"We don't even take the trouble to be united."

exceptionalism, clarified...

We are Americans, and so until recently, we knew that we were the best. Because so many people wanted to be us, we could act as we pleased — and we did, because we were the Great Exception; we were America the Blessed. Hence...

• [O]ur complacent belief, so long borne out by the facts, that American movies and American brands would always sell.

• [T]he Kyoto Protocol did not apply to us, so that we could spew out all the greenhouse gases we liked, and use a pig's share of the world's resources.

• [W]e could seize war criminals in any part of the globe and whisk them off to The Hague.

• [W]e insisted that should we ever commit war crimes, we would remain immune to prosecution in that court.

• [T]his president and his two attorneys general have quite literally legalized torture

• Bull your way ahead. If you meet obstacles, overcome them with arrogant bluster. If this fails, proceed to vicious, mendacious brutality.

• Americans not only voted for [George Bush], but after he proved himself to be a criminal, they reelected him.

• Why not do whatever suited our whims?

• "They hate us," we whisper to one another in amazement.

• What if we had to follow the rules that everyone else does? Well, why not put off that pain as long as possible?

• [W]e don't even take the trouble to be united.

• Alaskan towns are tilting in the melting permafrost, but who cares down in the Lower 48?
  

• Republicans and Democrats hate each other.
  

• Automobiles isolate us.
  

• Generations of advice-givers have made us believe that profit best defines the successful life.

it's tough swallowing a heavy dose of truth on a sunday morning...

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