Who Authorized This?

[Steve Schear]

Who Authorized This?
Andrew Sullivan, Forbes ASAP, 12.03.01

Why does the United States elicit such extreme hatred in some parts of the 
world?
What America is based on is not the achievement of some goal, the capture 
of some trophy, or the triumph of success. It's about the process of 
seeking something. It's about incompletion, dissatisfaction, striving, 
imperfection. In the late 18th century, this was a statement in itself. In 
the Europe of the preceding centuries, armies had gone to war, human beings 
had been burned at stakes, monarchs had been dethroned, and countries torn 
apart because imperfection wasn't enough. From the Inquisition to the 
Reformation, religious fanatics had demanded that the state enforce 
holiness, truth, and virtue. Those who resisted were exterminated. 
Moreover, the power and status of rulers derived from their own perfection. 
Kings and queens commanded artists to portray them as demi-gods. Dissenters 
were not merely troublemakers; they were direct threats to the perfect 
order of the modern state. This was a political order in which everything 
had to be perfectly arranged, even down to the internal thoughts of 
individual consciences.

http://www.forbes.com/asap/2001/1203/014.html