing the fruits of the season. Over the course of the year, someone or other would bring over morel mushrooms (which they had gone out in the woods to hunt), wild asparagus, rhubarb, backyard tomatoes, sweet corn, zucchini, etc. My family buys a year’s beef directly from the farmer by ordering a half or a quarter of a given cow or steer. No (or very little) regulation is involved in this.
Hunting is a popular sport. The fees for hunting also pay for the conservation programs. There are very few game animals that governments won’t let you hunt once their populations become sustainable.
Our money has “In God we trust” on it, and the Pledge of Allegiance mentions God.
Good list. (I’ll pass over the first one without comment.:))
Just to add a couple for now: every time I feel bad about our country, I always get some solace from comparing us with Europe. Compared to most European countries, we are more religious, more family-oriented, more prudish, and all around less contemptibly spineless. We’re still actively fighting some evils that most Europeans mutely accepted a long time ago. That does my heart some good.
Our revolution against the British may not have been justified, but I still think our role in WWII is something of which we can rightly feel proud.
Well, while I think that American involvement in the Second World War certainly resulted in a massive net gain for human flourishing, I think that our involvement was compromised by enough inexcusable kowtowing to the Communists on the part of our leadership (Yalta, Potsdam) and enough violations of the laws of war (certain cities we annihilated come to mind) to mitigate the sense of pride we should take in “our role.” I put the word in scare quotes because obviously the American populace and common fighting man was prompted largely by righteous motivations, fought gallantly, and restored order to much of the world. Also, with the exception of our aerial bombardment campaigns (in which few men participated, but which never won the indignation they deserved) and the Morgenthau Plan (of which very few knew), our conduct seems to have been largely unmarred by atrocities. People in Germany and France will be thankful for our involvement. But people in Hungary and Poland will complain of Western cowardice and betrayal (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_betrayal). After entering the Pacific War to defend China (more or less), we abandoned China to the Communists. I’m not saying that the culpability rests on the American nation, but the decisions of the leaders certainly determined the effect of our nation’s involvement upon the world. Thus “our role” can be analyzed in terms of objective results for the world. We can take pride in how far Patton advanced and beat our breasts for the fact that he was prevented from advancing farther.
Defeating the Nazis and the Japanese militarists were certainly great accomplishments of world historical importance (I’m thinking the word “duh!” for having written that sentence). Unfortunately, much of the credit for the former goes to the Soviets on the Eastern Front, where most of the fighting occurred. That said, the effect of American involvement was good in that we supplied the Soviets; as a result, they took most of the casualties while we took the western half of Europe back for its rightful owners. As for the Japanese, we seem to have behaved fairly well until the last days of the war, when we decided that wiping out cities was the way to go. Net gain for humanity? — absolutely (provided we don’t count “our role” in throwing Chiang Kai-shek under the bus and letting the Communists take over the largest country on earth and kill more Chinese than the Japanese dreamed of). Shameful moral outrages on our part? — also yes.
It was a tragic victory — a victory over great evils, though tragic; a tragedy, though we achieved much good.
As for capital punishment, I am serious — this really does make our national culture objectively much better than most of the Western world. When I think of good things about our country, this really is one of the first things I think of. We (or at least a good number of us, in certain states) believe in killing people who do really bad things. We resist the egalitarian equation of the life of the innocent and the life of the guilty. To borrow C.S. Lewis’ argument, we value human free will — we tell the murderer, “you chose to commit murder, you were fully competent when you made this choice, and now you will pay the full punishment for it.” As my high school English teacher used to say, choices=consequences. This acknowledgement of the natural law and personal responsibility also explains why socialism has not made such major inroads in our culture as elsewhere.
The local school board and the P.T.A. I attended public school, as I think many of us did. There are so many things to object to there. However, I do not object to the local control of schools. If the government is going to manage education, then subsidiarity seems to be the way to go. Unfortunately, centralized control took a major leap forward under George W. Bush & Teddy Kennedy’s “No Child Left Behind Act,” and the liberal response will probably not entail de-centralization. However, just the idea that local school boards have the primary responsibility seems to be a very good idea. It’s only one step removed from giving parents a direct vote on how to run the schools, which teachers to hire, etc.
“Every time I feel bad about our country, I always get some solace from comparing us with Europe. Compared to most European countries, we are more religious, more family-oriented, more prudish, and all around less contemptibly spineless. We’re still actively fighting some evils that most Europeans mutely accepted a long time ago.”
