この物語は、しばしばアメリカ人以外からは(そして一部のアメリカ人の中からも)は、ある種の独善性をもって受け止められる。アメリカ独立の物語は、アメリカ人にとって建国神話であり正義である。そしてShining City Upon A Hill(丘の上の光り輝く街)の名が示すように、アメリカはその正義を見せつけることに恥がない。
In less than an hour, aircraft from here will join others from around the world, and you will be launching the largest aerial battle in the history of mankind.
Mankind, that word should have new meaning for all of us today.
We can’t be consumed by our petty differences anymore.
We will be united in our common interest. Perhaps it’s fate that today is the 4th of July,
and you will once again be fighting for our freedom.
Not from tyranny, oppression, or persecution, but from annihilation.
We’re fighting for our right to live, to exist, and should we win the day.
The 4th of July will no longer be known as an American holiday,
but as the day when the world declared in one voice,
‘We will not go quietly into the night!
We will not vanish without a fight! We’re going to live on, we’re going to survive.’
しかし一方で、プライベートの私的な部分を含めて描くことによって、等身大の生身の人間たちが、一つの理念の元に団結し統合されるというプロセスが、より強調される。そのプロセスは、全世界で起こる「We will be united in our common interest.」の大きな流れの一部分、サンプルでもある。個人に焦点を当てることによって、全体でも同じこと起こっていたよ、という推論を与える描き方でもある。
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
なにも歴史学をDISっているわけではなく(このようなことは国際関係論や政治学一般にもある)、ここでいいたいのは、「正しい史実」なんてものはないということである。「Historical events,,, are all about interpretation (歴史的事実は、すべて解釈の問題である)」という言葉があるように、すべては体系的知識による解釈の問題であり、そこから逃れることはできないということだ。