Happy Fourth of July! In celebration of our 234th birthday, here’s a documentary that just aired last night on what makes America so great, featuring John Stossel and Dinesh D’Souza. Our free market economy, our military (Believe it or not), our generosity, and the freedom guaranteed under our Constitution (You’ll be hard pressed to find the same level of freedom in other countries) are just several of these things.
Part II | III | IV | V | VI| VII
Tags: America
Only on Fox News…..
Ok, so I wrote a blog entry relating to this type of thing quite recently (with the arrival of July 4th). I have no problem with July 4th being celebrated; on the contrary, I understand why it is important to your country and why it is a day worthy of celebration. But there’s being proud of your country, of it’s own achievements (for their own sake) etc, and then there is arrogance – and I’m sorry, in places these videos just seem like arrogance.
Example to highlight my point: I am proud of England; I am proud of our history, I am proud of the lessons that history has taught us and how we have got to where we are today – and I acknowledge that there are plenty of things from our history NOT to be proud of. But these things that I am proud of are worthy of pride regardless of other countries; I’m not proud of our history for how it compares to America’s, I’m not proud of our culture because of how it compares to America’s. Etc. You see what I’m saying? There were a lot of sections in these videos where it seemed like the commentator was essentially saying “the rest of the world (specifically often Europe) has it really bad! We are awesome compared to them….high five!”.
Like I said, there’s nothing wrong with being proud of your country, but show a little grace about it and keep in mind that other people are proud of theirs too – and actually, you have plenty of your own problems just as every other country does.
If your pride in your country is based on the size of your military, the amount of money in your pocket, or how you “compare” to other countries – then I can tell you that your pride is a fragile thing, because every one of those things is temporary and WILL one day be less than it is today. Michael Pearson