Manifest Destiny: Pre-Class Response

This was kind of painful for me to read. For many reasons: A.) it made me realize that I had forgotten many details I learned about US History in APUSH (AP US History) and it made me remember why US history isn’t one of my favorite to study B.) Once again made me frustrated with humanity and its tendency to hypocrisy and I saw many examples of how people can twist many things (especially religion) to justify their actions (if you recall my post for the Moon is a Harsh Mistress, I was frustrated for similar reasons concerning colonization) C.) It further frustrates me because it seems that we still haven’t learned. Now I know US isn’t the only country to act this way, but since the book focused America, and it is indeed powerful enough that its actions have a great affect on humanity as a whole, I will now focus on US actions past and present. Mike’s comment concerning “racial purity and ethnic cleansing” is similar to how I felt as I was reading this. And some of the examples Jen highlighted are a good example of instances in which US’s actions just seem unjust despite the fact that they were justified by the American people, like the example she gave on page 36 concerning the incident in Mexico. This book has just reaffirmed my opinion that America has long been a master of manipulation and of covering up dirty or self-interested actions with virtuous words and pretty ideas. And the scary thing is that thousands of people whole heartedly believed this whole concept of manifest destiny and over time it kept morphing but ultimately it was still used to justify aggression or domination towards people who are different or in some cases weaker. As a person who whole heartedly believes in trying to keep an open mind, the importance of studying and finding out about other cultures, communication, understanding, and just in general being more open to peaceful interaction, collaboration and communication among societies that are culturally different, America’s attitude as described in this book and their past (and present) actions towards “others” greatly frustrates me to the point that I had to force myself to finish this book. This book presented in an organized manner information I have encountered before, and provided me with more in depth details and examples. But it just reaffirmed my frustration with how America has acted and how it sometimes still views itself today. Don’t get me wrong, there are many great things about this country and in no way are Americans the only ones who have done this, but there are still people in this country that are just as narrow minded and will proudly proclaim to anyone why US is #1 and is so great for the world. And current world events show that America is still taking the wrong approach and that it is further hurting its reputation. Currently the world and international relations involve sooooo many complex and ever changing factors plus the subjects brought up in this book are not black and white. So I will sum up my rant by saying that in general it aggravates and discourages me that humans can rationalize and justify unjust and horrible actions in some cases and point the finger and accuse another group (or person) of committing atrocities, even though in principle they were doing the same thing.