The Highway To Hell — A Jot

After WRSA published my Recommended Books list, I gets e-mail and I reply:

"Riding home from dinner; my guest had her toots in a twist about my comment that some of America's dysfunctional behavior is a natural result of Europe's imperialism in America and, through America, to the rest of the world. 'City of London > Scottish holding companies > "American" holding companies, banks and "insurance" companies > "American" corporations > 1st, 2nd, 3rd world resources ....' She, having lived in france, Italy, St. Petersburg and Tibet, was furiously expounding 'reasons' for my error.

Your book list's '... very curiously neglected subject: the cross-imperial relationship between Britain and America, ...' reminds of that episode. Thanks."

Very touchy subject. It's enormously deep and broad. Still, I've been haunted for decades by Rand's contention that America never really and explicitly developed its own culture, but always looked to Europe for validation. At the same time, I've never forgotten her taking note -- before she died, already -- that there had once been a time when every other country on earth had compared itself to America, and then admonishing readers to ask themselves what it means that Americans had begun to compare their country to every other. This amounts to a fatal inversion of ethics which must necessarily have crucial political implications.

And it's easy for anyone to see, now: the debate over medicine is rife with this historical/political myopia. "But... European countries have socialized medicine!"

{fade to black}

We're really in it, now. Hang tough.

Ps. -- It's coming up on ten years now since I first saw in Usenet Martin McPhillips' declaration that, "It's France here, now." When he first said it, it rang to me with the stark clarity of a death knell.

There are people in my immediate life who flinch when they hear me say: "I fucking hate this country." Only the most courageous will listen to the coda: "This is not America." And, for my part, I have no patience for anyone who would soothe me with the sop that it's the best there is. I don't fucking care. It is not America, even if some people are satisfied that at least it's not Albania under the Soviets.

I remember America, and I will miss it for the rest of my life. Nothing else will do.