COFFEE BREAK 89

+ updated at 6:25pm EST.

+ John Preston offers "American Narrative Project: Growing up in the 'Good' America".

Excerpt:

The innocence of being a member of a purely good nation has fallen. The claims of American exceptionalism are no longer persuasive. A reading of the times and of prophetically critical authors has brought me to the “other side of American innocence.” I am much more inclined to view our history as plutocratic from the founding of our nation. And, I see a trajectory in our history from plutocracy to having become a massive empire in the world.

I believe that such empire is never innocent. But can it be justified? There is a basic question in ethics, and that is: does the end justify the means? I now think that for the most part the answer to that question in most instances is either ‘no”, or, a very morally qualified and rationalized “yes”. Yet, I think that our narrative would essentially answer in the affirmative based on our “spreading democracy in the world” and countering global poverty through the spread of our market system and capitalism.

We are at a point of what some have labeled “blow back.” There are many contenders here, from terror inflicting groups to the Earth itself. One way to be an agent of transformation out of empire to what some have called “Earth Community” is to understand our narrative, critique what is false or omitted, add new themes, and always be aware of how political ideology has shaped and used the narrative for its own political power, and for building the empire.