Tuesday, May 23, 2006

USA! USA! USA!: Us = USers




For a long time I have been dismayed by the arrogation by citizens of the United States of the term "American" as the shorthand term to describe them/ourselves.

It is not just that it gratuitously deprives the peoples of several dozen other countries of the use of appelation--which, after all names ALL residents of two large and populous continents--to which they would seem to have an equal or competing claim.

But it also tars those innocent denizens of the REST of America with the rather broad brush of obloquy, dishonor, and revilement which is the due of only those "Americans" who reside in the United States, and subjects them to undeserved scorn and contempt to which, since at least January, 2001, US citizens have come to be regarded by the world community in consequence of the egregious misrule by the fascist Busheviks.

Therefore, I am hereby proclaiming my plan for renaming the US contingent of Americans to reflect these global realities.

Citizens of the USofA should and shall henceforth be referred to as "USers."

This comports not only with the orthographical reality of the extant abbreviation of the country's official name; it also faithfully represents the economic and political realities of the lifestyles and attitudes of the citizens.

USers: what OTHER term so quintessentially captures the essence of the fact that, with barely 4 -5 percent of the population of the entire world, US citizens and corporations consume an entirely disproportionate amount (depending on the source) of the world's energy resources:
"For example, the United States, with 4 percent of the world's population,
accounts for 22 percent of world energy consumption. Its per capita consumption
is 14 times greater, and CO2 emissions rate 18 times greater, than the
low-income countries with 41 percent of the world's population. The richest 10
percent of Americans (25 million people) have an income greater than the poorest
43 percent of the world's people (2 billion).

Noam Chomsky, already in 1994, noted that : "The United States, with 5% of the world's population, consumes 40% of the world's (total) resources. " The average US citizen, for example, consumes thirty times more resources than his Indian counterpart. "USers" is no exaggeration of these tendencies.

In addition, it echoes the tenor of that obnoxious chant heard at athletic venues all over the world when US tems are in the competition: USA USA USA!

Taking these factors into consideration, along with the apparent national sense of entitlement evident from the phenomena, it seems to me obvious that "USers" is the best--or at least the most honestly descriptive--appellation to bestow upon US.

Just saying...

3 comments:

Anne Johnson said...

I'm thoroughly into words, and I think you have a winner here.

Sometimes this country reminds me of that beast in the "Yellow Submarine" movie that kept sucking everything up until there was nothing left, and then it sucked itself up. We certainly are sucking these days.

Hecate said...

You know that I love you, right?

Anonymous said...

Don't forget the natives, Dad was born on a reservation in OK.

and doesn't that flirting thingy extend past the borders?