"Super".

One of the most ingenious though infantile (ingenuous?) American invention is the caped and/or masked super hero. I think they haven't received enough kudos for it. Equally ingenious is the way they've abbreviated "building superintendent" to "super". This factotum is in charge of the smooth running of the facilities (water, power, electricity, waste disposal, elevators, washing machines) in a building and, in turn, for the comfort and well being of the residents. He often resides in the basement to be within easy call 24/7 and has with him all the tools and implements he may need to accomplish his various tasks. Many of the more popular super heroes too, coincidentally, reside underground and emerge to the surface to answer the call of duty. (Remember Batman answering the Bat-signal's summons and speeding to the rescue from the Bat Cave in his Batmobile?) To equate "super" with "saviour" reminds me of Vishnu, the Preserver/Saviour, in his functionally appropriate avatara coming to the rescue of his devotees (acolytes, fans?) and delivering them from the clutches of the evildoers. http://tinyurl.com/4tqt89. In the US of A, the house where Superman was "created" was recently saved for restoration thanks to the fans' generosity. http://tinyurl.com/3t9v4d. They do believe in and love "Super", don't they?

Inside job?

In most cases, I’m wary of conspiracy theories. http://popgoestheslop.blogspot.com/2006/06/whats-your-favourite-conspiracy-theory.html. But when a well-known and well respected professor of nuclear physics who ought to know his implosions from his explosions offers a ‘controlled demolition’ hypothesis, I don’t know. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_E._Jones. [Want a quick summary of the top 10 conspiracy theories, go here: http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/index.php?menuID=1&subID=735. Also see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9/11_conspiracy_theories.] Urban Indians, Mumbaikars in particular, who take a very sentimental view of all things American staunchly object to the conspiracy theory for the following reason. Would they do it to their own people? Would they make their own folks miserable? Would they attack Truth, Justice and the American Way (what Superman now calls “all that stuff”)? http://trueaspect.blogspot.com/2004/10/truth-justice-and-american-way.html. Of course, they would. If they had a strong enough motive. If they could conjure a neo Pearl Harbour in order to justify a take-over of the Middle East oilfields, for instance. Or, if they could whip up enough popular support for their dream of restoring the US of A to the greatness and world leadership that, in their estimation, it is destined for. To hell with who gets hurt in the process, boys and girls. See how General Motors – which used to be a power unto itself at that point of time – systematically destroyed the California Transit Systems in the forties. http://www.trainweb.org/mts/ctc/ctc06.html. The Prophet of Progress had the best of motives at heart. You guessed it: the profit motive. “Kerosene was poured on the streetcars and electric trains and they were burned, except a few placed in museums. Nothing was left of the transit system which had comprised 1479 streetcars and train cars and 771 trolley buses. Even the subway was made unusable by a future subway line.” Also: “…what was once a private company, making profit and paying taxes, eventually became both government owned and government subsidized, after GM destroyed both its efficiency and its customer base. This process was repeated in other of GM's transit operations in California. The transit companies also had owned much of the property under their tracks, and paid property taxes which roads never paid.” And: “Taxpayers to this day are burdened with subsidizing bus systems. To a much greater extent, they are burdened with subsidizing automobiles whose numbers are far greater than if the electric systems – with streetcars, trains and trolley buses – had remained intact.” Want another example? Read what happened to “the hapless and desperate victims of the Dust Bowl seeking work in California (much like the Joad family in John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath attracted to California, portrayed as ‘the land of milk and honey’ in the bogus ads for fruit pickers placed in Oklahoma newspapers in order to drive down the minimum wages)”. http://popgoestheslop.blogspot.com/2006/06/us-and-them.html.

Okay, everybody. Let's belt it with gusto:

“I like to be in America!
O.K. by me in America!
Ev'rything free in America
For a small fee in America!”

And:

“Automobile in America,
Chromium steel in America,
Wire-spoke wheel in America,
Very big deal in America!”

Moreover:

“Immigrant goes to America,
Many hellos in America;
Nobody knows in America
Puerto Rico's in America!”

Once more with feeling, boys and girls:

“I like the shores of America!
Comfort is yours in America!
Knobs on the doors in America,
Wall-to-wall floors in America!”
http://www.lyricsondemand.com/soundtracks/w/westsidestorylyrics/americalyrics.html.