John Winthrop had a vision for him and the other puritans who fled England for the Americas. It was the idea of creating a perfect city on a hill, with the eyes of all upon them, they must create a great society. For this would be the puritan president for all of the new colonies in the Americas. Sarah Vowell believes in this idea of Winthrop creating "a city upon a hill", however instead of becoming a model for what the American society should be like, it became somewhere to dump all the idea that American leaders have. Vowell is particularly down on Ronald Reagan who adapted Winthrop's idea of the city on the hill as his own sound bit during his campaign.
Reagan came back to this idea throughout his campaign and his time in office. Despite taking the countries Housing and Development Department from 32 billion in 1981 to 7.5 billion in 1988, by 1989 2 million Americans were homeless. Reagan however did not see this considering the fact that he was more obsessed with the details of the "cold war" with the Soviets for the Department of Defense had been increased during this time. "A shining city is perhaps all the president sees from the portico of the White House and the veranda of his ranch, where everyone seems to be doing well," Cuomo supposed. "But there's another city; there's another part to the shining city." He spoke directly Reagan. Winthrop's idea of being a city that all could look up became an idea that slowly changed over time until it became an idea of the American politicians to talk about their country being looked up to by the world. But at some point it was not looked up to by any.
Our country has changed from the shining beacon of hope that Winthrop hoped it would once be and has become something less than that. Something different, with the debt crisis looming large, wars in more countries than we can count on one hand, America has become something of the worlds black sheep. Still one of the most powerful nations in the world. But also something that people look at over their nose and frown upon because of our actions.
One of my favorite parts in the book was the passage about Ronald Reagan's presidency. I never knew of all the huge deficits he created during his time in office. I like the connection you made about how the vision of a shining city upon a hill has diminished from the view of others over the course of history. Sometimes, I wonder what average people in the Middle East think of America. Do they truly think that the U.S. is bad? I also wonder what people in places like Australia think of us. We don't have particularly bad history with them, but do they still look down upon us? If so, that is quite the opposite of Winthrop's vision of America.
ReplyDeleteSam,
ReplyDeleteI think your post is a bit down on the U.S. While one must acknowledge that the U.S. has a checkered history in terms of 'doing good', one must also acknowledge that the U.S. has very much been a beacon of hope for peoples all over the world. Here is an example: the Vietnamese modeled their Declaration of Independence on ours.