America has all sorts of annoying habits, some of little or no consequence, and others that most certainly do have meaningful consequences. For instance, America intones religiously that they are the epitome of what it means to be the “good guy” and everyone on the other side, is by definition, the “bad guy.” The fact that America insists on seeing this world, as a strictly binary one, in which, only those that are on America’s side are good, and all those that stand on the other side, or are ambivalent, are bad is not only stupid and simplistic, but it also is fundamentally flawed.
In truth, countries have a lot in common with the characteristics of people, of which, people are always going to be a mixture of good and positive attributes, as well as bad and negative faults. That is the way that we are, for even the best of people, slip up now and then, and even the worst of people, perform some virtuous deeds. So then, it is not conceivable for any one country to be consistently good and right, and for any other country, to be consistently bad and wrong. To believe then in a simplistic binary world is something that brews a whole lot of trouble, because people and nations that are incapable of honest reflection are going to not only make mistakes but also to compound their mistakes, because they don’t believe that they are ever mistaken.
When America insists upon proselytizing to the general public that they are always the good guys, this thus represents the type of mindset that will only breed discontent with all those that we could have friendly relations with but are precluded from doing so because hard binary divisions, are almost impossible to overcome, because there isn’t any middle ground or nuance attainable between these two respective groups. Indeed, quite obviously, the reason why so many people and countries are fixated upon good v. bad, is because they in actuality don’t want to consider that the opposing side has any value to their position and viewpoint, as well as also because they don’t want regular people to actually use their mind to think, but prefer people to just be compliant to the professed orthodox viewpoint.
So then, good v. bad, which may well make for a good storyline in a movie or book, is not a true reflection of how healthy societies operate, for the lack of even attempting to understand the other, leads obviously to incivility and intolerance, which isn’t healthy or right. The fact that the so-called leader of the free world, is so dogmatic about it always being good, and everyone else that doesn’t kowtow to the American view, being bad, makes for a world that will not have justice, peace, or civility, because there isn’t any room for that to occur.
Indeed, for all those that desire to have world peace, the very first thing that needs to occur, is for America to get off its binary high horse, and therefore open the door for actual meaningful diplomacy so that organizations such as the United Nations, would actually be united about the very things that are of most importance to healthy societies, which are peace, justice, fairness, and civility.