After spending far too much time seeing countless online displays of American hubris and mindless patriotism for the holiday yesterday, I ran across this little gem.
While I’m not familiar with the specific episode, I feel obligated to say that this is Diane Morgan as her character Philomena Cunk, the host of a few shows that interview various historical experts while being even more ill-informed than the majority of Americans (yes, I live in North Carolina, and yes, I’ve been an American all my life, so I’m well qualified to make this statement.) If you have not seen Cunk on Earth, it’s worth seeking out, because it’s quite entertaining and Morgan is excellent.
On a serious note for a moment, I think it says a hell of a lot more when we recognize the shitty behavior we used to have and accept it as our history – it’s not going to change, after all – to reflect on how much we’ve changed for the better and can continue to do so, rather than attempting to whitewash it or pretend that it doesn’t exist to escape any culpability. One is growth; the other denial. Perhaps we’re big enough to recognize that? And then we can tackle, oh, the shit that we still do and really shouldn’t be…