Chris Churchill Saves the World | America is a Country of Losers — Part I

By Chris Churchill

Part I — America is a Country of Losers

America is a country of losers. It’s not and an insult. It’s and observation. I love America so don’t ask me to leave it. I simply observe that our great nation, The United States of America is made up of losers and the descendants of losers. 

Defeated.

My ancestors on both of my parents’ sides left the empires they were raised in and made their way to the New World to search for something better. The people they left behind in England or France or Wales or Ireland or Scotland (I’m white, by the way) were apparently doing fine. Doing well enough that they didn’t feel compelled to sail thousands of miles in a wooden shoebox to try for something else. In the game of life they lost. They gave up. 

Most of my African American friends have ancestors who were stolen, sometimes as prisoners of war, and sold into slavery. In the game of life, they lost. They were defeated. Then, once defeated, exploited, exploited, and further exploited, usually by other losers.

Defeated.

All the immigrants who’ve gotten here and cleared at Ellis Island or any of the ports of entry, came here because they didn’t have the same chances at prosperity in their homelands. They weren’t wealthy there, nor would they ever be. They weren’t parts of the aristocracy or the royal lineage or feudal lords or the Brahmin caste or even on the right side of a family rivalry. There was no good reason to stay where they were. They had to come here. In the game of life, they lost. They abdicated their previous nationality. America is filled with losers and the descendants of losers. 

Defeated.

It’s how it was built. Going back to the first ancient Asians crossing the Bering Strait looking for better circumstances (by taking one of the longest possible walks on Earth), we are people who couldn’t hack it where we were and so we came here. Or we were captured and brought here. Or we weren’t safe where we were so we had to come here. In the game of life, we all lost. So we’re here. Together. With the other losers. 

Even the successful are losers here. People who are so misguided by the materialistic promises of capitalism but abandoned by the reason of the Old World. All the meaning in the world’s philosophical and spiritual history have abandoned the super wealthy. 

The saddest thing about our status as losers is that we don’t see it. We don’t accept it. We don’t embrace it. 

The initial losers made loser mistakes like becoming racists who blame others for their problems simply because they didn’t look like them. They made further mistakes like grasping mindlessly, heartlessly, onto religion instead of reason because it’s the only authority we can feel connected to. (After all, our ancestors apparently didn’t know us or even want us in many cases.) Those losers and their mistakes created children who were raised by losers who raised losers who raised losers, etc., etc., etc. 

And now here we are, in one of the most unique civilizations in the history of the world, respected and yet derided by almost all the rest of the world’s nations. Somewhere, a loser in Nigeria sees a golden opportunity to escape his situation. Somewhere, a loser from China feels the same way. And they look to us. The Capital of Losers; lemons who make lemonade for the world. 

Losers frequently find themselves murmuring, “Wait til they see what I become.” Later losers shout, “They should see me now!” to anyone who’ll listen. Those who listen, usually don’t care, though. Because most of the world isn’t made up of losers like we are. Most of the world is fine with being who they are and they see us as a curiosity. But other losers there shout “They should see me now!” and it sounds like a love call from one lonely frog in the Hawaiian evening to another. Our cries fill the airwaves and spray ceaselessly into space.

“I must find that other loser. I must strive for what they’re striving for. We must achieve the loser’s dream of insanely, ridiculously, inflated success!” 

Losers have holes in their hearts. Holes that were dug out long before they can remember. Holes made of circumstances they don’t remember. Americans will never fill that hole until we recognize what’s missing.

Most Americans will never know what’s missing, so they’ll keep striving. 

Some people, some cultures, some nations have enough. 

Not losers. 

Losers never have enough.

America is made up of losers.