Blind Faith
I don’t have much time but it is the Fourth of July and one of the worst violators of my ban on blind faith. Blind patriotism is just a version of faith. It is the blind belief that your country is somehow superhuman. Now I’m not saying we should discount the advantages of living in this country, merely suggesting that to ignore the fact that every organization is made up of people is a mistake.
People are flawed, and they do things for flawed reasons and with flawed executions. Sometimes, even often things turn out well, but that is no reason to elevate flawed people to superhuman status. To ignore the flaws is to ignore the entire history of an organization. To ignore the greed of the industrialist who eventually brought us a better standard of living is to lie and re-write history. To ignore the philandering of the founding fathers and their many other flaws is to lie about what ordinary men can accomplish when the need arises, and instead creates false myths of unattainability.
That hurts us more than knowing that out institution was based on thoughts of flawed people.