Posted by
The Happy Existentialist on Thursday, January 10, 2008 10:18:29 AM
I am an American who has spent most of his life living outside of the United States. Yet, I fervently believe in the idea/ideal that is "America." I don't apologize for what we do, yet at the same time, I like to think I don't simply uncritically accept everything, either.
I tend to think of politics as comparative analysis, and this is basically true of simply mucking about the world and seeing how people live. I've been to lots of countries, and lived in a fair amount of them in a lot of different circumstances. I haven't simply been a "post-modern business colonialist" coming in and observing some native environment from the penthouse for a two or three year assignment, but someone who has made a lifetime out of articulating where I want to go, and then finding out a way to get there.
I have been soldier, poor, middle class and rich. Currently, I'm middle class. I'm comfortable without being extravagant.
I haven't stepped foot in the United States for more than five years, yet I am still an out-an-out American patriot.
More later.