Emphasize the Individual

While eating dinner this evening at McDonald’s I noticed a $.34 “eat in tax”. Don’t be alarmed, there is also a “take out tax” for those of us who do drive through window meals. One reflection led to another, and I came up with the idea that I would jot down a few remarks about the U.S, which may or may not be apparent to you.

1.The United States is a technological nation state---one of the most advanced and organized in the world. Certainly our history did not begin this way, nor was this even a goal of the founding fathers. They did not know what a nation state was because the ‘nation state’ did not properly exist then, being a product of the twentieth century. The nation state depends upon a certain level of technological mastery over nature and social praxis.

a) If the U.S. did not begin as a nation state, nor did aspire to such, how is a seamless historical record possible, such that there is a continuity of the hallowed traditions, so-called values, and concept of what it means to be a ‘citizen’?

Frankly speaking, these ‘constructs’ must be legitimated on a second order of ‘social reality’ since they have outgrown their ‘natural’ life.

In short, patriotism, the flag, national pride, the national anthem: all of these ‘realities’ had to be supported, bolstered, educated, invented, and marketed to the “citizen” in order that he/she might feel part of this great nation state.

b) If democracy was actually practiced by the founding fathers it was in a representative form and not an actual form as practiced in Athens where a ‘vote’ required a voice of a citizen present in an assembly. Well you will say that what existed in a ‘demos’ is not possible in a large colony, city state, or nation state. Having said that, we note that however pure you deem the early American democracy to have been, the present state is a ‘virtual’ (or make believe) democracy. Allow me to explain: as a member of my blood family, I possess some love and pride in being part of a clan and family---this is a first order reality---the feelings are real. Another example of a family is that some companies state that all of the employees are like one big family. This is a second order ‘reality’. The employee cannot be expected to ‘love’ this company more than his/her family, but in a sense, they agree to participate in this ‘family feeling campaign’ because, if they don’t they will no longer be able to hold their job. Investors talk of families of funds, etc… Frankly I believe that such loose metaphors are very poor poetry and that they end up doing great harm to human beings. After all “peacekeepers” have almost nothing to do with peace, but act as a global police force to further the nation state’s hegemony.

To sum up: democracy today is a virtual thing, no longer in its native soil. Memorizing dates of presidents’ birthdays, and going K-12 does not a citizen make.

c) This explains at least some of the malaise the U.S. citizen now faces. We are expected to hold all sorts of feelings which are ‘virtual’, unreal, like a saleswoman really caring for a customer and wanting to help them out. U.S. citizens are ready to defend the flag on the drop of a dime, and yet, in most cases are completely unaware of what the flag stands for in a nation state. If these citizens were ever to express their authentic and real feelings it would become clear that this large mass of people has nothing to unite them. They are in no way similar, their unity is a hoax.

d) Then how can we be expected to wage and fight wars? The virtual nation state ensures that perpetual warfare continue as it somehow consolidates citizens’ national pride---it depends upon this warfare to continue.

e) The crisis we are facing as a nation state is unavoidable, since the nation state is contrary to human truth. The best sort of citizen in a nation state is one of the worst type of human beings because first of all, they prefer lies to truth---for example, as a poet I can identify a sort of local pride in my birthplace and its environs. I even have feelings for the state in which I live. But the only feelings I have for the nation state are those beliefs and teachings which were placed into me through forced (compulsory) education. The national boundaries are arbitrary! Canada and the U.S. are one land! The warbler nests equally well either side of the border.

f) This explains the current administration’s obsession with border control. This administration is a type of reactionary---a ‘virtual’ reactionary, if you will. What I mean is that they have no more access to tradition, value and history than do you or I, however, the conservative Republicans claim that these values are their domain. Hence, they must project, market, amplify these so-called values which do not and probably never existed!
The virtual reactionary is so fixated on the nation state’s sovereignty, that he/she believes that they own or in some sense are entitled to the best things of this land for their family and friends.

g)The greatness of this country, is not in the flag, or government, and it never was. Whatever greatness may have existed in this melting pot, resided in flesh and blood individuals. The same sorts of valor and dignity which are recognized and respected by people everywhere. To invent, or show great courage is not an American virtue but human virtue. Truth is not a human possession but relies upon a transcendent confirmation and anchor---2+2=4 not because a mathematician wrote this down, but because when you put four apples on a table and three pears, we can see that there are four red objects, and three yellows. If there were four squirrels in a forest before man ever came there it does not mean that man had to discover the number four in order to be able to grasp these four very agile and gray-brown mini-mammals, and so on.
I could continue adding points and will but for now I want to emphasize that this manner of looking at the nation-state is fruitful in describing a root to the problems this nation now faces, and a clue as to what will follow.