Juggernaut: “any terrible force, esp one that destroys or that demands complete self-sacrifice ” (dictionary.com)
Three years ago I came to the conclusion that it was irrational to believe that the USA was going to change for the better on expat issues. Roger Conklin had recounted that a congressman lost re-election on account of his support for expat issues, and that made me realize that the no one could turn the USA from its present course. It was a juggernaut, and it is best just to get out of the way. A few weeks ago I started using the term “juggernaut” to depict the USA. Then this evening, I looked up the derivation of the term, from an idolatrous practice in India (s.v., juggernaut):
a crude idol of Krishna worshipped at Puri and throughout Odisha (formerly Orissa) and Bengal. At an annual festival the idol is wheeled through the town on a gigantic chariot and devotees are supposed to have formerly thrown themselves under the wheels
When patriotism becomes idolatry it is nearly impossible to change the course of a nation. Criticism becomes disloyalty. My critiques are “America-bashing“. But it seems to me that true loyalty too often requires throwing oneself under the chariot. Many times has these United States required its citizens to do this very thing: the Civil War, Viet Nam War, and now FATCA–to name just a few examples.
Well, if you don’t like the juggernaut metaphor to describe the United States, today Zero Hedge has recently repeated an article by John Chuckman, America as Dangerous Flailing Beast, but even Chuckman cannot help but see the religious devotion in America’s collective sociopathy: