An Essay in Multiple Parts
My Adventures in Blogger World
Chapter 1
When I can’t think of anything especially interesting to say on my own blog, I hit the Next Blog key to find out what my fellow Bloggers are thinking and writing. I try and spend enough time at each one to gain a sense of the content and decide whether or not a particular Blog is worth reading. Usually this effort takes only a couple of seconds. I quickly click past the ones pitching a product as I'm not interested in learning more about mortgage loans or lower airline fares or how to start an online business. Nor do I linger over those Blogs that seem designed to reach a limited audience of family and friends with updates on the children’s health or the local church group’s activities. And of course I spend no time on the ones written in a language other than English except sometimes to admire the photos that might be posted there. It’s not that these are not all worthwhile Blogs. They simply don’t appeal to me as I’m sure mine does not attract the attention of many Bloggers surfing along side me.
There are, however, certain Blogs that I am compelled to peruse even though I am instinctively repelled by their contents. I have to stop and read almost compulsively even though my better instincts tell me to click and move on to more benevolent territory. These Blogs are written by what I have come to call the "A3B Crowd". More on this later.
Chapter 2
A3B is shorthand for "America is a Big Bad Bully" and I have discovered that the adherents to this philosophy really like to write about how much they dislike America, how bad, bad, bad America is and how the world must rise up and do something about it.
At this point, I think I should make sure I am not misunderstood. I do not believe that everyone who thinks unfavorably about us is an A3Ber.. Many thoughtful people --both in the USA and elsewhere-- hold passionate beliefs about this country and freely voice sincere opinions about America, its political and economic systems, its foreign policy, its culture. Often those opinions are critical, can seem unfair and be unpleasant to hear or read. But we are grown-ups in this country –most of us anyway-- and we can handle it. We know that people disagree and are often angry in voicing their displeasure with us. It doesn’t mean that they are driven by incoherent hatred and want to see us all dead.
We are, after all, the world’s only superpower. It would be naive for us to think that the rest of the world doesn’t pay attention to us, doesn’t sometimes feel smothered and coerced by us. And we are not always right. We have many faults. We spend a lot of time obsessing over some of our failings while ignoring others. I am not a proponent of the "my country right or wrong" doctrine. I believe in "my country right or wrong and if we’re wrong we’ll try and fix it".
I believe we should be willing to accept honest criticism and not be so quick to dismiss it as self-righteous, pretentious drivel delivered by obtuse foreigners inhabiting morally bankrupt societies who have conveniently forgotten their own rapacious histories of mayhem, pillage and plunder, the consequences of which they have left for us to ameliorate with massive amounts of American blood and treasure.
Honest criticism is fair. It can be helpful. It should always be respected. This essay is not about that. This essay is about those who really despise us and hope many bad things happen to us.
Chapter 3
During my blog surfing adventures, I discovered a blog written by someone who seems to be fairly well educated and articulate, a citizen of another country. He expresses himself in clear, unequivocal language. And he just flat out doesn’t like America. He thinks we are responsible for almost everything that’s gone wrong in the world. Very angry, very passionate, very intense. Ok, I can live with that. Honestly, most of what he’s written is yesterday’s news, we’ve heard it already, yadeyadeya, America is a Big Bad Bully, blah blah blah.
But what did catch my eye was a comment left in response to one of his screeds. The commenter, who of course posted anonymously, opined that there were only a few things that could effectively deal with this problem we call America and his number one choice was...
a Natural Disaster.
That's right, he’s hoping for "mother nature" to come calling, some horrifying catastrophe that will presumably wipe out millions of Americans and leave our society in chaos, our economy in ruins and our government powerless to do anything about it.
I read his comment and I thought to myself, hmmm, that’s interesting. He’s hoping for what exactly? Does he have any idea how big this country is? How an earthquake in LA has no real effect in Missouri. That a hurricane in Florida gets little local coverage in Oregon because it’s too far away. A tornado in Oklahoma does nothing to Maine. A flood in Iowa leaves Georgia untouched. A volcano erupting in Washington state doesn't panic anyone in Indiana.
What kind of natural disaster does he think could happen and have the impact he desires? I don’t know. Maybe he’s been watching Armageddon, hoping Ben Affleck gets blown off the asteroid and fails to detonate the world saving bomb. And then I thought, is this all he’s got? His big solution to deal with us is to hope the weather acts up? Come on, he has to have something better than that.
Well, he did actually have a couple of other fiendish thoughts. Other countries, he opined, could take their money out of our economy (hmmm...and put it where exactly?), oooohhhh, no, please no. OR maybe, just maybe, we’ll invade Syria or Iran, overreach and "get (our) asses kicked". Because those Syrians and Iranians are just spoiling for a fight with those fat, dumb and happy American soldiers and marines sitting directly between their two countries right now. Because wouldn’t it be a good thing for there to be more war, more death, destruction and chaos, if it meant the end of America.
I think he needs to screw the ol' thinkin' cap back on and cogitate a little more deeply about how to cope with the Big Bad Bully, America.
posted by Presley Bennett @ 3/11/2005
10 comments
10 Comments:
I haven't had much luck with the Next Blog button myself. That is to say, I haven't had much luck when I've clicked it, but I'm really glad that you did and found me.
I honestly can't understand why someone would hate America so passionately. I mean, yeah, the US has presumably done some questionable things in the past, but what country hasn't?
