One of the Greatest Ideas in Human history

England is a great country, Ireland is a great country, there are many great countries,  America is a great idea,  to paraphrase U2’s  Bono, and yet that greatness is simply lost on too many Americans.

 Dinesh D’Souza’s new film, “America, imagine the world without her” , is for me, a great insight into to the “why” of this lost understanding,   Too many Americans have lost sight of the American Idea, a lodestar that has guided not just our own countrymen, but has guided and inspired millions of people throughout the world for over 200 years.

Perhaps one of the most insightful lessons to come from D’Souza’s film is the contrast between the older methods of acquiring wealth through conquest and the American way of creating it.  America, for the first time in human history, has manifested a new idea of wealth creation based on human freedom and liberty that has led to a level of creativity unmatched in human annals. 

We have strayed from that path.

We have forgotten our own story.  Too many believe that we are the villain of the world, we have forgotten our own kindness and generosity.  While we tolerated slavery at our country’s inception, we forget that over 2 million men fought in and that over 200,000 young Yankee soldiers died in that war which ended American slavery.

We forget that in the last century over 500,000 Americans, of all colors and beliefs, died not just in the defense of our country, but in the defense of America as an idea, as a hope and belief that liberty, justice and the pursuit of happiness were intrinsic values that all human being shared and that if we, as Americans could bring that to the world, we would all be better off.

I have not scratched the surface of the depth of this film.  Leave your ideologies aside, go see the film and then think about it.  It’s important.

 Here is a trailer