Citizenship is not something people think about, until its underlying attitudes are lost to the culture. Its notable that in socialist paradises like Canada and the U.K., governments are having to teach active citizenship in the schools to combat the natural lesson of socialism--citizenship is about entitlement.

Nowadays we discuss democracy in terms of elections, but its power lies in the the personal sense of ownership, the individual's sense of responsibility towards the community. The famous tale of Thermopylae in which three hundred Spartans defended their country against thousands of invading Persians is really a demonstration of the relative power of citizens over royal subjects. The Persians were willing to kill for their emperor, but the Spartans, Thespians and Thebans were willing to die to defend their communities, Moreover, the Greeks elevated their sacrifice to a supreme expression of democratic virtue. The citizen had transcended the ancient tribal paradigm. A man would naturally give his life to protect his family, but the Greeks sense of family was transformed--their countrymen were now their family.

The Romans understood the power of this concept and incorporated it into a symbol of the Roman Republic--the Fasces. Its symbolism is obvious--strength through unity. The Romans forged a durable empire less through conquest (which of course every transient empire had done until then...), then by extending Roman citizenship to conquered people. The concept was so powerful, it has been copied universally, although imperfectly every since. American national symbolism is replete with fasces (the arrows in the eagles claw, the pillar's of Lincoln's throne within his monument, 'E Pluribus Unum" on our money...)

Yet symbols are only reminders of abstract facts. When the facts disappear, the symbol becomes meaningless--or worse, available for hijacking. The Swaztika used to be a good luck charm and was used on maps to mark temples, but its modern meaning is altogether different these days.

This is a long, but necessary prelude to understand something Dallas News columnist Rod Dreher wrote.

Some thoughts on a Powerline post:

Writing as a Briton with American children who have both Jewish and 'aryan' German antecedents, I think that anti-Americanism is strongest in Germany (looking outside America, that is) and motivated by inferiority complex and unexpiated shame. The main attraction of Obama is that he is weakening America and apologizing for America's sheer rottenness. That brings America much closer to Germany. America's alleged war-crimes are totemic to Germans for the same reason. The mood music from Obama on the moral equivalence of Israel to the Palestinians is music to Teutons too.

Britons (I prefer that to 'Brits' which rhymes with 'shits') don't have a complex about this stuff. Once there may have been a slight inferiority complex, but we solved that when all we snaggle-toothed, snaggle-brained charmers took your most beautiful women. The BBC is a problem. It has it's own vast, childish, depraved agenda and over the decades that has infected the British middle-class.....but we have a robust press compared to America and even The Guardian is more heterogeneous than the New York Times. Moreover there's just too much mingling between the USA and the UK for false stereotypes to fool most of the people most of the time unless those caricatures pervade the US media as with Bush and Palin. The mother lode of anti-Americanism is to be found in America.

An example of the mingling is British accents on American ads when there's no British association. It's as tho British accents, even regional British accents, were just regional American accents. We're starting to speak the same sports language too as soccer sweeps America (I know, I know, it's hardly on tv, but in Houston, NYC and NJ where I've lived it's by far the most played sport). If the USA were playing England today, the USA would be favourite to win.

I also have high hopes for the reported friendship between our Queen and your First Lady. Despite Mrs Obama's affirmative action background, life changes people and the simple friendship of an older and younger mother can be a mighty force in this naughty world. Obama and Prince Philip next?

The French, I detect, are actually pro-American, but even more strongly pro-French and need to be assured of their own importance. Obama really should have dined with the Sarkozys at the top of the Eiffel Tower. There's never been a bigger bang for a diplomatic buck than that chance to butter up the President of France and Obama frivolously threw it away. Quel dommage!

We could take it country by country....Russia, India....but the rule is that most elites want a weaker America in order to raise their own self-esteem. Obama's really effective at that, so he's the man. As America switches from hyper-power to has-been and aborts and apologizes and borrows it's way out of history, so the anti-Americanism will become disdain and mockery. But Osama is right..men back the strong horse and Islam looks like that. My guess is that the Islamic power will not be Middle Eastern, but will be France or Germany or Russia. They won't be apologizing.

Spread that wealth around:

"Mr Brown was the first black man ever to stand for Mayor of Alligator and it took Mr Obama’s election to galvanise him into action....After 30 years, I didn’t think an African-American would be able to be mayor. I didn’t think the position was open to me. When he won, I decided that I knew the changes that needed to be made here and I thought that I could make those changes.
"If we don’t look after our youth, what do we have? The population is dying out and I want more people here. I want better living conditions.
I just want the people to be comfortable. Small towns like this depend on government funding and that’s what we’re seeking.
"I mingle with a lot of the young kids here in the community because if you deal with the people and their problems you understand more what’s going on if you’re out with them.”
The town’s facilities were substandard, he said, gesturing towards the humble town hall, where a “No Loitering” sign is nailed next to the door. “There isn’t even a phone or a fax machine in there. How can we communicate with the outside world and ask for things?"

I'll refrain from joyful comment except for this I just read:

Obama thinks America sucks, and now the IOC agrees with him.