I feel very disillusioned about my country

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Well you're not me. I know that I myself am not directly responsible for the atrocious things my country has done, but I am still very ashamed of my country. I mean just like every other young American I was raised on that fake American ideology about how our country is all about truth, fairness, equality, and all that other crap which simply is not true. How our country was always the "good guys" and every other country was wrong even if they were our allies.

Our country has always been unfair to certain kinds of people and that still goes on to this day. We're also a country that allows the rich to get away with almost anything. They can afford better lawyers and many of them have the right connections to get away with all kinds of bad stuff.

And you know, I could maybe forgive all of that if it wasn't for the Americans who either live in denial about how things are really done here (saying absurd crap like "Racism isn't an issue anymore!") or admit that they simply don't give a damn as long as things are good for them and bad for everybody else.

Urgh... those types of people are the worst.

Our country WAS founded on you mentioned: truth, fairness, equality, etc. It was the ideal which the Founding Fathers strived for.

However, to say the least, we haven't followed the above ideal----which is an ideal we should strive for, rather than just dismiss just because we don't achieve that ideal.

I reiterate: we should keep striving, rather than just give up.

I'm not one of those who believes "racism doesn't exist" or whatever. I know it exists. It stares you in the face.

I work in the criminal justice system in my city. I can tell you how they mete out justice in my city. I can tell you the economic toll of even having a misdemeanor record in New York State. There is no expungement in New York State. Once you have a criminal record, that's it---it's there for life.

Yeah, a bunch of rich white male protestants who took this land away from the native people by force and introduced slavery and made it illegal for women to vote.

Only later did we decide that maybe we should have the same freedoms and opportunities for non-WASPS in this country but obviously there are still some people who are against that sort of thing.

Speaking of WASPS, here's a funny youtube clip to lighten the mood.

twiz, ur consciousness is really wonderful (no sarcasm). just thinking about things like that makes u a better person than the majority of this planet's populance. then, what kraft said. u didnt commit atrocities. and yes, ur government had commited a lot of dubious or outright morally wrong acts. and that will not go away, but that is not ur fault. while powerplayers in usa do at least give some amount of f**k to their voters, powerplayers in russia rob theirs. usa leaders are said to feel entitled to all the resources and take what they want, with military force if thats what it takes. but at least they dont rob their own too blatantly. im not making excuses for them, like hell why would i. but. this is the reality, this planet is not a paradize. but u ended up in one of better parts of hell.

I hope there is a better place for all of us after we die. I don't know for sure if there is, but I hope.

And the better parts of hell.... would that be lust, sloth, and gluttoney? Sounds good to me!

sounds logical) also nice to see u joking ^^

I figure if I don't cheer myself up I'm never going to cheer up. And I do stupid things whenever I get myself down.

and here i thought i can take some credit xdDD

How many Americans can claim they are pure WASP?

Very few, I would imagine.

I've met very few of them in New York City. What you meet, usually, is black, Hispanic, Italian, Irish, and many recent immigrants from many lands.

Atlanta is the same way, but in miniature.

My point is that it was the white protestants who created this country. They used to hold all of the power, now they hold most of it.

And our founding fathers were the ones who made the laws that took away rights and privilages from anybody who wasn't a rich white male protestant. Only many years later did people in this country decide that it wasn't right and that we should have equal rights for ALL people in this country.

I would read John Locke. He was one of the main impetuses behind what was called "the American experiment."

The Founding Fathers did not follow, in their real lives, the precepts they preached about. Or, more accurately, they followed them partially. They had the notion that these ideas would evolve over time; that was their excuse for not following them NOW (NOW being during their lifetime).

Thomas Jefferson was a slaveowner who happened to deplore slavery-----but he was economically-dependent upon the institution of slavery. Such was the contradiction of the man. We had many such "contradictions" in those days.

What I'm saying is: At least these ideas were floating around in the 18th century. They certainly weren't floating around before then.

I would say that most countries which have been around at least a few centuries have similar, or even more intense, "skeletons in their closet," than the US.

twiz, and those father founders were a product of another civilization. another society. they did as they were taught. ur country is very young, so it has much less of history about elite opressing the rest, while each old country has a thousand years of that, or more. taking russia as example (because yiii i live here), before year 1861, ppl could very legally own other ppl, of same race, nation and religion (not that it'd make any difference). and after that it wasnt much better for the former slaves, either. and that is only 1 example. so ya ur father founders tried to escape from the "old world"'s BS, but they brought it in themselves.
there cannot be real equality. for somebody to be able to make a scientific breakthrough, they have to have high intelligence, decades of education, and to have their basic needs supplied. by somebody else. there will allways be a group of people, that has advantage. question is only, how is that group defined)

That's only because the US is a fairly new country. It didn't "officially" become a country until about 230 years ago, so give it time.

But here are some of the nasty bones we have collected for our closet so far:

* Genocide of the Native Americans
* Stealing land from the Native Americans
* Salem witch trials
* Slavery
* Attacking civilians and destroying towns to end slavery (yeah I consider that atrocious)
* Dropping atomic bombs on two Japanese cities killing thousands of civilians
* Imprisoning Japanese Americans during World War 2
* Invading the Middle East to fight terror, find weapons of mass destruction, steal oil
* Raping, torturing, and murdering POWs in places like Abu Graib and Guantanamo Bay.


And please don't even get me started on the CIA...

And yeah I know other countries have been doing the same sort of evil s**t for thousands of years, but at least the people I have met from such countries don't hide their heads in the sand about it the way we tend to do.

Great Britain was probably one of the most corrupt empires of the world and I guess the good ol' USA learned from the best.

I think a little compassion and empathy helps too.

im not making excuses for any of history s**t, mind this. i have no f*****g reason to do that, living where i do. i am just pointing out, that morale is... a peculiar thing. it changes with time, and what we consider immoral and atrocious, was pretty norm some hundreds years ago. which means, that society is moving in a right direction overall... and ya, hypocricy of usa recent policies do ring a lot of bells. and then i am again pulling up russia as an example. modern this time. we are democracy by law, but a f*****g monarchy in fact. power is usurped, elections are forged. as if 2 revolutions in 70 years wasnt 2 too many...

as to compassion and empathy, maybe its not apparent, but im trying to deal those out here ^^