To me the people of a democratic and free state are the guardians of their country’s and governments soul. (And even under tyranny there are many who fight to bring about the same and often pay a heavier price.) In other words if they have a belief in their ideals then they should try and make sure that their government upholds those ideals. It seems to me that many Americans see the US as a bastion of certain values, of liberty, justice and democracy, as the upholder of freedom of speech and expression. Many American politicians and ordinary citizens talk openly of these things. They often cite or quote with pride the noble words of their country’s constitution or bill of rights. So are people not then to expect that the policies and actions of the US government will reflect those much vaulted values. However it is at that point that many people who don’t blindly accept the "sugar coated" version of history that the US would like them to accept feel like they have entered the twilight zone. Or should I say something out of Orwell’s 1984? To defend Freedom, freedom can be suppressed, gross injustices need to be committed to defend Justice and democracy is praised if it gives the result the defenders of Democracy desire. (War is Peace and the war to stop terror must use terror as a weapon) The thing is that people and politicians continue to boast of the ideals while their government is clearly so often involved in doing something else. Why? Some see hypocrisy other self-delusion, I wonder if it has anything to do with the absolutist mindset of so much American thought. Many Americans as I have commented have absolutist opinions, for them every argument come down to a simplistic Either / or, right / wrong, good / bad, their world consists of clear definitions of black and white with very little or even no shade. Now think about that and what that means when they think about their country, would they think it good or bad? Well while they may see some things as right and others as wrong on the surface the break down of the equation come eventually down to that absolutist and simplistic good or bad. This I think has lead to a such people having a deep-seated belief that the US is a force for good and even the belief among some that it has a ‘Manifest destiny’ which means it acts as an agent for good. This can lead to a belief that even if an American government does ‘bad’ it only does it for ‘good’ reasons or as you put it To me the interesting even worrying thing is that absolutist thinking is fundamentalist thinking. **
