America's historical amnesia

If you read Gore Vidal's essays, he comments often on America having historical amnesia. If you have not read his essays, then get out and read them. They are worth the effort. A headline on The Nation's RSS feed caught my eye: Patriotism's Secret History. Reading the article made me think of Vidal's commentary on our historical amnesia. The following paragraph captures the gist of the article.

In each major period of twentieth-century history--the Progressive era, the Depression, World War II and the postwar era--American radicals and progressives expressed a patriotism rooted in democratic values and consciously aimed at challenging jingoism and "my country, right or wrong" thinking. Every day, millions of Americans pledge allegiance to the flag, sing "America the Beautiful" and "This Land Is Your Land," and memorize the words on the Statue of Liberty without knowing the names of their authors, their political inspiration or the historical context in which they were written.