That kind of nationalism isn’t American. The American Ideal (capital I) puts the individual first. It recognizes that there really are no groups but are in fact only collections of individuals. The distinction between the two concepts is profound and generally incomprehensible to people outside of the United States. It remains in fact the primary distinction between European and American culture. Socialism after all is about the interests of the Group as a singular entity. Concepts like the right to bare arms or freedom of speech only make sense when the individual is recognized.

As to the draft, it is actually the most destructive force ever unleashed on American society. As a democracy no war should be fought that cannot be fought with volunteers. If Americans don’t love their country enough to individually offer their lives to the cause or respect the cause enough… then America has voted with it’s feet. If that means America loses, then it chose to lose. If that means that the state dies, then that means the people have chosen for it to die. The underlying point is that we do NOT live for the state. The State lives for us! The government is the literal servant of the people or it is a tyrant.

As to energy independence, as it stands the US gets almost all of it’s energy from the Americas. American foreign policy suffers when tyrannical regimes are flooded with cash to spend on trouble. So not only must we break our own addiction on oil, but we must break the whole world of that addiction. Anything short of that goal will prove of little use on the international stage. To that end, I suggest we continue to invest in technological innovation in energy. EEstor for example has recently come up with an ultra capacitor that has a higher energy density then a laptop battery. For the scientifically ignorant, a capacitor can recharge and discharge almost instantly with no wear. That means you could have electric cars that recharge in a couple minutes, can out race the fastest gasoline cars, and run on grid power. You can also do some other interesting things like catch lightning in a bottle… literally. As to solar, it’s all about concentrating solar (mirrors and lenses). The cost of solar is so high because silicon chips are expensive. Focus 3 square feet of light on a one inch chip though and you’ll produce MORE energy then 3 square feet of solar panels at a tiny fraction of the cost (solar collection efficiency goes up with intensity. So a smaller cell with more light on it produces more then a proportionately larger cell with proportionately less light.).

In short, I’m not impressed by his argument if this quotation is representative. I’m not sure that he even understands the uniqueness of American culture or appreciates the complexity of our place in the world.

Karmashock on January 12, 2009 at 3:08 PM

“American Grit”… the real thing and not the book (I assume based on the quote above, I can’t know until I’ve read it.) is based upon rugged INDIVIDUALISM not stalwart collectivism.

This nation is an aberration in human history. As some of the posters have pointed out, the state is required to protect our freedoms. However, that does not mean that the state is more important then those freedoms. The paradoxical fact of the matter is that if the state forces us to protect it, it violates the contract. No man should be forced against his will into combat. Every individual has the “divine right” to say no and walk away. If the state can’t convince him to join based upon the merits and can only compel him to fight at the point of a sword or muzzle of a gun… then the war is already lost. You cannot force the free to save themselves.

A truly patriotic people would sooner have it die with dignity then survive in corruption. Further, if the tyrants within our own culture know that absolute power is only one crisis away, we’ll lose our freedoms in a generation.

Karmashock on January 12, 2009 at 3:52 PM