The average American does not play the stock market. The average American works his ass off and pays a shitload of taxes, especially considering that he/she gets NOTHING in return: not an educational system, not a health-care system, not public parks (except in the wealthy neighborhoods), not any kind of real support in the event of job loss, and soon, no old age/retirement benefits.
>Their values permeate the
>popular culture of half the world and get recycled out of the mouths of
>little kids (like mine) who think that everbody uses dollars, goes to 'high'
>school and that alumninium is pronounced in a way that bears no relation to
>its spelling.
"Their values" are values that have permeated their "consciousness" as a result of the most poisonous, effective, brilliant form of brainwashing that human beings have ever experienced. The average American is continuously and unrelentingly bombarded with propaganda throughout his/her life. I came to this country at the age of 9 and I can attest to the power/effectiveness of this process even though I am highly educated, fairly conscious, socialist, etc. It is poison.
>Every day in the White House the daily polls are pored over to
>see what that average American is feeling. The economy depends on how they
>feel. The war depends on how they feel. Sure, their feelings are manipulated
>by politicians and entertainers just like a big fat dog rolls over when
>given a treat and tickled on the tummy. Is that an excuse?
Well the problem here is that you're assuming the average American is a subject. The average American is not a subject but an object that reacts in an object-like way to a changing context and to the way that context is represented culturally.
>I don't want to get ranty or anything. ANd its probabaly all down to what
>the New Criterion and the Wall Street Journal think is the jealousy of
>Europeans because they lost. Well, maybe. Maybe not though. It's just a
>thought.
It's more than a thought. I have met many Europeans who resent the U.S. because they feel the U.S. does not have the real consciousness/sophistication needed to run an empire and that the Europeans should get to do it because they are so much less naive and stupidly idealistic and can get the job done right. Graham Greene illustrates this view perfectly. So did the British sociology professor I met some years ago who bewailed to good old days when he had a box at the opera in which he could consume crumpets and champagne ....versus the present bad days when the evil Americans get everything....
The truth is that Americans are some of the loneliest and most miserable people on earth, whose life, ironically enough, is still held to be some kind of ideal to which all "progress" tends. God help us all.
Joanna