I‘ve started reading Dinesh D’Souza’s best-selling book What’s So Great About America and find it hard to put down. And before you ask, the title isn’t a question but a statement. “America is the greatest, freest, and most decent society in existence,” writes D’Souza. “American life as it is lived today [is] the best life that our world has to offer.” A central theme seems to be that the freedoms of America offer too much to immigrants, which is why there have been so many. He argues that the success of immigrants historically has been due to their assimilation of American values while keeping their heritage, i.e. the “melting pot”.
This may be his most personal book, with parts written in the first person as India-born D’Souza describes his encounter with the United States, first as an immigrant and now as a citizen. He’s perhaps better at explaining why America’s critics are wrong than explaining why America’s celebrants are right - but he’s very good at both, using a mix of feisty arguments and sharp humor. “I am constantly surprised by how much I hear racism talked about and how little I actually see it” is just one of myriad topics he skillfully filets.
“Only now [following 9/11] are those Americans who grew up during the 1960s coming to appreciate the virtues…of this older, sturdier culture of courage, nobility and sacrifice,” D’Souza writes. “It is this culture that will protect the liberties of all Americans.”
We live in an amazingly wonderful country, complete with the freedom to help shape, mold and improve her. We are free to complain about those things about her we find less than virtuous and praise those things we find filled with virtue. No other country on earth offers such a challenging opportunity.
“To make us love our country,” Edmund Burke once said, “our country ought to be lovely.” Burke’s point is that we should love our country, not just because it is ours, but also because it is good. America is far from perfect, and there is lots of room for improvement. In spite of its flaws, however, the American life as it is lived today is the best life that our world has to offer. Ultimately, America is worthy of our love and sacrifice because, more than any other society, it makes possible the good life…and the life that is good.