I was talking with a typical anti-American at work once. The type who's sneering of Americans has jealousy written all over it. But truthfully it was I that volunteered this complaint of an American stereotype, if only to seek some common agreement in the conversation lest it turn into argument. The fact that so many Americans think that Freedom is something unique to America.
The 'good ole boy' song, sung loudly at Speedways and once covered by Beyonce has the lyrics "I'm proud to be an American, where at least I know I'm free. And I won't forget the men who died who gave that right to me". Just hearing those lyrics I'm sniffing condescendingly, and sniggering a bit, at tears wiped away from eyes, and the flag flapping in the wind. It's a bit laughable, as extreme American Patriotism seems to outsiders.
The fact that freedom, and by freedom it is largely assumed to be freedom of economics, expression and speech, is nowhere else but America. The rest of the developed world, and a large part of the developing world say; "Newsflash America, almost everyone has freedom". Freedom is enshrined in many constitutions, and even alluded to in the Magna Carta (the mother of constitutions). It's not new or unique. So why do Americans get so teary eyed over what is a basic everyday right, experienced by all bar a few despotic regimes? I have the answer of course.
Freedom for Americans is more than ideology. Essentially the freedom they talk and sing about is the freedom earned after 1776 and America was free of British tyranny. Calling British colonization of America 'tyranny' is of course being over-dramatic. When we see what the British were capable of in India and Africa, that was tyranny. But this really has nothing to do with the American embrace of freedom, not really. The freedom derived from their independence as a nation, is merely a mascot, not the heart of the matter.
I experienced American freedom on my first full day in Alaska - July 15, 2013. I remember spouting it to my wife in the car, who no doubt rolled her eyes at yet another over-indulgent observation I felt I absolutely had to share aloud. Freedom is in the landscape, the big sky, the open space.
Even as I type this and look out the window and see Mendenhall Glacier, and know behind that glacier is miles and miles of ice and nothing else. It is unfathomably endless, like space. And like the endlessness of the land, so the possibilities seem endless. And from possibilities, ambition. Once you sense it, you can never feel free in a terraced house in England or with your face against an armpit on the London Underground. Not saying uncomfortable (I miss The Tube) - just not free.
The USA isn't exactly the only country with miles and miles of space. Australia, Russia and Canada leap to mind. But to my knowledge and understanding, the entwining of freedom and landscape with the soul of the populace doesn't jump out at me as readily as in America. Maybe it is part revolution and part landscape. Australia and Canada don't harp on about it, yet they aren't nations formed out of revolution although they were settled by peoples of similar ancestry to Americans.
So yes in Britain, in France, in Germany and the whole of the EU we have political and sociological freedom. But I challenge anyone to gaze out at the Scottish Highlands, The Pyrenees or the Alps and see anything more than beauty. Amazing beauty, without a doubt. But not a landscape that screams freedom like the plains and mountains which join the rocky shores of Maine to the endless Pacific Ocean.
So that big bearded gentleman with a CAT hat on and his wife with a stars and stripes badge sown onto her blue puffer jacket. Then ones with their hands on their heart, and a lump in their throat when the word 'freedom' is sung. They aren't just thinking about macro-economics or The Emancipation Proclamation. They are thinking about the endlessness of the landscape they lovingly survive in. They possibly have a mind on some ancestor who came over on some plague-ridden ship and built his Jerusalem amongst the bears and the weather. The word 'Freedom' encapsulates all this. I get it!
But really what about me, it is all about me eventually. What did my epiphany of freedom on July 15 do to me, how did it effect me? As a person, I prefer see equality and liberty as causes all humans need to strive for on a personal and political level. Unfortunately the two aspirations are often at odds with eachother. In the choice of the two, I lean towards equality. And from equality comes a freedom for everyone. It seems while Liberte, Egalite and Fraternite are core values of France. It seems the USA, sees freedom as the only thing. Give all freedom and the rest will take care of itself. This is a myth, I think Americans are fooled by more than any other nation. They call it the American Dream.
The 'good ole boy' song, sung loudly at Speedways and once covered by Beyonce has the lyrics "I'm proud to be an American, where at least I know I'm free. And I won't forget the men who died who gave that right to me". Just hearing those lyrics I'm sniffing condescendingly, and sniggering a bit, at tears wiped away from eyes, and the flag flapping in the wind. It's a bit laughable, as extreme American Patriotism seems to outsiders.
The fact that freedom, and by freedom it is largely assumed to be freedom of economics, expression and speech, is nowhere else but America. The rest of the developed world, and a large part of the developing world say; "Newsflash America, almost everyone has freedom". Freedom is enshrined in many constitutions, and even alluded to in the Magna Carta (the mother of constitutions). It's not new or unique. So why do Americans get so teary eyed over what is a basic everyday right, experienced by all bar a few despotic regimes? I have the answer of course.
Freedom for Americans is more than ideology. Essentially the freedom they talk and sing about is the freedom earned after 1776 and America was free of British tyranny. Calling British colonization of America 'tyranny' is of course being over-dramatic. When we see what the British were capable of in India and Africa, that was tyranny. But this really has nothing to do with the American embrace of freedom, not really. The freedom derived from their independence as a nation, is merely a mascot, not the heart of the matter.
I experienced American freedom on my first full day in Alaska - July 15, 2013. I remember spouting it to my wife in the car, who no doubt rolled her eyes at yet another over-indulgent observation I felt I absolutely had to share aloud. Freedom is in the landscape, the big sky, the open space.
Even as I type this and look out the window and see Mendenhall Glacier, and know behind that glacier is miles and miles of ice and nothing else. It is unfathomably endless, like space. And like the endlessness of the land, so the possibilities seem endless. And from possibilities, ambition. Once you sense it, you can never feel free in a terraced house in England or with your face against an armpit on the London Underground. Not saying uncomfortable (I miss The Tube) - just not free.
The USA isn't exactly the only country with miles and miles of space. Australia, Russia and Canada leap to mind. But to my knowledge and understanding, the entwining of freedom and landscape with the soul of the populace doesn't jump out at me as readily as in America. Maybe it is part revolution and part landscape. Australia and Canada don't harp on about it, yet they aren't nations formed out of revolution although they were settled by peoples of similar ancestry to Americans.
So yes in Britain, in France, in Germany and the whole of the EU we have political and sociological freedom. But I challenge anyone to gaze out at the Scottish Highlands, The Pyrenees or the Alps and see anything more than beauty. Amazing beauty, without a doubt. But not a landscape that screams freedom like the plains and mountains which join the rocky shores of Maine to the endless Pacific Ocean.
So that big bearded gentleman with a CAT hat on and his wife with a stars and stripes badge sown onto her blue puffer jacket. Then ones with their hands on their heart, and a lump in their throat when the word 'freedom' is sung. They aren't just thinking about macro-economics or The Emancipation Proclamation. They are thinking about the endlessness of the landscape they lovingly survive in. They possibly have a mind on some ancestor who came over on some plague-ridden ship and built his Jerusalem amongst the bears and the weather. The word 'Freedom' encapsulates all this. I get it!
But really what about me, it is all about me eventually. What did my epiphany of freedom on July 15 do to me, how did it effect me? As a person, I prefer see equality and liberty as causes all humans need to strive for on a personal and political level. Unfortunately the two aspirations are often at odds with eachother. In the choice of the two, I lean towards equality. And from equality comes a freedom for everyone. It seems while Liberte, Egalite and Fraternite are core values of France. It seems the USA, sees freedom as the only thing. Give all freedom and the rest will take care of itself. This is a myth, I think Americans are fooled by more than any other nation. They call it the American Dream.
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