Three and a half minutes of honesty

[LONDONER]

www.http://safeshare.tv/w/UAGOcLSuLX

If this link doesn't work, cut and paste it in to your browser.

[LONDONER]

I'm surprised that no one has commented on this.

[Dreamer]

What response were you anticipating?


It's a video debunking the myth of American exceptionalism.


The title of this thread sums up any potential comments to be made.

[MisterTinkles]

Just like politicians, judges, and all other big mouthed idiots in this country....

You dont get comments from the truth, because people will preach lies and treachery, and back it up until the sun turns purple and blood rains from the skies, but telling the truth? Nobody wants to get involved with that, for one simple reason....

You cant fight the truth.


Hows that for a comment?

[LONDONER]

I watched it again sober now sorry for my previous comment, it's clever it makes you think twice but it is very scripted and set up and fake but i think i'd be mre interested in hearing reaction to it by everyday Americans.
Was/is it was a party political broadcast ?

I'm not sure but I believe that it came form an American TV programme but whatever, the scriptwriter put over a powerful point.

[tavi]

I liked it a lot and found it quite powerful, of course its scripted, thats the actor jeff daniels speaking, wouldnt it be good if there was more speakers like that in real life. Thanks for posting.

[MisterTinkles]

Yeah, Im wondering what movie this was taken from. Jeff Daniels is not an avid public speaker, so I know this is either part of a TV show or movie. And as he rarely does TV, I would guess this is from a movie.

Im curious now to know which one, so I can watch the whole thing.

And these spoken words are not the first time they have been said in public. I remember teachers in high school saying the same things. Ive heard local public speakers say the same things. Ive even heard some preachers say the same things.

While these things are the absolute truth, nobody does anything about making them better....only making them worse.

The term "stupid American" isnt something that was just made up. Americans ARE stupid, compared to the rest of the world.

[LONDONER]

Thanks MisterTinkles for the clarification. When I first saw it I did wonder whether it was scripted. It seemed almost too eloquent for something off the cuff.Maybe the scriptwriter should run for office!

[princealbertofb]

You're right, Mr Tinkles, this is from a movie or a tv show (something from Home Box Office?) Look it up on imdb. I think it's The Newsroom. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1870479/
I think it's good that some script writers are edgy enough to bring up this fallacy that the USA is the greatest nation in the world. I mean, which IS the greatest nation in the world? It really does depend on what criteria are used to judge that. Americans seem very quick to say (or think) that they are the greatest nation. President Obama (and others before him) says it sometimes in his speeches. It's an idea that's just got to rub off occasionally. It's called pep-talk sometimes, sometimes arrogance. There is a fine line, occasionally, between the objective and the subjective view. Take your pick.
On the same sort of note, I've often wondered which criteria are used to judge that this world city or this other world city is better or worse in the ranking for living conditions. What makes some cities the best to live in and some not so good? Well, I guess one can look at statistics and see it from that angle. That's why the statistics given by the journalist played by Jeff Daniels can give a very different (and mixed) view of life in the USA.

[Pix]

It was an interesting watch, though a bit TOO scripted even when it was good (and not all of it was), but the biggest flaw is that the past was very romanticized and not true. For example, reaching for the stars was an ego game with the Soviet Union, we had to be the first to walk on the moon to make up for them being the first in space and once it was done then NASA funding began to rapidly dry up. And not scare easily? That's not true at all, you can see some examples from the documentaries Grass and Atomic Cafe and there are other examples as well, fears of the Papacy used to be huge in the US (some were as surprised by JFK winning as he was a Catholic as others would later be surprised Obama won by such a huge margin), race fears were even worse and religious fears about the same (and people used the Bible to be against interracial marriage and evolution was a huge deal with the courts), and at the extreme ends were the public reaction to the War of the Worlds broadcast to the satanic panics that flared up in the early 80s.

For further back see The Good Old Days: They were Terrible. They may not have had school shootings like today (though such happened and then there was the Bath school massacre), but back in the days of "no lickin' no learnin'" there were teachers stoned to death by their own students!

Oh, btw, check out this very short piece by Mark Twain that wasn't published (as the publishers didn't dare) until after his death:

http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/making/warprayer.html