From the other side of our small planet, it occurs to me that Americans' views of themselves as "exceptional" rises from this sad tenet - that ignorance is as good as knowledge in an "equal" America. "Out of many, One" is a strange motto, as the One State applies to many countries, especially those rated as evil by the USA! However, I digress.

Ignorance has been fed over the past several decades (& increasingly so in volume) by social media & electronic methods of reaching inside people's heads. Those more skilled at electronic manipulation via algorithms and advances such as AI become the demagogues, overseeing the thoughts of the populace. It's not just people like Murdoch & his Sky empire, but anyone adept at digital manipulation. They feed ego, misinformation skewed to partisan causes and of course, gratification (sexual or otherwise). It has long been the maxim of rulers that beer and circuses are far easier controllers of the populace than nuanced, serious and factual debate. The so-called debate between Trump and Biden filled me with concern, which certainly was not allayed by the result.

Unless and until America realises they are not exceptional in their narrow, white, imperial and colonial sense, there will be always conflict within and without. If there is not a change of mindset and heart, "God Bless America", because nothing else will.