festival of america

Club Chaos is going to have a Festival of America over the next couple of days.  It seems only fitting since tomorrow is Independence Day.  I'm going to do a little video tribute to the United States which will feature my images of America set to Philadelphia Freedom.  It will will pro-American in the extreme in line with my way of thinking!

But wait, there's more!

Michael Park has sent me a very thought provoking article on America as the hegemon.  Michael, also known as Father Park has long been a valued contributor to this blog so an article from him is particularly appreciated.  I hope you will find Michael's article as interesting as I did.  It would be great to go beyond the slogans and have a serious discussion about America's place in the world.

In fact since it is July 4 in the land of the brave and the home of the free, it seems fitting that free speech and unmitigated criticism of America should also form part of the mix.  To not have diverse and conflicting views would be positively unAmerican!

Let loose, Lataan because your words are also part of the American way.

Michael has inspried me a bit because I would like this to be the first of a national day series.  Let's roam the world on national days.  France is coming up soon, so Dylan, since you are there, maybe you could submit something on the current state of play in France.  Or it need not even be current. Some kind of retrospective would be interesting.  In fact ANYTHING on France would be interesting in time for July 14.

Then we have my beloved Switzerland on August 1.  Let's roll, because the world is an amazing place!

America kicks it off.

France is next..........unless of course someone has a country they like that has a national day between July 4 and July 14!

Comments

[Dylan Kissane]

No worries, Harry. I will knock something up in time.

[Phil Uebergang]

Yes Harry it is a complex mystery of a place. The US always invokes an image of organised chaos in my mind. I can understand why you love it.

A friend of mine was there recently and sent a fantastic email. It sounded more as though he were travelling through Baghdad on a bad day rather than the great world-leading USA, such was the absurdity and weird little perils of his journey. Mind you he was looking for all the quirky stuff - he loved it.

[Geoff Pahoff]

"God Bless America"

A beautiful song that both Democrats and Republican members of Congress stood together and sung on the steps of the Capitol on the afternoon of 9/11.

The ratbag Lataan talk about an "inside job" disgusts me more than I can say. What kind of a filthy minded mongrel would you have to be to believe horseshit like that? The man and all his type are a disgrace to the species and the fact that a publicly funded tertiary institution is about to award him a Ph.D in "American Studies" is a matter of national concern that I have decided to let them have the benefit of my opinion about.

You're an arsehole, Lataan. You are as foul a human being as they get. Do the world a favour and go away and die in great pain. No language has been invented that is robust enough to describe you.

[Kathy Farrelly]

God Bless America
Land that I love
Stand beside her, and guide her
Thru the night with a light from above
From the mountains, to the prairies
To the oceans, white with foam.

God Bless America
My home sweet home.

There's one for you Harry, a beautiful unofficial anthem.Whenever I hear it it brings tears to my eyes(sounds corny I know)
I first heard it as a child sung by 40s movie star Deanna Durbin (in old re runs on tv) Certainly is a rousing patriotic song.

[Harry Heidelberg]

Well yeah you are so right Phil.

I had a feeling you had an angle so I did not respond in a knee jerk way.

Think about "all men are created equal".

Yeah that was fine as long as you weren't black!

So America right from its foundation was full of contradictions.

No other country is as rabid about separation of church and state.... and yet "and God we trust" is the motto!

So the contradictions are all over the place.

Just like the best people, America is extremely complicated!!!!

[Phil Uebergang]

Harry I just think it's a bit unjust to the South Americans, but it's no big deal. It's probably a bit like calling Kiwis Australian. Yeah you're right, who cares really.

A couple of things interest me about the independence. One is the mercenary capitalist motivation behind it, rather than the altruism of popular history. The British were outsmarted at their own game by their own proteges. This was a precursor not only to the eventual capitalist spirit of the US, but also of their dominance over Britain in the game.

The other interesting thing is how the Constitution came to fall out of these pragmatic and somewhat cynical beginnings. It seems an unlikely event, on a par with Australian federalism.

[Michael Park]

I think that's a good idea - national days 'round the world.

And Phil, that too would be good. Will Howard and myself have had a couple of things to say about the US constitution and some of the reasons behind its drafting (the Electoral College for example) in the past....I can't for the life of me remeber which thread/month though.

[Harry Heidelberg]

No it is not America but typically only Canadians notice that! Also typically, the world calls the inhabitants of the United States, Americans, but they do not refer to Canadians and Mexicans the same way.

America and Americans is typically the shorthand other people use. Personally I most often use the US and the United States.

Anyway usually the terminology does not confuse people.

Canadians refer to themselves as North Americans. It is such a wank. They are Canadians and Americans are Americans.

I'd defer to others on how American independence came about becuase I am sure you know the basics.

You must be after some deeper interpretation than the one I can think of.

[Phil Uebergang]

To put the US in context (it's not really 'America' you know, but part thereof), it would be interesting to get a little history in on how its independence came about.