by Macunaima nli xxxxxiiiiii » Fri Jan 24, 2020 4:58 am
In 2006, I finished my thesis, which in many ways was an examination of America’s historical understanding of itself as “special” — Manifest Destiny, if you will — using its transition from killing to managing native populations while it simultaneously transitioned from a continental to a global empire as my research object.
When I was done with it, Ana had one question: “You’ve proven that America can’t do without Manifest Destiny and we also know that the end of that is coming soon. Don’t you think you are being a little too apocalyptic and, well, American when you suggest that this may also be the end of the world?”
And I said “You may be right. Maybe what I say is just and even more rarified form of American Exceptionalism. But what is America going to do when it discovers that it can’t rule the world, lock itself out from the world, or make the world just like it?”
Now we know America’s response: “I’m gonna take my ball and go home AND if you don’t play the way I say you should while I am at home, I will set the whole street on fire.”
In 2006, I finished my thesis, which in many ways was an examination of America’s historical understanding of itself as “special” — Manifest Destiny, if you will — using its transition from killing to managing native populations while it simultaneously transitioned from a continental to a global empire as my research object.
When I was done with it, Ana had one question: “You’ve proven that America can’t do without Manifest Destiny and we also know that the end of that is coming soon. Don’t you think you are being a little too apocalyptic and, well, American when you suggest that this may also be the end of the world?”
And I said “You may be right. Maybe what I say is just and even more rarified form of American Exceptionalism. But what is America going to do when it discovers that it can’t rule the world, lock itself out from the world, or make the world just like it?”
Now we know America’s response: “I’m gonna take my ball and go home AND if you don’t play the way I say you should while I am at home, I will set the whole street on fire.”
