The Ghost of America: Ignorance is bliss?

"I would rather have my ignorance than another man’s knowledge,because I’ve got so much more of it"......Mark Twain
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I grew up in America’s bland and comfortable 50s. To be honest neither I nor my compatriots knew a damned thing about what was going on in the world. We didn’t know there was a war in Indo-China, or Korea, or Spanish Sahara. We didn’t know what was happening in our own government, were totally unaware of drugs and gangs and crime. Even sex was a complete mystery. Ignorance was pure bliss!

In school we never learned about who General Custer really was, or about Wounded Knee or the fire bombing of Dresden. Hell, we didn’t even hear about Hiroshima or Nagasaki. But we did watch plenty of old Westerns on black and white TV and somehow KNEW that the good guys and the Cavalry (that’s Calvary to you, George) would always ride to the rescue and wipe out the filthy savages!
In this light, in retrospect, it’s easy to understand why we were so innocent and why we believed in America’s continually self perpetuating myth; that we stand for something BETTER than do other nations. WE are more generous, more compassionate, more understanding and more supportive of human rights and dignity than anyone else on the planet.

That is the myth. Then...and now.

Somehow we sold this notion to the world, and we were all the better for having created that sublime image. In that way..even up until quite recently, we garnered the admiration,approval and respect of most of the world’s nations (they can be ignorant too!). Not that we didn’t do some good in the world, we surely did...it’s just that... as in our ignorant past...we tend to forget the downside. Our Ghost.

Our ghost is the illusion of what was..and what is. We are larded with guilt for the horrors we’ve perpetrated on this planet in the NAME of goodness, mercy, and generosity. Our forefathers wanted these qualities to prevail, but in the long run it’s easy to see that they have not. Even under president Clinton the illusion still held sway, but when Bush took the reins...all the nightmares of our past which we had put to rest rose up once again to remind us of what we really are underneath the lipstick.

It’s not too late to dispell the ghost and change direction. But I woouldn’t count on any mainstream political party to accomplish that seemingly insurmountable task. It’s going to require a coalition of the MORE than willing...a group of intelligent, open minded,talented and imaginative rebels if we are to win this war against the TERROR that is the Bush Adminisration and those criminals behind it.