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{"id":1092,"date":"2016-01-13T14:57:00","date_gmt":"2016-01-13T14:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2016\/01\/maybe-americans-arent-losers.html"},"modified":"2016-01-13T14:57:00","modified_gmt":"2016-01-13T14:57:00","slug":"maybe-americans-arent-losers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2016\/01\/maybe-americans-arent-losers.html","title":{"rendered":"Maybe Americans aren’t losers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

In a radical move against the button down establishment narrative, a young lady from a faraway land notices that Americans actually have some good qualities<\/a>. \u00a0This is something that seems to be shared by many from around the world. \u00a0It\u2019s especially true for those I know from other countries who have lived for some time in the US. \u00a0This is important to remember, for among Americans, there is a tendency to want to tear down Americans, treating them as some sort of historical \u2018also-rans.\u2019 <\/p>\n

We watched a biography of Walt Disney on PBS a month or so ago. \u00a0It was good enough as biographies go. \u00a0But it was also interesting. \u00a0History is, of course, part art, part science. \u00a0There is always an angle, a narrative used to put all the pieces together and get them to make sense.<\/p>\n

This particular biography seemed to take Disney and make him a sort of \u201cAmerican type.\u201d \u00a0That is, the biography constantly emphasized Disney\u2019s own lack of originality and creativity. \u00a0Mostly he took ideas from others. \u00a0If there were grand ideas from Disney studios, then it was almost always someone else in the studio responsible. He was mostly a hard working cheerleader. <\/p>\n

And, of course, you had the bigotry. In this case the sexism that existed as the women who worked at Disney were invaluable to the finished products, but were constantly being set in small little corners of the studio, underpaid and treated poorly by the system. \u00a0Of course, the employees all were so abused, until the workers of Disney world united and set things in order and made things right.<\/p>\n

We didn\u2019t see the second part, that was the first. \u00a0But it dawned on me what the show had done. \u00a0It had made Disney into the modern American type. \u00a0For Americans, we are told, are mostly folks who got lucky. Basically dumb and not overly educated, we just happened to hit a moment when industry was all the rage. \u00a0So give us a jack hammer and shovel along with our abundant natural resources that we exploited, and we conquered the world. \u00a0That was then. \u00a0Now it\u2019s all science and technology, stuff for smart people. \u00a0Hence why Americans are falling behind. \u00a0Or at least that is a theory I have seen more than once in journals and media interviews.<\/p>\n

The sexism and oppression of the workers is obvious, and Disney took that role as well. \u00a0Don\u2019t get me wrong. \u00a0It was \u00a0still a positive portrayal. \u00a0But I couldn\u2019t help but notice how they fashioned the story of his life to fit with the things we say about Americans: hard working, enthusiastic, but ultimately not overly smart or creative, with a sad history of greed, exploitation of workers, and of course bigotry of some form or another. <\/p>\n

So when we see articles like the one above, it\u2019s almost like reading someone who suggests the moon landings didn\u2019t happen or the Civil Rights movement was a bad thing. \u00a0It\u2019s that counter cultural.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"