America, the Naive?

I found this commentary from a BBC correspondent to be quite astute if somewhat unfair. The main point of the piece reminded me of the hilarious movie Team America: World Police.

In addition to being hugely funny, that movie exposed what I think is a defining feature of American culture: the need to create a sort of nostalgia for the present. As the movie seems to imply, we do this by constantly affirming and re-inventing a movie-hero image of ourselves. A narrative of liberty, justice freedom, and equality serves as a rousing and idyllic soundtrack to an American reality that is both darker and more complex than any idealized self-conceptions would suggest. Americans are therefore prone to believe that every moment is “historic”, that each victory is a triumph of good over evil, and that all setbacks are merely rocky patches on the inexorable path to a happy ending.

While it’s certainly easy to look upon this quality of the American protagonist with skepticism and even disdain, I would argue that there is value to this aspect of our culture. If Europe even had a soundtrack to its recent history, it would be hard to extract a common melody or a unifying theme; the nations of that continent have not effectively mobilized in pursuit of a common or over-arching moral purpose since World War II. The BBC author may be correct that Americans “want to believe in miracles” and that their “heads are in the clouds”. But isn’t that eminently better than to believe in nothing, and to have your head firmly planted in the sands of pragmatism?