Another neat analogy with the San Andreas fault, Lawrence.

Nearly 30 years ago at the school I attended we had a 6th form talk from an American guy. He was totally unlike the American stereotype we saw on TV. So much so, that I remember that as soon as he walked into the Hall, a spontaneous round of applause struck up. He (I have long since forgotten his name) explained at some length about the rather callous nature of the US welfare system, the practical difficulties of true social mobility etc and concluded that it was "impossible to judge the outputs of a social system, without considering its inputs".

Interested to hear any other obsevations of US society from those who live there.

History of Haiti: First columbus shows up, and sends word to Ferdinand and Isabella that the natives are docile and good natured and easily exploited. I think the Indians were called the Carib indians and the Arawak indians. They were soon exterminated, and so slaves were brought in. Im not exactly sure when the French moved in, and in Haiti they speak a french dialect, but I know when they left, it was when Touissant the slave leader kicked Napoleon's ass...Napoleon lost an army of 40,000 troops and that is what led to the Loisiana purchase, he gave up on the new world! Haiti passed a constitution like that of the USA, in fact, it is the second oldest republic in the world, oldest is the USA. But the USA never could recognize Haiti because a sovereign black country gave American slaves more incentive to revolt. Every few years the USA would send troops there to shoot em up, support the next leader dedicated to allowing US corporations a free hand to exploit, and then leave. I think that Amerca has sent troops there about twenty times over our history. Of course, Americans don't know this. I have not heard of the Confederacy oppressing Haiti, that was a construct that lasted only during the Civil War and had its hand full fighting the Union, convincing its white poor that slavery was in their class interest (it is not, it reduces wages for the working classes), and suppressing its own slaves.

One interesting aside to the french involvement was the company of polish soldiers who defected to the haitian cause. They were given their own village. Their descendants might still be there. A freind just told me about the St. Patricos, an Irish unit in the US army that defected to mexico during the Mexican war in 1850 was it?

Etc. etc.

Oh yeah, before i had an Italian wife I had spent three years with a Haitian woman.

I bet you make a mean tzatziki Mr. Day!

I think that American "progressives" suffer from this hugely self-induced blind spot: they are attached to our levels of consumption and they can't see that this is actually the source of conflict throughout the world. The difference between the left and the right in this country is a smiley face and an angry face...two different ways to sell corporate policy to the world. So "leftists" (shoppers) don't like to turn on the TV and see mean ol' Bush, but they don't address their consumption, which is what gives bush and the oil exploiters so much power in the first place. So...they wanted happy Kerry to fight the same oil war in Iraq for the same reason...the flow of oil must come here. So i think progressiveness is skin deep...amongst the average american. Not those americans that commit their lives to a cause that they believe in...there are plenty of americans like that!

By the way...isn't deficit spending a liberal economic policy? Prime the economy through government spending? Clinton was actually fiscally conservative and Bush liberal....but those words have changed....liberal means we are exploiting you because we are nice people pontificating about human rights, conservative means that we are exploiting you because we are afraid and we hate you. The conservative viewpoint is actually more consistent.

I like to have ideas like cultural hegemony in the back of my mind, maybe its true and maybe it isn't. Same with all the highfalutin' ideas. they are not hard and fast rules because you can immediately find an exception. they are just something to have in your head so you can think, hmmmm....

Just remember, there are many many Americas. This must be difficult for non-Americans to comprehend. The country spans a continent, after all. There is the educated, aware America. There is the uneducated, unaware America. There is the rich, the poor, etc etc. Any continent-sized land area will also exhibit these dichotomies.

The whole world attends our engineering graduate schools and medical research universities. The whole world buys our stuff. Meanwhile our military is engaged seemingly everywhere, blowing things up one day, delivering relief supplies the next. Confusing!

The country cannot be characterised as any one thing or other; it is many things all at once. Much to admire, much to deplore.

I think I remember an Andy Soltis book where he tells exactly when the hedgehog formation came about. But of course I forgot that information.

I am american and can only be american, (or united statesian) , I realize this everytime I leave this country. This country is also a melting pot of ideas, and cultures, there are references to every culture in the world here, almost, enclaves in every city. So one only has to be interested in finding information about almost anything and it can be found. But these enclaves are far from home, the culture is not in the soil, as it is in the homeland, and so the cultural cohesion eventually fades...When I talk about American consumerist culture I am talking mostly about the people that I know, and I and most of my friends are constantly trying to find more meaning and reject this consumerist culture, but when we talk to most americans we are confronted with baffled faces and so it goes...

A friend told me once that when it is time to find a troubleshooter, for corporate or municipal problems or whatnot around the world, that Americans are highly in demand for this role, because we are the least hampered by cultural blindspots. A positive side to americanness.

MD, you are doomed to a lonely existence! But it is not necessary to reject consumerism in order to find meaning. It is only necessary to look elsewhere, outside of the endless round of producing (work) and consuming (buying).