Midnight in America
* Our great abiding national myth is this: We are a chosen people who threw off the yoke of our colonial oppressors to forge a new nation out of the wilderness by pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps, rugged individualists who tamed a continent through sheer grit and determination. A meritocracy where anyone, no matter their color or creed, can rise as far as their talent and gumption takes them. Furthermore, we have welcomed "huddled masses yearning to breathe free" from the far-flung nations around the globe. Here, we told them, here in America is where you too can taste a freedom that grows nowhere else on Earth. This myth suggests a unity of purpose that utterly belies basic human nature. We are a savage species; distrusting, selfish, greedy, wasteful, often barbaric. Our " better angels " are almost exclusively reserved for people who belong to our same tribe, whether that tribe be religious, political, or ethnic in nature—more often than not some combina