Re: MD Progressing beyond mirrors

dear risky,

with respect (and i mean this. your posts have been valuable sources of info and ideas for me)...

i have been interested in politics -- american foreign policy in particular -- for some years now. but first let me back up a bit:

i live in australia (the south africa of the noughties). i came to australia from the uk when i was 8 years old. australian antipathy (mostly playful) to 'pommies' got my hackles up from the start and for many years i was fiercely (ex)patriotic - a proud englishman (boy) abroad.

now i see both england and australia for what they are, and i am ashamed to align myself with either. what my countries do is done *in my name*, regardless of how little practical democracy we enjoy. my adopted country is partly responsible for the slaughter of thousands upon thousands of east timorese (as are the uk and usa); australia ceased taking aboriginal children forcibly from their parents (for assimilation into white society) only in the 70s (the stolen generations), and our primeminister still refuses to apologise; and australia's current policy towards refugees is illegal and barbarous.

the uk....need i say anything? the UKand its big brother the USA are the bullies of the world. whether by military means (eg panama, el salvador, iraq, vietnam, afghanistan, yugoslavia...), through the CIA (eg iran, chile, indonesia), or through economic forms of cultural genocide (eg NAFTA, globalisation) the USA, faithfully supported by its lapdog the UK, makes Hitler's Germany look philanthropic.

i know from talking to americans on my travels that the degree of disinformation in their country is outright orwellian - american ignorance of the reality of their own country's actions abroad is now somewhat of a cliche - but we have the 'net' now: there is no excuse anymore for being an ostrich.

the burden falls most heavily upon those free-thinking individuals of the first world - especially in the USA - to keep themselves informed about what is done *in their name*. those millions of people around the globe that continue to suffer and die -- because of the greed and megalomania of a tiny group of men who purport to speak for entire nations -- have no voice other than that occasionally heard through the violence of desperation (terrorism).

i fail to see how any  compassionate and informed first world individual could be anything other than passionately critical of his/her nation, be they american, english, australian whatever. this doesn't mean that one can't still feel kinship or even pride about their country's identity (eg the laconic and egalitarian spirit that is still a big part of the aussie psyche is beautiful), but the true 'patriots' are those that tell it like it is in the hope of making their country and the world a better place.

peace

gav