LOW-BLOOD PRESSURE. Thoughtful Oz reader LOW-BLOOD PRESSURE. Thoughtful Oz reader Doug Buckser, concerned
that I might be too calm, sent along what he describes as a sample of "the utter crap
which we have to put up with in Melbourne's local leftie publication."
Oh, my blood pressure stayed stable when I read it, Doug. After all, it
would take more than this to put a dent in my "self-confident, self-absorbed,
and self-indulgent" American self. We think we're the "kings of the world",
after all. Ms. Pamela Bone's remarks arise from her meditation on Leonard
Slatkin, "who is American, but such a splendid man he could be English".
(And hey, my fellow Americans out there - bet you didn't know that our language
and our political and legal culture had their origins in England. Knock
me over with a feather. I thought we made up all that stuff ourselves.)
I will condescend to answer one of Bone's penetrating and deeply informed
questions:

Why don't Americans, individually generous people, think it
outrageous that the US gives a smaller proportion of its GDP in foreign aid
to poor countries than any other developed nation, and thumbs its nose at
international treaties?

Because we're stupid and evil. Hope that helps.

When I came to the penultimate paragraph of her article, I did let out a good American snicker at seeing the line from Blake's Jerusalem misprinted (misquoted?) as "I will not cease from from mental flight".

Posted by Moira Breen at January 16, 2002 07:34 PM