Are Americans Nuts?

John Cassidy wonders:

Having lived here for almost thirty years, and having been a U.S. citizen for the past five, I am greatly attached to this country and admire many aspects of it enormously. But the dogged persistence of certain American shibboleths has always struck me as somewhat curious. What are these shared convictions? I could go on all day, but here, for argument’s sake, are ten. Not all Americans subscribe to them, of course. In some instances, the true believers may amount to a small but vocal minority. Still, the popular sentiment underlying these statements is so strong that politicians defy it at their peril.

1. Gun laws and gun deaths are unconnected.

2. Private enterprise is good; public enterprise is bad.

3. God created America and gave it a special purpose.

4. Our health-care system is the best there is.

5. The Founding Fathers were saintly figures who established liberty and democracy for everyone.

6. America is the greatest country in the world.

7. Tax rates are too high.

8. America is a peace-loving nation: the reason it gets involved in so many wars is that foreigners keep attacking us.

9. Cheap energy, gasoline especially, is our birthright.

10. Everybody else wishes they were American.

Some of these statements may be true. But truth or falsehood isn’t the point here: it is whether or not certain beliefs are amenable to reason. I don’t think these are, which is what puts them in the category of irrationality, flakiness, nonsense, nuttiness, absurdity, craziness….

I have to say, he brings up some really good points.  Numbers 2, 3, 4, 7 and 9 are especially strange to me.  As for guns, I don't understand why American culture just seems so much more violent than other cultures.  Having tons of guns around probably doesn't help, but gun laws will never be strong enough in this country to get guns out of the hands of criminals.  The Founding Fathers were pretty wise in creating an up to that time radical style of government, but saints they were not.  Number 8 is just flat out wrong, and 6 and 10 are matters of opinion and projection.  I'm pretty damn sure most Germans or Canadians or Swedes think their country is the best, and most probably don't want to be Americans.  But 2, 3, 4, 7 and 9 are at the heart of what passes for political debate in this country, and they are all most often voiced by conservatives.  I think all have become some sort of crazy religious belief, and it can't be good for the country.