Edward Said: Waiting on a Countervailing Force
"The ideological position common to nearly everyone in the system is that America is best, its ideals perfect, its history spotless, its actions and society at the highest levels of human achievement and greatness. To argue with that -- if that is at all possible -- is to be "un-American" and guilty of the cardinal sin of anti-Americanism, which derives not from honest criticism but for hatred of the good and the pure."

Edward Said: Waiting on a Countervailing Force
"The ideological position common to nearly everyone in the system is that America is best, its ideals perfect, its history spotless, its actions and society at the highest levels of human achievement and greatness. To argue with that -- if that is at all possible -- is to be "un-American" and guilty of the cardinal sin of anti-Americanism, which derives not from honest criticism but for hatred of the good and the pure."