This is not something to be answered or even defined by libertarian philosophy. There are those who say America was never innocent because of slavery and the Indian Wars, and the argument has merit. There are those on the left who say there was no innocence in any capitalism allied to government, and the argument has merit. One might say that innocence was lost at the time of the Philippine-American War, when empire was going across oceans. Truly. Or one might say it was during the War Between the States. Equally the case. For innocence to be lost, must Americans know it and feel it? Must they feel guilt? Must they feel and know their sins? If that’s the criterion, it hasn’t yet been lost.
But if we look at in more objectively, was it when America dropped nuclear bombs on Japan? Was it when war became total war? Was it napalm in Vietnam? Was it the bombing of Laos and Cambodia? All have made their mark on America’s Picture. In relative, not absolute terms, and in modern times, innocence was surely lost when America slaughtered the Iraqi soldiers in the desert in 1991. This was the “Highway of Death”. It was a massacre. Could innocence survive such an event? It was lost when American sanctions on Iraq killed 500,000 children.
Take your choice. The number of bloody hands among the American elite is large and growing. American innocence has been consigned to the trash heap of history, replaced by disfiguration. Where is the Picture of America Gray and in what attic or locked room is it hidden? Who can hear the protestations and exhortations of America being good or exceptional and believe them? Who will not be wary and deeply suspicious of the “do-good” interventions of the American government as long as the Picture remains covered with misdeeds? Who will restore a measure of beauty and innocence? Who can? Who will hear America’s confession? Who will make it? Who will relieve America of its sins?
2:36 pm on March 19, 2015
