I agree with VSP here.
Suddenly people are realizing how good they have it here, as compared to places like Lebanon, Afghanistan, Jordan, or Egypt.
Meanwhile, I hate seeing patriotism being "cool". I like America because it's a country where we don't have people dying in the streets like India, or America 100 years ago. Read The Jungle to see what I mean by that. We have a lot more here in America than anyplace else. I speak to so many people from other countries, and have friends from other countries especially, and they'd love to have so much time in their native lands to worry about the president.
Most people in this world care about where their next meal is coming from, and don't worry about George W. Bush
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Most people want to be part of something that allows them to take out their aggressions. It's only natural. I saw a lot of this during the Gulf War, when people were taking out their aggression on Iraqis and Muslims. VSP comparing it to Cowboys fans at an Eagles game just sums it up for those of us from Philadelphia or who have spent time here.
I was driving around yesterday and saw many American flags on cars. The scary part is that I saw more Sixers flags on cars during the NBA finals.
It's cool to be a patriot now, apparently. Just like it was cool to cheer on AI during the playoffs.
Most people want to be detached from this situation.
Some of us have relatives working in that zone right now.
Meanwhile, we're arguing over the theoretical implications of this instead of doing something. VSP is right. It's cool for people to associate themselves with this, but not cool for them to do anything beyond face value.
This reminds me so much of late 1930's America, when everyone talked about Appeasement, especially Neville Chamberlain, and Anschluss, the Austrian-German unification of 1938.
During that era, we all talked about isolationism as well. We talked and talked, but did nothing.
Pearl Harbor changed that, because as the effects became clear, it because quite obvious that there are no innocents, and that everyone gets affected.
It took a little while, however America realized that everyone had to contribute. This attitude that we have is that of overconfidence.
Maybe it takes a few events like this for people to wake up out of their theoretical little world. Instead of just waving flags, we can do something. As someone who grew out of snotty kid into someone who knows that you can't ever categorize people, you can only work to do things to help others out.
There are no innocents. We can only do what we can to help others in existence.
Rant Off.
MBP