| Subject: United States of Surface Structure |
Author:
Steven
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Date Posted: 20:40:23 04/21/02 Sun
I am sitting around, finishing up a paper and listening to diary ... so naturally I feel like posting on Sheetz' board.
Anyway, I thought it might be fun to start a thread about the different surface structure people you can find at Hy-Vee. I will start off with the most obvious one.
Surface Structure Patriots: Right now we're replete with these folks. Y'know, the ones with the "United We Stand" shirts that were probably made in China.
I must wonder if this is just a symptom of a society that is most concerned with the ineffable concept called "character," rather than substance. Under this paradigm, patriotism is expressed by symbols, not actions (A CEO with an American Flag pin is more patriotic than an everyday Joe working in a soup kitchen).
If Tom Paine were alive today would anyone call him a patriot? Probably not. In fact, there probably were several potential Paines in Washington this weekend. But they were just trouble makers. Dissent is not American.
This extreme patriotism has given rise to the axiom: "America is the best country in the world". I do not want to get into whether or not this is true. Instead, I would like to address the way the statement is treated.
If I ask someone to back up this kind of claim two things will happen: 1) My question will be ignored; 2) I will be treated as though I'm violating some law. I imagine even saying "Well France is the best country in the world, but the U.S. is a close second" would be viewed by the majority as high treason.
There is a concept in the social sciences called sense making. At the levels of generic subjectivity and extrasubjectivity, participants seem to be following implied scripts and regarding words as having "pure meanings", respectively. In other words, when I question why this country is the best, the other social actors wonder why I can't just "stick to the script." I would call these people automatons, whereas they might think I'm stupid for not knowing the "plot".
The biggest drawback of this is that the merits and demerits of the U.S. are never considered by most people. Let's assume that this is the best country in the world. Would that mean that we can't improve upon anything? Most people seem to think that. If someone is homeless, it's his own damn fault. After all, this is the best country in the world.
Well I should get back to my paper now. Hopefully these ramblings will make some type of sense to someone. Next time I plan to post about surface structure Christians, unless anyone else wishes to tackle the topic.
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