I used to be pessimistic about the future of the world... I could only see things getting worse. But maybe not? Maybe we all might, eventually, be able to figure these things out? There seems to be, for example, just the slightest hint of hope for peace in the Middle East.
On another topic, being a conservative, what do you make of the doubt raised about Bush's legitimacy as the 'real' president? Presumably you've seen some of Mike Moore's material - what's your response to that? Most of my friends here in Melbourne love Michael Moore so I haven't really had a conversation with anyone who supports Bush Jr.
I'm your first Bush fan? Wow...unbelievable considering 59 Million people voted for him this time. I think two things about your question. First, questions about his legitimacy come from his first election. Those doubts were not shared by a majority of the people and were used by the opposition (the Democrats) to try to keep their hardcore supporters angry and motivated to work against the President and defeat him. This effort failed. Second, whatever lingering questions were raised about his legitimacy were resolved with his second election where he carried not only the electoral college (a peculiar part of our system which I can explain separately if you'd like) but also the popular vote by 3 million.
I should also point that I don't know how conservative I am. I don't have strong feelings about so-called social issues (gay rights, abortion, etc.)and think the government should stay out of people's lives. I care primarily about a strong national security, for reasons mostly having to do with 9/11.
As to Michael Moore, I don't pay too much attention to his work as I think he is the best example of a capitalist I've seen in awhile. He does what he does to make money. And he does that very well.
ah, Michael Moore comes up in conversation. Here's the thing. Moore is not an opponent of capitalism. It just so happens that many of his fans are. What he opposes is corporate abuse of capitalism. I myself believe strongly in the free enterprise, but I make the qualification that the government isn't the only body that is capable of injuring it.
I think that you would find Bowling for Columbine and Farenheit 9/11 to be worth watching, even if you don't agree. I myself think that he takes a few parts of his arguements a bit too far, but he makes valid points
I personally watch the O'Reily Factor when I can catch it, even though I would like nothing more than to see O' Reily publicly humiliated. I remember one time on the show, Bill had Geraldo on with him, and warned him that by supporting Michael Jackson he was putting his reputation at stake. This is the guy who got kicked out of Iraq for revealing the movements of the unit he was embedded in.
I have only one question about your reason for supporting Bush, and I hope you don't take it the wrong way, because I understand where you're coming from. If national security is important to you, why did you vote for the man who before September 11th paid no mind to a President's Daily Breif entitled "Osama bin Laden determined to attack America?" I'm not saying that anything could have been done to prevent the attacks. A breif like that seems to be attention-worthy is all.
I love the lexicon, though.
E/W, I can't stand Bill O'Reilly. I think he is pompous and does what he does because it makes his show popular. I honestly don't think much of the screeching extremists on either side of the political equation, who twist the facts and demonize the other side to suit their own purposes.
I think Michael Moore is a propagandist (and a money-grubbing capitalist, not that there's anything wrong with that). For a point of view supporting this, please see
http://www.moorewatch.com/.
As to my hero, President Bush, I support him because I know he will not f**k around if and when we get hit again by Osama or anyone else. He showed what he will do after 9/11. And because I believe he is right in his view that the only way we can be safer is if there is greater liberty and self-determination for the citizens of the Middle Eastern countries. Whether it can happen, I don't know. But I believe in the fundamental premise.
P.S. Bush is not really my hero, the men and women of the American military are the true heroes. They're the ones who kick the ass, he just calls out the names.
yeah, I have some serious issues with Moore as well. I just find that his works tend to be relevant.
I agree with you about the military, however I resent the idea that to protest a war is to not support them. I do support them... I want them here.
These are men and women who are willing to endure unnatural horrors and put their lives on the line for their country. I think that we owe it to them not to warhawk, and to not put them into harm's way unless there is no other recourse.
Bush was planning to go to Iraq as soon as he came into office. I can't see how this war could be considered a last resort. I feel that the dedication of our armed forces has been abused and insulted by this administration, above which there are few greater acts of treason.
Suffice it to say that a majority of the soldiers and their families voted for Bush. But I'm glad you support our soldiers whatever you might feel about the war (I assume you mean the one in Iraq and not Afghanistan, where we still have thousands of soldiers stationed). Enough on politics. I'm on to scary movies.
Yes, I did mean Iraq.
Though I must admit I'm hardly an expert on the subject, I welcome the shift
Saije, I very much enjoyed this blog and all the comments.
I don't believe that war was the answer in this situation and I believe that there is much more to why 9/11 happened than the government wants us to know. But, I do support our troops especially since my boyfriend is one of them). All we can do is support them - and if one doesn't agree with the war, like me, then we should still support them because it's not like they made the decision to invade Iraq.
I also can understand why so many countries hate America. We do stick our nose into everyone elses business but that doesn't make it right for people to wish death and destruction on the U.S.
Why doesn't anyone believe in that old saying "Make love, not war". Why can't we all just get along?
Why is our government so obsessed with being the most dominant country in the world? Doesn't history prove that the dominant countries of the past were eventually taken down? Enough of my blabbing on and on.
Summary, treat others as you would like to be treated.
Amen to all of the above. This blogosphere business can be pretty bizarre, especially when you're "next blogging". One minute you're reading a brilliant post about Jesus and when you next blog there's a picture of someone's anatomy staring you straihgt in the face.
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