Harold Pinter's Nobel Speech

It was nearly 200 years ago that Hegel remarked that the United States of America does not have a history, but only a future. Harold Pinter's speech is a blistering attack on US record in the last few decades, a scathing indictment of its "mission" and a statement that critiques (or updates) Hegel's observation :
(an abridged version of the speech here)

It never happened. Nothing ever happened. Even while it was happening it wasn't happening. It didn't matter. It was of no interest. The crimes of the United States have been systematic, constant, vicious, remorseless, but very few people have actually talked about them. You have to hand it to America. It has exercised a quite clinical manipulation of power worldwide while masquerading as a force for universal good. It's a brilliant, even witty, highly successful act of hypnosis.

I put to you that the United States is without doubt the greatest show on the road. Brutal, indifferent, scornful and ruthless it may be but it is also very clever. As a salesman it is out on its own and its most saleable commodity is self love. It's a winner. Listen to all American presidents on television say the words, 'the American people', as in the sentence, 'I say to the American people it is time to pray and to defend the rights of the American people and I ask the American people to trust their president in the action he is about to take on behalf of the American people.'

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Left, Literature, US