The 4th and American Guilt
“God bless America, land that I love.”
Never perhaps in human history was proclaiming ones love for their own country considered more controversial.
This 4th of July- on a time usually earmarked for reflection on the incredible blessing this country has been, a day set aside to marvel at our freedom, at the way justice and equality has created a peak in human flourishing- we have instead been bombarded with ever more guilt and shame.
This guilt has pervaded the way American’s view their own country but I will argue it has far more nefarious consequences- it has tarnished our ability to love ourselves, others and ultimately God himself.
Last summer, I went to a class with Ricky Cohen where he began by explaining Modeh Ani as a an invitation to proclaim each morning that we are “unequivocally great.”
The crowd, a group of 50 young adults, reacted immediately. “Unequivocally great?” “What if we are sinners?” Was Hitler great?” “Would he mind changing it to, we all have the potential to be great?”Ricky was unyielding, “We are all unequivocally great,” he asserted.
I went home that night and reflected on our collective discomfort with accepting our own greatness. I realized that it went far deeper than our individual humility and had roots in the way we as American citizens were being conditioned.
That night I wrote the following…
Our instantaneous panic to the claim that we are all unequivocally great is really the strongest proof of his fundamental claim, that we have been conditioned by society to be ashamed to acknowledge our own greatness. By inciting our this conditioned response, he proved the extent of our conditioning.
What kind of creature, organism, group or institution would have a similar reaction to an encounter with their own greatness. What organism can survive doubting its own greatness. What kind of creature feels the obligation to downplay its own greatness. Do you think a sheep rolls through the meadow skeptical of its right to eat. Unsure its place. Convinced it must empathize with others to such a radical extent that it must forget about its own journey?
It is not natural, beneficial, noble or right to refuse to acknowledge our own greatness and to fail to root for oneself. This mentality, this guilt ridden and self conscious negative self-perception has been programmed into us by a society obsessed with its own guilt.
In the same way that many of you struggled with the statement, “I am great,” most Americans have been trained to disagree with the claim that “America is great.” The national narrative goes something like this: We are a country whose land was robbed from its Natives, built on the backs of our African slaves, and whose superiority, until today, is wielded by suppressing and manipulating the countries around us. Our heroes, Washington, Jefferson, Hamilton and the rest were really womanizing slaveowners who led the Revolution for their own financial gain. We have continued to discriminate and live that under the guise of equality, exploits its own members.
All of these claims have some merit and there is a vital role for self awareness and a moral conscience. But not for the supreme position it is given today. What country can survive without its citizens being permitted to love it, to be proud of their membership in it, to believe in its core mission? And more, what people should be forced to feel ashamed for wrongs they are in no way committing. We don’t own slaves, we don’t suppress or discriminate and we don’t steal Muslim oil in the Middle East. Nor are we complicit in any heinous crime.
We are actually living in a beautiful moment. In a historic experiment in freedom and equality. We are part of a society built with true virtues in mind that by any metric has delivered a wonderful experience to its constituents. It is imperfect, but striving; we can be aware of the ways it can be improved while still being able to summon deep gratitude and love for its existence. We have the right- no the obligation- to believe in the project we are apart of.
This battle that is being raged on a national level affects the way that we see ourself. You are human, imperfect yes, but striving; you have room to improve, but you are brilliant, shining, fighting, living.
You have the right- no the duty- to believe in yourself. To love yourself. To cheer yourself on. To forgive yourself. To see the greatness that you embody. You need not be consumed by shame. You are entitled- no obligated-to repent and move on. YOU are the victim. Through your social conditioning you have been taught to doubt yourself and to doubt your greatness.
Your relationship towards your country and towards yourself, is a strong indicator of your relationship to others and towards god. Do you struggle to say “this world is great,” or “god is great?” You may; at times I do. It is easy to fixate on the suffering, the sin, the guilt, and the horrors; how can the world be great and simultaneously filled with death, capricious random and unforgiving. Learning to see the greatness in this world and eventually to love this world is challenging; and how can you profess to love God, until you learn to love his creation.
So much of the Torah concentrates on your behavior towards others. Good behavior towards other is predicated on the love and respect that spawns from your acknowledgement of the greatness in them. It is extremely challenging to connect to their greatness when you struggle to connect to your own.
So why deny it? You know how hard you are trying, how often you battle to do the right things in the face of challenge. You know your trajectory and of the clear greatness that lives inside you. Seeing your own failures does not negate its existence. But fixating on the negatives ashamed to acknowledge it will drive you away from it.
Love yourself each morning, embrace your greatness, move toward it. Love and nurture it. Learn to recognize greatness even in the face of imperfection. Worship it- in yourself, in others and in God.
