ubernoir wrote:
i really don't understand how a nation that considers itself civilised is so trapped by the lowest common denominator

Perhaps I'm in a cynical mood this morning.

Americans are spectacularly good at seeing people who are different as not being entirely human, particularly if they are poor and brown. There is a history of that here with slavery. Its presently largely focused on hispanic immigrants. A significant percentage of the population believes they can forcefully remove 12 million people from this place and there really will be no problem at all with that. No mass refugee camps. No firefights. No terrorist attacks. No piles of bodies. Just like the other times in history when this sort of thing has been attempted. Oh, wait... (Fortunately, the people in charge are not so stupid as to actually do something like this.)

Americans define themselves with their toughness. Having sympathy for criminals is weak. No one wants to be perceived as weak. The meme here is that caring about what happens to people is the opposite of thinking. The conservative movement paraphrases this as "liberals feel and conservatives think."

The first republican presidential debate involved calls for doubling the size of Gitmo which was met with cheers and applause. Who do they want to throw in there? If the military had more POWs wouldn't Gitmo already be larger? They don't know. They don't care. They want to punish their enemies. If there aren't anymore to punish they'll make more.

The reason the wheels aren't flying off the bus here is that the two party system effectively constrains the development of radical fringe movements run by people who aren't smart enough to know that a program of ethnic cleansing is probably a bad idea in the long run.

But occasionally people get a clue. Apparently, preventing gay couples from visiting eachother in the hospital is now out of vouge in spite of the fact that it was a core element of the 2004 election. I don't know where or when people changed their minds about that, but its just not polling well anymore.

And the idea of freedom is fairly engrained in the culture here. The present form of the reactionary movement is Ron Paul's candidacy, which is libertarian. There is something heartening in that. Its reactionary but its not evil.

Of course, most people really don't understand what the word "freedom" means. I've been told that when the Supreme Court declares laws unconstitutional they are restricting the "freedom" of the people to enforce their will via the legislature. Thats a conception of the word "freedom" that will get you all the way to mass graves.

Read this.

RE: Lifers as teenagers, now seeking second chance - International Herald Tribune