Ode to the Nation

"Immerhin hat das den Staat zur Hölle gemacht, daß ihn der Mensch zu seinem Himmel machen wollte." --Johann Christian Friedrich Hölderlin


For years I have struggled with the above dictum by Hölderlin, a German idealist and Romantic poet and intellectual. I would translate the quote as "What has always turned the state into a hell is that man has desired to make it into his heaven." I have often used this pithy axiom to discredit any political ideology that has utopian aspirations; however, on my recent trip to Washington D.C. the German poet's words raced through my mind as I stood inside the Lincoln Memorial reading the Gettysburg address inscribed on the edifice's southern wall.

The last time I was in D.C.--I mean anywhere but the airport--I was a bright-eyed young patriot about the age of my eldest son. Like the tourists that surrounded me on this most recent trip, I had felt compelled to photographically document all the civic temples dedicated to our nation's glory and greatness. Yet my confidence in my nation's  righteousness of purpose, if once unshakable, has withered and worn from my studies and travels as a student of history.

Me in front of the National Archives

As I read the words that I've heard countless times before about a "new nation" that was "conceived in Liberty" standing under the shadow of a colossal statue of the leader that would send more Americans to their deaths than any of his predecessors and successors, I was struck by Lincoln's words about the fallen: "that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause [equality] for which they gave the last full measure of devotion." Not only Americans, but people from distant lands stood

all around me on that sunny day in Washington, sweating from their exertion in the muggy heat of that Washington summer day to reach the feet of our former president, a champion for equality known round the world. Yet, I couldn't help but consider that perhaps our adherence to these ideals of liberty and justice and our devotion to these nations that we create (because a nation, of course, is a very recent concoction) compel us, much like Lincoln, to struggle, fight, kill, and die ultimately making our state a hell on earth.

Of course, I doubt these sentiments are what the State Department hoped I would take away from the day they gave me in Washington. And perhaps I too should resolve that my ancestors not die in vain to paraphrase Lincoln. Wait, were they my ancestors???  I think at least some of my ancestors fought and died on the other side, the side of inequality. And did they rush out on the battlefield instilled with a malicious desire to perpetuate evil and tyranny? Can righteous desires lead men to fight on both sides of a battlefield? And can't equally an unrighteous volition, that of imposing one's will over another, be the persistent inducement for war?

Despite my rant, however, I am grateful for my country. They've been funding my education for sometime and given me this free trip to Washington and Jordan. Horray for America!