Because we don't. Americans might profess faith and appeal to the high heavens, but their actions are very unlike anyone who has faith in a higher power. Really spiritual people that have deep faiths are very non-calculating and resigned to the will of the higher being. Americans are very canny and selfish, very humane and materialistic qualities IMO. If you have paid any attention to the news at the height of the Iraqi civil war and fear of widespread regional conflict; with every news came a marketplace analysis of what the death and injury of people overseas might mean to the stock market. Even now, as America's economy stumbles, no one speaks of the poor, but everyone is busy nursing the wounds afflicted to their retirement funds and speculate what this means to their futures.
People who trust a higher power depend on said power to come to their aid, they don't stow away cash and grab real-estate properties, effectively hedging their bets against "God"'s will or betting on his mercy ;-)
I was trying to make a distinction between a belief in God vs having trust in him. Belief is what Americans have in spades. Trust? not so much. I cannot think of ONE nation-state that has trust in a higher power; perhaps maybe Bhutan, whose largely agricultural economy has been powered by chanting and prayer (as it has never developed enough to shift trust to man and his efforts.)
Appeals to "God" in the official American symbolisms and language are both throw-backs to history, which should be removed, and hypocrisy, as the system is run by Man, wholesale.
Maybe you take offense to my opinion, and you're the one who shouldn't be offended and/or take his thin skin elsewhere? It's sometimes healthier to detach yourself from the subject of a discussion, if you identify with it, at least long enough to understand the other :-)
This isn't a political or theological forum. If you want to know my personal opinion, I am an atheist, and I don't really care whether "In God We Trust" is on the currency or not.
I think my objection to your generalizations about Americans was fully justified. The US is an extremely diverse country, and trying to paint Americans as materialistic or less-holy-than-thou is really, well, stupid.
I think my objection to your generalizations about Americans was fully justified. The US is an extremely diverse country, and trying to paint Americans as materialistic or less-holy-than-thou is really, well, stupid.
"Nations" are composed of diverse individuals and groups, but they also have their unique, combined national identity[1]. I am not making sweeping generalizations about "Americans", I am taking their self-identification and their actions at face value and looking to see whether those words and actions are inline with the profession of "In God We Trust."
Everything, from the declaration of independence, to the conquest of the South/Western Mexican states, to becoming a sea-faring world power, to occupation of Philippines to the industrial revolution, mass immigration and everything. All the "American Dream" mythology, upward mobility, white-picket-fence and two-car-garage house, competition, excellence in sports, variously named "Generations" (an age-demographic category that has no other peer in the world) .. this is not exactly a defeatist nation that believes in predestination. No where in the this massive running engine that we call American daily life does God figure in; just look at the morning rush, when Americans go through the ritual of drive-through breakfast and traffic jams. That's an all too human pursuit of life, driven by selfish interests. And there is nothing wrong with it.
But it mocks one's intelligence to see these very people tack random trite quotes and slogans from their religious past onto their current everyday life. It would be honest of them to fucking come clean, or sit together in a massive group-therapy session to reflect on the disparity between their words and their actions. And I say that as a person who prefers their actions, over their phony appeal to scripted/printed moral aphorisms. Cut the judeo-christian faux-altruistic crap already.
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[1] ignore for now existence of consensus on national-unity by all the alleged members/citizens.
Comments
Because we don't. Americans might profess faith and appeal to the high heavens, but their actions are very unlike anyone who has faith in a higher power. Really spiritual people that have deep faiths are very non-calculating and resigned to the will of the higher being. Americans are very canny and selfish, very humane and materialistic qualities IMO. If you have paid any attention to the news at the height of the Iraqi civil war and fear of widespread regional conflict; with every news came a marketplace analysis of what the death and injury of people overseas might mean to the stock market. Even now, as America's economy stumbles, no one speaks of the poor, but everyone is busy nursing the wounds afflicted to their retirement funds and speculate what this means to their futures.
People who trust a higher power depend on said power to come to their aid, they don't stow away cash and grab real-estate properties, effectively hedging their bets against "God"'s will or betting on his mercy ;-)
>Americans are very canny and selfish, very humane and materialistic qualities IMO...
Take your "O" somewhere else. This isn't the place for making borderline offensive generalizations about people's cultures.
I was trying to make a distinction between a belief in God vs having trust in him. Belief is what Americans have in spades. Trust? not so much. I cannot think of ONE nation-state that has trust in a higher power; perhaps maybe Bhutan, whose largely agricultural economy has been powered by chanting and prayer (as it has never developed enough to shift trust to man and his efforts.)
Appeals to "God" in the official American symbolisms and language are both throw-backs to history, which should be removed, and hypocrisy, as the system is run by Man, wholesale.
Maybe you take offense to my opinion, and you're the one who shouldn't be offended and/or take his thin skin elsewhere? It's sometimes healthier to detach yourself from the subject of a discussion, if you identify with it, at least long enough to understand the other :-)
This isn't a political or theological forum. If you want to know my personal opinion, I am an atheist, and I don't really care whether "In God We Trust" is on the currency or not.
I think my objection to your generalizations about Americans was fully justified. The US is an extremely diverse country, and trying to paint Americans as materialistic or less-holy-than-thou is really, well, stupid.
I think my objection to your generalizations about Americans was fully justified. The US is an extremely diverse country, and trying to paint Americans as materialistic or less-holy-than-thou is really, well, stupid.
"Nations" are composed of diverse individuals and groups, but they also have their unique, combined national identity[1]. I am not making sweeping generalizations about "Americans", I am taking their self-identification and their actions at face value and looking to see whether those words and actions are inline with the profession of "In God We Trust."
Everything, from the declaration of independence, to the conquest of the South/Western Mexican states, to becoming a sea-faring world power, to occupation of Philippines to the industrial revolution, mass immigration and everything. All the "American Dream" mythology, upward mobility, white-picket-fence and two-car-garage house, competition, excellence in sports, variously named "Generations" (an age-demographic category that has no other peer in the world) .. this is not exactly a defeatist nation that believes in predestination. No where in the this massive running engine that we call American daily life does God figure in; just look at the morning rush, when Americans go through the ritual of drive-through breakfast and traffic jams. That's an all too human pursuit of life, driven by selfish interests. And there is nothing wrong with it.
But it mocks one's intelligence to see these very people tack random trite quotes and slogans from their religious past onto their current everyday life. It would be honest of them to fucking come clean, or sit together in a massive group-therapy session to reflect on the disparity between their words and their actions. And I say that as a person who prefers their actions, over their phony appeal to scripted/printed moral aphorisms. Cut the judeo-christian faux-altruistic crap already.
--
[1] ignore for now existence of consensus on national-unity by all the alleged members/citizens.
"My off-topic opinion is appropriate for this technical/entrepreneurial forum because I believe it to be correct" is not a valid argument.
Don't let a community's rules dampen your curiosity. Philosophy is the sport of gentlemen and women.
I enjoyed talking to you, even though it felt like a monologue at times.