Um agradecimento muito especial a todos os Insurgentes, por me aturarem, incluindo os que já se foram para outras paragens. Muito obrigado. Comecei com este texto, celebro com o mesmo texto. Porque também lá fiquei.
Coming to America is in itself already being American. To come is not to visit; those who come don’t go
1. The duty of every American is to make America grow. And every one who makes America grow is American. In Europe, it doesn’t make sense for a citizen of a country to immigrate to Germany, for instance, and become German, but to come to America and become American makes total sense. Coming to America is in itself already being American. To come is not to visit; those who come don’t go. America is not a natural country. It’s a created country; an invention of human beings. Since World War I, the story of the world is to come to America. 2. America built the moon. America widens space. 3. A European is unable to understand that for us – citizens of the United States of America – the country is more important than each one of us. When we’re accused of things we are usually accused of they talk with arguments of the past, with words that don’t reach here in the future, in America. For us, the country is a sort of European King of the past. Above the country, there is only God, in the same way as in the past only God was above the king. A king is smaller than a country. A king is smaller than the United States of America. Today, as America’s past, Europe strives to dislike America. 4. America keeps growing. America keeps welcoming the world. 5. If Europe is the past of America, the former USSR was a reaction to America. USSR was also a human invention, but it was an invention against-time, it was an invention against-America. The USSR wanted to change the world. The USSR wanted to change history. The USSR tried to be a floodgate against the course of history, it tried to be a floodgate against the course of the world. The USSR wanted to be what America already was: the comprehension of the world. 6. It doesn’t make sense to say, unless in medieval terms, that America wants to rule the world. It doesn’t make sense, because America is the world. It is the world not for having conquered it; but because the world lives from, for and against America. The term New World also doesn’t make sense anymore. 7. The terrorist act against United States of America and its people, on the sad day of September 11, 2001, wasn’t an act against civilization – as some later said – it was an act against the world. Terrorism is the world against itself. 8. One can be American never having been to America. To be American is to wish well for America. Whoever wishes well for America makes it grow? To want to go to America is what there is more of in the world; this craving is an overwhelming good. To wish well for America is to make the world grow. 9. It isn’t only three quarters of the world population – the poor – who want to go to America. Of the remaining quarter – as was done one century ago to get on a ship to the new world – today scientists also push and shove to get a fellowship in a university or in an American institution. Watching people do everything to go to America is watching the world go towards itself; the world coming to its own heart. 10. One who slanders America, slanders himself. 11. Today the task of understanding America is the main task in the activity of thinking. Thinking without thinking of America is not to think of the world; above all it is not thinking about oneself in the world. 12. One who doesn’t know, has better not do or does wrong. America teaches. One comes to America to learn for the rest of the world. 13. Japan is the Orient of America. It certainly is so since it lost the war. While the bomb was still in the skies over Hiroshima, Japan was already becoming America. 14. Shanghai is China being America (China Americanizing itself). Today, this is China’s greatest problem; to know how it can Americanize itself without ceasing to be itself. But this extreme problem of identity isn’t just a problem for China: it is a problem for the world. How can the world be different, being equal? How can one be and not be American? What is it to be an Americanized country? 15. Hollywood is a satellite of Earth. 16. The internet Americanized the world more than Hollywood had already done. Wherever there’s Internet, there’s America. Wherever there was Roman Law, there was Rome. 17. (…) (…) 99. America is.
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Excelente, Helder. Conheci a América pela primeira vez com quinze anos. Depois de umas semanas lá fiquei espantada ao ouvir as pessoas dizerem: ‘You’re an American now.’ Nascida na Inglaterra com um pai português, os ingleses sempre me consideraram estrangeira. Em Portugal, muitos ainda me consideram inglesa. Quando visito os Estados Unidos sinto-me em casa.Um abraço, Patrícia
A tese geral da “América” como um “pais criado” e “uma invenção humana” e com uma vocação universalista (e o paralelo com a URSS nesse aspecto) até é capaz de fazer algum sentido.
Mas a passagem em que diz que a URSS foi criada para combater a América parece-me um bocado megalomana.
“Mas a passagem em que diz que a URSS foi criada para combater a América parece-me um bocado megalomana.”
É uma liberdade de estilo, mas com alguma validade simbólica… 🙂
“Mas a passagem em que diz que a URSS foi criada para combater a América parece-me um bocado megalomana.”
Literalmente concordo Miguel, só que “a metáfora é um dedo apontado à Lua” diria. Este texto foi escrito por um português que vive nos EUA.
Patrícia,
sempre que lá vou, sinto-me em casa, exactamente em casa. Tirando o basebol que é uma seca. 🙂
Há muito de América neste texto, não obstante a sua carga panegírica.
Até eu me sou capaz de identificar com muito do que aí é dito 😉
Mas parece um post em jeito de despedida (?) Vai o Helder privar-nos dos seus skteches bem humorados?
A ser verdade, é pena, pois o insurgente ficará mais cinzento e sisudo.
Este foi o primeiro post que publiquei n’ O Insurgente em Abril de 2005. É só a minha comemoração dos dois anos do blog. 🙂
God bless America.
A América de Kennedy. A América de McCarthy. A América de King. A América do Klan. A América de Roosevelt. A América de Reagan. A América de Marilyn. A América de Clint. A América de Ford. A América de Jobs. A América de Soros. A América de Grove. A América de Drucker. A América de Friedman.
Helder, concordo em genero, numero e grau. Desde que cheguei so tenho tido boas experiencias. Os americanos sao realmente fantasticos. Apesar de ainda nao ter green card muito menos cidadania, ja adotei como patria. Inclusive se tiver que lutar por alguma causa nesse mundo, luto por esse pais, sob essa bandeira, por esses mesmos ideais. God bless America! 🙂
A porta está aberta a todos que queiram ir para lá. è pena terem de construir um muro a separar o Mexico da América. Afinal nem todos que vão para a américa são americanos.