Tuesday, September 1, 2015

A View from Outside - New Dispatches from Maine

From Viet Thanh Nyugen's The Sympathizer (2015) referring to Americans: “They believe in a universe of divine justice where the human race is guilty of sin, but they also believe in a secular justice where human beings are presumed innocent. You can’t have both. You know how Americans deal with it? They pretend they are eternally innocent no matter how many times they lose their innocence. The problem is that those who insist on their innocence believe anything they do is just. At least we who believe in our own guilt know what dark things we do.” 

I am always fascinated to read what others think of us as Americans. Sometimes the truth is brutally clear. I wonder what the Iraqis and Afghanis really think about our efforts to make their worlds better for them? Americans must come to understand that not everyone wants to live like us. Who are we to tell them they are wrong?


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