Thursday, December 21, 2006
I am sick and tired of the propaganda line "only-in-America." Just heard Oprah say that what happened to her (rags to riches) "can only happen in America." No, Oprah. It happens (the exception story that happens to one person while the majority toil away in silence) in every country. It happens in Lebanon, in Somalia, and in every country in the world. Even people who win the lottery in the US yell to the media: "Only in America." No, people. People win the lottery in other countries too. But this myth of the American uniqueness of unusual "opportunity" is (in my mind) like the Myth of the Metals in Plato's Republic. It is a necessary myth to justify and rationalize the fundamental system of inequality.