i think the notion that america somehow exists outside of the forces of history and the weight of the past contributes to the dynamism of this society but it is also our tragic and probably fatal flaw (guess who has been revisiting greek tragedy in his down time)

oh nice. I just saw a performance of the Oresteia the other day.

It's interesting in this light that the tragedies Americans most aptly consume in media these days are more personal than public. The Greek tragedies, for those who don't know, were meant to be part of civic discourse as much as or more than it was entertainment.

Which of the big 3? Or a mix of all of them?

Also, American descendants of African slaves and Native Americans seem most tied to the American past that whites and other immigrants flee - also the most historically reviled groups. How much of the running from the past is a desperation to erase the stain these groups remind Americans of.

"probably fatal" are the perfect words here.

put a little differently i don’t think it is an accident that the single greatest political leader this country ever produced was a depressive with a finely-tuned sense of the tragic and the ironic!

Deduced the Greek part but I thought you consistently posting to every reply was picked up from mythology a la punishment for Prometheus or Tantalus.

I agree. It's sort of a socio-political version of "dance like no one's watching" and also like you've never seen anyone else dance before