Every time I visit the United States I experience exhilaration and exasperation in equal measure. On the one hand there is the beauty of the country, I am always greeted with warm hospitality, and I am invigorated by the intellectual energy I so often come across. On the other I am so disappointed at how inward-looking so many people I come acrss are, I am concerned at a patriotism that asks no questions, and I am worried about false assumptions that all things American are the best in the world. Let me explain:
I live in a free country where liberty of opinion is still permitted. When I visit the States I am aware that liberty of opinion is not always permitted especially if it is critical of the US government or of aspects of American culture.
Most visitors to the United States I have met comment how insular and self-absorbed most Americans appear to be. Only around 21% have passports. Foreign travel except maybe to Canada and Mexico is rare. Recent studies reported in the American press show how poor most people’s knowledge is of the world beyond US borders. Apparently the number of American students learning a foreign language has fallen from 16% in the 1960s to 8% in 2005.[1]
There are fewer foreign stories in the press and on TV news programmes now than ever before so why has there been this increase in isolationism in the United States? Why are Americans progressively tuning out the rest of the world? According to journalist Alkman Granitsas:
‘The reason is twofold. But both confirm the cherished belief of most Americans: that their country is a "shining city on the hill." And the rest of the world has relatively little to offer.’[2]
The embarrassing performances of Republican candidate Mike Huckabee in the run up to the Iowa caucuses was such an example. How could a sensible, educated Iowan electorate want to elect to the Presidency a man with such a dreadful knowledge of world affairs? The same question applied, of course, to the election of George W. Bush eight years ago. His lack of understanding or interest in the rest of us has led to an unmitigated disaster for the values of democracy and freedom around the Western world.
The significance of such a general lack of knowledge about the whole world is the incapacity of so many Americans to see important issues from anyone else’s point of view but their own. That is important because the United States is the dominant world culture. American programmes dominate our television schedules, American movies our cinemas, American music our radio stations and American software our computers.
American economics determine our own standard of living – as evidenced by the inept handling of the sub-prime mortgage market in 2007. The rest of the world is now suffering a massive credit crunch through no fault of its own and that affects every family in the United Kingdom of which one is my own.
American corporations dominate our high streets and shopping malls selling everything from corporate chicken to corporate burgers to corporate coffee. The lowest of wages are paid and all the profits are siphoned off to America. Everywhere is becoming part of the American economic and cultural empire – except in those few brave countries that still ban KFC and McDonalds and Starbucks and their like on cultural grounds.
And, of course, American politics dominate world affairs. The government of President George W. Bush and the neo-conservatives behind him have run roughshod over international law, international treaties and prestigious organisations such as the United Nations or the International Criminal Court. Americans behave as if other countries’ laws don’t apply to them particularly the American military who have extra-territorial protection whether other countries like it or not – the UK included. Even Barak Obama said he would launch military action against terrorists hiding in Pakistan forgetting that Pakistan is an independent country that might have a thing or two to say about such an invasion of its trerritory.
Human rights agreements such as the Geneva Conventions have been torn up and thrown away to be replaced by detention without trial at Camp Delta. International agreements concerning torture have been torn up and replaced by extraordinary rendition and aggressive interrogation techniques such as ‘waterboarding’ in countries where awkward questions are not asked.[3]
The precious values embodied in such international agreements define a civilised, democratic and plural society yet they seem to have disappeared amidst patriotic flag-waving hysteria drummed up by the Administration. Is the new definition of an American to be someone who loves their country but asks no questions?
Look at what happened to the country music group the Dixie Chicks when they criticised President Bush at a concert in London in 2003. Lead singer Natalie Maines, introducing the song ‘Travelin' Soldier’ said:
‘Just so you know, we’re on the good side with y’all. We do not want this war, this violence, and we’re ashamed that the President of the United States is from Texas.’
They were dropped by their record company, blackballed by the music industry and threatened with death. At one event former fans were encouraged to bring their CDs to a demonstration at which they would be crushed by a bulldozer. They did that with books in Nazi Germany, didn’t they? So much for freedom of speech in the United States - the only Western country where books are regularly banned (check Banned Books Week sponsored by the American Libraries Association every September).
