American self-absorbtion
Reader comment on item: Mysterious America

Submitted by Peter Herz (United States), Aug 17, 2006 at 21:37

Something tells me that if we all lived in China towards the later years of the Tang dynasty--maybe around 870 AD, before the revolt of Huang Chao wrecked too much--we'd probably also be the self-absorbed navel gazers who baffled the Koreans, Viets, Tibetans, and Turks (then resident in what's now Mongolia). We would have absorbed a wave of Western immigration with little regard for what we got; except maybe some crotchety Confucian purists miffed at Buddhist empresses honoring the bone of a barbarian (face it: the Buddha was from India).

This self-absorbtion is, I fear, a disease of those who are just a bit too secure.

Then again, I suspect that the Canadians actually do understand our mysterious country. If they didn't, their side of the border would be better armed than it is. Even when they're viscerally anti-US, they know that in our heart of hearts, we've settled for a peaceable and relatively reliable neighbor rather than harp on an unfinished revolution.

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