The Visage of War
When I'm home I keep my head out of the general sort of global happenings -- the daily, the new -- to a large extent. I don't read the paper, (except the funnies,) or watch the news, and online I can avoid headlines and seek out the information I want - read about the parts of humanity I might be interested in. Here, it's easier in some respects, as my sphere of life is kind of outside the world, and global goings-on don't seem to affect me quite as much.
I am not completely isolated from things, though: My coworkers like to update me on the doings of crazy Americans, like the sniper and his short-lived reign of terror, and Bush and his own, larger scale and more terrifying, reign. And, living in a hostel, I meet others from around the world each day, and must confess to them that I share the same nationality of a lot of loony, shortsighted, and ignorant folks. I won't apologize for being American, nor am I embarrassed, but I will only be held accountable for the current situation to the extent that every other person in the world is responsible to the same degree. Everyone's a loony and everyone's shortsighted and ignorant. And everyone's responsible. I don't know enough about details to discuss politics. I don't want to. I know too much of it is selfishness and power struggle and bullshit, and I'm tired of it. I don't want war, or terror, or division.
I am not proud to be an American, nor am I ashamed. I have no reason to be proud (to hold respect for myself) because I was born in one place rather than another. I have no reason to be ashamed specifically of the actions of a people born near me. Any self respect and ashamedness I hold deals with me, and deals with humanity, and is not held to an artificial border of state.
Every man is the lord of a realm beside which the earthly empire of the Czar is but a petty state, a hummock left by the ice. Yet some can be patriotic who have no self-respect, and sacrifice the greater to the less. They love the soil which makes their graves, but have no sympathy with the spirit which may still animate their clay. Patriotism is a maggot in their heads.
-- H.D. Thoreau, Walden