Along with the apparent themes of the mythic status of the American dream, the allusions to slavery and general minority oppression are crushingly brilliant ("Do you remember, the bills you have to pay f/or even yesterday?"--seems an inquiry specifically directed at the white majority or historic patriarchal American government). The stark exploitative slideshows of indigent immigrants and blacks at the end of the first two films in Lars von Trier's USA trilogy really cement this song, in my mind, as one of the most ingeniously lyrical satires of American intolerance. It eludes me why this song is on so many pseudo-patriotic bullshit American pride compilations; makes me want to laugh and cry and vomit somehow simultaneously. We're all ultimately in the same situation though, as he points out. There's this bitterly shared equality to the failure of so-called "American" concepts and products. In my opinion, the widespread disillusionment and destruction that this type of ideology has proven more than capable of perpetuating, has yet to be satisfactorily recognized on a political level.
Along with the apparent themes of the mythic status of the American dream, the allusions to slavery and general minority oppression are crushingly brilliant ("Do you remember, the bills you have to pay f/or even yesterday?"--seems an inquiry specifically directed at the white majority or historic patriarchal American government). The stark exploitative slideshows of indigent immigrants and blacks at the end of the first two films in Lars von Trier's USA trilogy really cement this song, in my mind, as one of the most ingeniously lyrical satires of American intolerance. It eludes me why this song is on so many pseudo-patriotic bullshit American pride compilations; makes me want to laugh and cry and vomit somehow simultaneously. We're all ultimately in the same situation though, as he points out. There's this bitterly shared equality to the failure of so-called "American" concepts and products. In my opinion, the widespread disillusionment and destruction that this type of ideology has proven more than capable of perpetuating, has yet to be satisfactorily recognized on a political level.