Ah, I was thinking of Australia's prison-coloniness. The fact of the matter is, they just weren't big enough to have started dicking everyone over. They've been around as countries since the 1840s, but you rarely hear of them on an international scale outside of WWII when they were defending themselves.
Oh, no, we don't see that. That all already happened, for them. The thing about slaves, is that the slaves were American. They were a more tangible people because they were already in America and upset. The thing about imperialistic slavery, is that very few people who wouldn't be okay with it normally are confronted with it, in the news or otherwise. The Civil War brought America together, but it sure wasn't any great epiphany for its foreign policy. America has, otherwise, never suffered the consequences of losing a war to an invading force, other than itself. The time it did lose, it managed to defend itself from any real impact through some diplomatic miracle.
Yes, WWI and WWII did have those events, but to say they ended up as fucked as Europe because of them is ridiculous. I'd argue that a lot of the reasons that it got swept up in the world wars were rather the same as the ones that got them involved in the "Anti-Terrorism" wars, or at least those were the ones that got the public to approve. They learned something along the lines of "They shot at us first!" and "They want to destroy us, so fuck them!" rather than "Boy, war sure sucks. I think we should avoid it." Because battles never happened here, entire cities were not destroyed, we were not occupied by oppressive regimes, we were fighting the Germans because of some conspiracies on a boat and squabbling to get more Islands than the Japanese. The horror was offshore, our armies were protecting us from the horrors of war, they were not protecting our existence, which is very, very different from what was happening in Europe. That's why they have an EU trying to make them all interdependant, and we have NATO because fuck Communists. Notice the two very different starting goals for these organizations, because our nations recieved two very different lessons from these wars.
It's the same thing with Vietnam and Korea, they weren't here. They were just scary stories to 90% of Americans. But, unlike most aspects of today's imperialism, they were constantly confronted with it in the news to let people know that America was dealing with the Red Menace. Only, vehement anti-communism skipped a generation, because that generation was no longer concerned with everyone else's government, and just wanted the war to stop, so they did something about it. It was an idea that they didn't want to fight anymore, but now we have a different idea that we hate, so we're fighting a boundary-less mafia as if it were a country, because America still has that World War mindset. If we had enough people who gave a fuck and weren't de-sensitized by the media CONSTANTLY showing the same horrible bullshit, I'm sure something would also be done about our shit in the middle east, but everyone's still squabbling over social issues, so nobody's got the time, resources, or opportunities to repair that timesucking clusterfuck.
I know it doesn't, but I'm just saying, it's not going to be like this forever. America is a mean toddler right now, but it's going to grow up eventually. Thing is, Countries change really, really, really slowly. So long as people live there, the "Death" of the establishment won't stop it, it would only make it a shitty place. It would possibly be the event that makes it "Grow up", but, of course, it's going to take maybe a lifetime, and some turmoil in between, wherein it will suck for America and everyone around it, before they get the point... In which case, a shitty election like this might just be a tragedy in the right direction...
I do hope you understand how much of a joke the pledge is over here. Those of us in high school that still do it often use silly voices, talk to the people next to us instead, rush through it to get back to what they're doing, or can't remember half the lines. And, well I highly doubt any more than 10% of people like anywhere else better than the place they live. If you live somewhere long enough, it's easier to see other places as crappy because they have different problems. I think where I live now is the best place to live. To live in, say, a different neighborhood, to me, would suck ass because I would have to adapt to a whole different set of problems than the ones I don't notice because I'm used to them. Everywhere also has a huge amount of nostalgia for the past of everywhere, be it long ago or recent. It's the golden age fallacy, which exists for everyone indiscriminately of their nationality. It's just that our stereotype is the morbidly obese Cowboy-hat-wearing hick who wishes them damn Africans weren't allowed to sit next to him on the bus. "American Pride" is a hilarious joke, something we use to separate the naive seniors from the regular ones.
