America's Many Faces

America is an awesome reality that deserves to be studied in depth in order to discover its most relevant aspects whether they might be thrilling or chilling, energizing or depressing, inspiring or horrifying. Like any other reality under the sky, America is a very complex, intriguing and contradictory entity that cannot be easily encapsulate in a simple definition or seen through common stereotypes. More often than not, the core essence of a nation does not coincide exactly with the perception of its citizens and much less with the image foreigners have formed in their minds. One thing is what a nation proclaims to be and stand for, and another how it operates at home and abroad. One thing is how a nation is depicted and perceived by observers, foreign or domestic, and another how it is in its laws, government and justice system.