At least fellow country singer Merle Haggard came to the Dixie Chicks' support saying:
‘I don't even know the Dixie Chicks, but I find it an insult for all the men and women who fought and died in past wars when almost the majority of America jumped down their throats for voicing an opinion. It was like a verbal witch-hunt and lynching.[4]
I was myself present at a Lutheran conference in Gothenburg, Sweden in September 2007 when an American theologian, before he gave his keynote speech, apologised for the actions of his country’s government. He received an ovation from the Swedish audience. Is he to be blackballed as well, I wonder? Or murdered?
And I ask myself whether I shall be safe having written this? Already I have received one threat of violence from someone in the States!
Americans seem to be content with their rigid political system as if nothing can ever be improved. In October 2007 there were frequent reports in the US media concerning entrenched political corruption in Louisiana and Illinois. Then there are reports of the gerrymandering of electoral districts in one state and the inability of black voters to register in another. People I spoke to didn’t bat an eyelid. That’s the way it is, apparently.[5] So if political corruption is tolerated within the United States where is your moral high ground when trying to force democracy on countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan?
I belong to a continent and tradition that believes, after two dreadful world wars, that it is better to shake hands than to shake fists. The growth of the European Union, despite all its problems, is evidence of this shared commitment to peaceful co-existence. Would that the American President, therefore, shake more hands in the Muslim world rather than lecture or threaten it. How else is peace to be achieved – surely not at the point of an American gun?
However, the Bush presidency (which has run the United States into such debt that a balanced budget may never again be achieved in my lifetime) has deliberately sought conflict but without any intellectual substance to justify it.
His aggressive foreign policy doctrine was set out in the neo-con agenda published before 2002. It proposed quite clearly that ‘the United States should use its unrivalled power – forcefully if necessary – to promote its values around the world.’[6]
The atrocities of 9/11 were committed by Saudi and Egyptian terrorists allied to Al-Qaeda yet the Bush response was to attack Iraq which was not. That singular act of folly has brought bereavement to over 3,000 American families, life-long physical and mental health problems to untold thousands more veterans and the deaths of well over 100,000 Iraqis who would have remained alive even under the odious tyranny of Saddam Hussein.[7] When Iraqi civilians say they preferred living under Saddam to American occupation that is an enormously sad indictment of President Bush’s ill-judged decision to go to war.[8]
The vast majority of American citizens have absolutely no idea how their republic is viewed by the rest of the world. The majority don’t seem to care as long as they can continue with their present unsustainable lifestyles. They don’t want to be troubled by international embarrassments such as New Orleans or the constant stream of dysfunctional young people getting guns and shooting up schools. Ostrich-like they seem to be sticking their heads in the sand and pretending it simply isn’t happening. But because of the pervasive news culture we now endure the rest of us see all these things happening before our very eyes.
People outside the United States are all too aware that Americans generate nearly a quarter of the world’s greenhouse gases. Greenpeace USA and Nobel-laureate Al Gore are among those trying to generate a sensible debate on issues that are important not just to us but to our children and grandchildren. Official American obduracy at political conferences generates anger among the rest of us. No doubt that anger will switch to China and India in years to come as their economies rival that of the US. However, we are where we are and the Western world used to look to the United States for leadership on such matters. Not any more when we know the American government really doesn’t give a damn.
One of my favourite places to visit in the US is Mt Rushmore in South Dakota where the faces of four presidents are carved into the rock face. It is a shrine to the high principles of American democracy. Those of us who consider ourselves friends of America and who look up to the ideals of its founding fathers feel deeply let down by the events of the last eight years or so.
My Ten Observations will have served a useful purpose if they can at least get people to talk about the issues that I, as a friendly stranger, am raising. Be aware, though – there are plenty of aggressively unfriendly voices clamouring to be heard as well!
Many years ago Robbie Burns, Scotland’s national poet, wrote these words:
‘O would some Power the giftie give us To see ourselves as others see us It would from many a blunder free us And foolish notion’[9]
It is always a shock to see ourselves as others see us but in the grown up world of free discussion I hope the views expressed here will lead to a sensible consideration of what has to change and how we should all go about it. I for one want the world to truly be a better place for everyone who lives on this one good earth.