The funny thing is, to some people, these are all contemptible aspects of our nation, and areas in which Europe excels.
With regards to WWII, all I’ll say is, while I agree that we certainly can’t be proud of EVERYTHING our country did in that war, I also think it would be unrealistic to expect such unbroken spotless behavior, and on the whole I think it is healthy and right for us to take pride in the good our country accomplished in that war. A conflict that major (the largest the world has ever seen, really) will always involve real tragedies, and not every decision made will be good. And of course we should still remember, and feel properly ashamed of, those decisions that were wrong, and not just wave our hand and say, “well, what’s a few annihilated cities, give or take?”
On the other hand, it’s natural and inevitable that a country will be left with a sort of overall feeling or attitude towards a major world event like that. In the case of Vietnam, for example, we feel sour and ashamed. I won’t venture any thoughts on how we should feel about that, but I do think it proper, when we reflect on WWII, that our on-the-whole feeling be positive. Even if our record was not flawless (which as I say, would have been almost miraculous in a conflagration of that magnitude), the American people achieved a level of national unity in that war the like of which we’ve never matched before or since, and made significant sacrifices for a cause that was both important and just. And we ended up doing considerable good for the world. As a citizen of a later generation looking back, I think that’s legitimate reason to feel proud. Not to engage in mindless, jingoistic, red-tinted idealization of every aspect of that war, but to feel proud, the way it’s possible to feel proud of a family member for some noteworthy accomplishment without denying that they still have some serious character flaws.
As for the capital punishment issue, I never supposed you were joking. I supposed you were baiting me. And I didn’t wish to rise to the bait. Perhaps you weren’t thinking of it quite that way, but regardless… I understand your argument, and of course agree that choices should incur consequences, but, as you are aware, I am disturbed by what seem to me to be just a few sporadic and showy driblets of dramatic high justice from a government that has in a thousand other ways undermined its own authority even to address such matters. I don’t oppose capital punishment because it’s too mean or too violent or because I doubt that men like Scott Peterson deserve to die. But I’m not going to get warm fuzzies over the occasional execution thrown as a sop to the people in a few dramatic, high-profile cases, while our massive entitlement programs, our crazed litigation-happy culture, and even our criminal justice system in all but exceptional cases (just to name a few) all show how uninterested our government is in that kind of justice and personal responsibility. It disgusts me to see a government like ours trying to don that noble mantle the way a boy king might decide to go about knighting people as a lark on second Wednesdays of every other month. Better just to act like what it is — a civil peace-keeper — and content itself with locking dangerous people up.
“The funny thing is, to some people, these are all contemptible aspects of our nation, and areas in which Europe excels.”
Yes, in general, I tend to be proudest of those aspects of American culture that are most obviously in contrast to Western Europe. And those of which the liberals are most ashamed. It makes me wish I could engage in displays of unbridled patriotism — you know, since I have so much common ground with unapologetic American patriots… and yet, and yet, and yet.
And yet, the three-fourths or so of Americans who hold to such values do so as a matter of course, born more out of ignorance than the exercise of reason and grace?
Oh, no, I wouldn’t finish the sentence that way! For the most part I do think these are healthy traits, showing good sensibilities even where the people who hold them wouldn’t be able to back them up fully with reasoned arguments. I’m not generally one for sneering at right-thinking people just because their level of philosophical education is somewhat less than mine. (Well, not unless they’re trying to boast more expertise than they really have.)
And yet… this is still a country founded on modernist principles. A country that, one way or another, still appropriates more than half of net earned incomes in taxes, that does practically nothing to defend the unborn, that has allowed its social services to be so rotted through with cancerous liberal ideals that it’s hard to imagine how we could ever turn them around. There are too many things wrong to let me enjoy a day of untroubled patriotic euphoria, even on the fourth of July.
Still, as compared with many European countries… God bless the USA!
Out of curiousity– which countries do you like better than the USA?
Heh heh. I have to like some countries? Can I say Malta?
But the truth is, your question reveals a political science-oriented mind, while I am a Catholic philosopher. I don’t tend to evaluate the state of a country so much by comparison to other current countries, as by my own conception of what a state should be, and also to some degree reflection on what various societies have been like over the course of history. In many respects, I don’t think most any Western countries are in particularly great shape. Whereas non-Western countries… have other problems.
