Nationalism
Dear Reader,
This is something everyone should think about and consider…
Separating People From Government
Linguistic Tools For
Seeing Your World More Clearly
Dear A-Letter Reader,
On the advice of the good doctor Ron Paul, I’ve made a few changes to the way I speak and write over the last few years. And one of those changes has helped make a crucial difference in the way I see and think about our country…
Dr. Paul insists that when we’re talking about our government, we say “The U.S. government” and not simply, “the US,” as you’ll often hear in the foreign media. So – for example – instead of talking about how “the U.S. plans to spend a trillion in stimulus,” you say “the U.S. government plans to spend a trillion in stimulus…”
It sounds like a miniscule change…something you’ll barely notice at first. But over the coming weeks and months, it will help you to make a critical distinction in your mind. The distinction between the people of the United States and their elected representatives.
It will remind you that those entities are separate. That one’s decision doesn’t necessarily imply the complicit cooperation of the other. That the elected officials of the U.S. don’t carry some kind of universal, unanimous mandate of the people.
This might sound a little fractious…a little rebellious or even *gasp* against the grain of blind nationalism. But then again nationalism and the truth never made for great bedfellows.