Manipulated Delusions
Every time people want to do something they know is totally, absolutely wrong, but they still want to do it, they create myths to justify their behavior. This is how they avoid taking moral responsibility for their blatantly immoral actions.
In the United States the myth was generally called Manifest Destiny. You see, when the United States was stealing land from the people who already lived there, it was fulfilling its preordained destiny.
John L. Sullivan wrote an essay supporting this view in 1839, but people may be more comfortable with this middle school version that most encountered in one form or another in a public school, although there was no tone of disapproval when it was taught to me in the 1950s.
January 10, 2009 25 Comments