Maybe that means I’m just a malcontent. :)
There are plenty of ways in which the United States is, at any rate, a lot better than most other places in the world right now.
Ah, I see. Because I was going to say we don’t kill protesters. Usually. And we have fairly well-defined property rights leading to stability. Usually. But I guess that one’s getting a little utilitarian. I also like how we absorb immigrants relatively well.
Yes. There are one or two good things about being a developed country. When you’re living abroad in one of these, err, less developed countries, you feel awfully patriotic on the 4th, I recall. And then your first 4th back in America, it still has some effect: “We have ATMs in this country! Huzzah! And our teachers (policemen, doctors, judges, politicians, etc etc) do their real jobs instead of living by accepting bribes! God bless America!”
Now, having been back longer, I have more rigorous ideological standards that I want satisfied before I’m prepared to go wild with patriotic fervor. But yeah, it’s worth remembering that in lots of ways, we ain’t got it too bad.
Patriotifm being the laft refuge of the fcoundrel, and this moft auguft Society being, like ancient Rome, America, and the Church herfelf, nothing if not an afylum for rogues and fcoundrels, I wonder why fo few of our members have chimed in to record the benifons with which God has endowed this great nation.
Yes, the ATM is indeed a great invention. Thus far, I have had the good fortune of traveling only in countries that have a good supply of them. Personally, I prefer the Italian word “bancomat” to the American ATM, which lends itself so easily to the vulgar redundancy of “ATM machine.”
My local bank in Uzbekistan had an ATM. I was amazed and excited… until I learned that, in order to use it, you first had to go to the counter, get your money order, bring it back to the “cage” (the more secure back room where the actual money was kept), and get the guy in the cage to count out the specific amount you wanted to withdraw, and then load it up in the machine. And then he would watch while you took it from the machine.
I think they were a little disappointed when I said that, if that’s really how it worked, I’d just as soon take the money from the cage guy directly. You know, just to save time. And also because I did enjoy the squirrelly feeling of emerging from the dark, smoke-filled back room of the bank with a paper bag full of money. (They’d had heavy inflation there, so withdrawing a month’s salary involved some serious volume.)
We had bankomats in Azerbaijan, with money even… everyone was amazed that I knew how to use them instead of having the security guard do it for me. This also brings us back to another great thing about America– our ability to form lines. Nice, neat, patient lines. Of course, we don’t have nearly enough respect for old people that old people try to take advantage of that to get into the front of the line/crowd as they would sometimes in Azerbaijan. And that might be a big mark against us– not so much respect for tradition.
I posted something here but have decided to take it back since there was an alternative explanation I hadn’t thought of.
Good post and thought provoking. When things seem bad it’s always good to count your blessings. I think it’s natural to love your country in general: the place where you were born, grew up and have happy memories. There was peace and safety in your neighborhood, the country’s borders were secure, you were able to go to school, practice your Faith, eat well and pursue your own interests. We hope that continues for the next generations. Yet, if people don’t stand up, speak out, and fight against those evils that are encroaching upon the good things we enjoyed, there won’t be much left for which to be grateful. For love of country, everyone should be able to point out the wrongs of the past as well as those that are current.
People say, “You should be grateful that you live in a country where your rights are guaranteed.” Yes, that is something to be grateful for—that my God given rights are protected—but should I be inspired with patriotic fervor because I’m not shot for speaking the truth, or because I’m not jailed for going to Mass? I am grateful to be able to practice my religion but ungrateful when the state promotes irreligion or allows devil worshippers the same rights as God fearing people. Should I be patriotic because I can believe in the Ten Commandments while the state ignores the first three, overturns the 5th by law and allows corruption of its citizens—even the very young—by those who militantly oppose the 6th and 9th? Shouldn’t the state be protecting the family and family values rather than promoting contraception, divorce and same sex marriage? What would we thing of a hospital that did not believe in the germ theory? And yet perversion which is the known cause of AIDS goes unimpeded.
I think everyone is generally grateful for the economic benefits attached to our nation, but the moral state—the soul of our country—is not doing too well. And let’s not forget the intellectual aspect: the schools where true religion is taboo and atheism is taught, where creation in which man comes from the hand of God body and soul, must yield to the evolution of man from an ape. Our Lady of Fatima said that in punishment for sin the errors of Russia will spread. The root error is atheism and it sure is spreading.