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One World American Exceptionalism



 


One-World American Exceptionalism
 
Steven R. Berryman
 
[from The Tentacle -  August 12th 2013]
 
 
 
God bless America, for we are still “exceptional” in a world that would force us to be “merely just the same.” Global forces that we have both willingly and unwittingly embraced pull us away from a status that once made our nation the envy of the planet.
 
We once encouraged innovation, entrepreneurship, competition and risk taking. Now we have Internal Revenue Service controlled medicine by the state, a planned economy determining winners and losers by political fiat, and a massive state security apparatus. Congressional oversight has been blocked and obfuscated, as reported by complaints in The Washington Post.
 
We are exceptional in that we – as a people – know that something is wrong, as was recently reflected in a headline of presidential approval naming this administration with but a 41% positive rating. Internet media reported it. The MSNBC’s of the world did not. At least we still have alternative – and emerging – competitive information channels. Others do not.
 
Interestingly, the United Kingdom’s Guardian and other European publications are far savvier about honesty in the press than are our old “gray lady” publications. The recent sale of The Washington Post to Amazon.com’s Jeff Bezos notwithstanding.
 
Will we get free shipping with that freshly slanted opinion piece?
 
We are exceptional in that the news that voters, who re-elected Barack Obama, have been disappointed by “results” has not been fully suppressed, even though the capability to do so exists in our exuberant Intelligence-Security-complex.
 
The downside that every American must be aware of is that the capability to politically target and suppress activists within the interactive media environment is already in force, from those large dark windowless buildings and server farms of Northern Virginia, Fort Meade, and now Utah.
 
It must become more widely known that Facebook posts deemed subversive (in a world where perspective determines this definition) are routinely hidden from view, sent to dummy servers made to appear like your posts are normally delivered, and deleted. Google search results are very much up for hire, and search results are controlled to satisfy political considerations.
 
Google plundering – as the new censorship – discourages grassroots formations, and kills unfortunate leaks that would otherwise “go viral.”
 
We remain exceptional in that you are reading the above in an open web publication, at this exact moment, and I have not been blocked or arrested! [But, please, somebody come and look for me on Monday.]
 
We remain unexceptional, and more “global” by comparison in that the do-nothing Congress, along with the “done nothing” presidency went on vacation with too much of the people’s work undone, despite widespread agreement that we are operating in a crisis mode.
 
We remain unexceptional in that our leadership has learned that maintaining a status quo of indecision is safer than in making hard choices; witness “the sequester.”
 
Once we were Ronald Reagan’s shining city on a hill, led by vision, as opposed to the self-coercion of our radical automatic program cuts. Instead of proactively making program cuts and staff adjustments to make an adjusted department budget, we find ourselves handing out weekly furlough notices, ruining the home budget process for already struggling millions.
 
We have become more global in that political success is defined as not making mistakes...by avoiding choices. This formula, however, only works for the ruling party at hand – Democrats in our case.
 
The downside is that the loyal opposition party in America is far too comfortable remaining divided – and spends not its political capital punishing executive fiat.
 
The “American Exceptionalism” once derided in the early twentieth century by Progressives must now be refreshed! Internal matters of exaggerated terrorism threat and of encouraged fear from within must be decimated by individual citizen involvement and a relentless push-back.
 
Or else history will write that we have learned nothing from the experience of the failed Soviet state, and we will ultimately reach down to parity with the emerging China.
 
A planned economy is not consistent with any exceptionalism, but seems to be winning points with administration globalists.
 
Let’s plan to become exceptional again instead; vote your conscience, not your party.
 
 
 

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