United States Arrogance

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Had to share a quick thought as we experience these massive changes in our federal and local government and legal process.  I was hoping others would take the time to view and respond perhaps they may still consider.  Calling ourselves exceptional and tooting our own horn as far as being the greatest nation in the world and always referring to freedom as our crutch for everything seems to be getting real old.  America has had its moments and certainly has its share of skeletons; however, it takes a great degree of confidence to build on confidence. Outside the rhetoric and posturing for the sake of votes, this is a pretty damn phenomenal country.  My parents immigrated here because of the stories and boasting about the land of opportunity. They believed all the hype that was being sold years ago back in the 70’s. My family made that leap and faced tons of racism and adversity seemingly from all sides and groups of people, and I am here to tell you I am glad my parents believed.  My father always told me complaining is a luxury for people with full bellies and insignificant worries. Took me a while to understand what he meant.

America’s heavy boasting and coarse arrogance appeals to those who are hungry for opportunity with just a tiny glimmer of hope to feed it.  This is the greatest country in the world and our freedom runs so deep that it allows some of us to be arrogant and down right ignorant about it, but that is what it means to be American.  Yep to be as obnoxious and boisterous as we are willing to allow the constitution to support.  The great thing though, for all the posturing and chest pounding, we also have the opportunity not just the right to be able to openly discuss or challenge this subject in this country and through social media platforms. Yep social media platforms created by entrepreneurs who were audacious and may be arrogant enough to go for it.  As ugly as it sounds sometimes, it is that audaciousness, and belief of invincibility that pushes us beyond our limits and boundaries.  Yes there is a controllable amount of confidence that I want my children to have in order to believe they can be more than they can possibly imagine right now. 

I respect the opinions of others, yet I also hear others’ speak about being more humble and think, you have to believe you can fly before you will ever consider leaving the ground. I hope we keep our confidence as high as it needs to be to allow us to stretch past our limits, and still have those who dare to question our motives and level of arrogance enough to continue to allow us to keep the scales slightly tipped in favor of exceptionalism.   That constant tug of war is necessary and keeps us strong.  Therefore, I applaud both sides of thinking, but definitely lean more towards the belief of being exceptional.

In close, I am saying it takes a high level of audaciousness to create change and it can be mistaken for arrogance or being out of touch. I clearly understand that perspective and also believe what we need is that grit we had in the past to keep  this country great. The grit that allowed us to openly debate and discuss solutions. Debate and discuss possible solutions without the fear of offending someone as well as the self confidence and self efficacy to look beyond a person’s character flaws and poor choice of words to see if there is a valuable point, idea, or possible solution.  Personally I much rather focus on increasing my tolerance for offensive speech and behavior than spending time trying to convince others of someone’s or a nation’s arrogance. I say this out of fear of losing the potential opportunity to hear or experience a possible epiphany as a  result of listening to learn and not rebuttal against the manner a person chooses to communicate.