The United States would appear to be and should be, a revolutionary country.
Instead it is a nation of entrenched wealth, with a smug but still scrambling middle class. The principal exports are terror, poverty, and subjugation to its economic power and political issues. It teaches that to survive under its hegemony, the rules of capitalism as played within its shores and the social pressures of reactionary fundamentalism must be obeyed blindly and instantly. (Postscript: According to my avid viewing of "The Western Tradition" at 3 AM on PBS, the American revolution was not actually revolutionary, it was quite conservative - a group of wealthy businessmen, traders and gentleman farmers fighting to preserve the privileges they become comfortable with under the benign neglect of British colonial rule. That explains a lot...) 11/26/99 
© Huw Powell
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