Well-Meaning Foreign Critics Could Become the American People’s Best Friends, If We Seriously Considered their Insights

26 August 2010

Being blind to our flaws is our enemy ─ thoughtful people abroad see us more clearly than we see ourselves

Outsiders see the threat to America’s way of life and world leadership more clearly than we do.

Perhaps we should screw up the courage to listen to what they say.

Our hold on American democracy has slipped from our grasp ─ even though most of us appear not to realize it

We Americans complacently believe that democracy takes care of itself.

We have been mostly unaware of the transfer of control of our governmental institutions from average people to plutocrats.

Similarly, we have not questioned the transition from the United State’s original peace-loving ideal to today’s state of permanent war and lopsided foreign policies.

In addition to the moral indefensibility of constant warfare, war’s financial cost is so high that it weakens national power and increases the likelihood that anti-democratic forces will control government.

If we combine plutocracy’s inegalitarian trend with a state of un-ending war and un-even handedness abroad, we can easily foresee the end of our democracy.

The problem is that few of us recognize the threat.

What blind psychology has us in its grasp?

Kishore Mahbubani, a professor in Singapore, is a friendly, insightful critic

Last year, Professor Kishore Mahbubani wrote an essay that accurately pinpointed the problems that our fogged-up psychological state creates for us and the rest of the world.

Professor Mahbubani outlined five problems affecting the American psyche

These are:

(1) American group think

The ridiculous, yet universally-held, idea that financial deregulation benefited the public interest, rather than simply those who personally profited from lax standards.

(2) Erosion of a genuine sense of individual responsibility

Americans demonized taxes, while at the same time expecting governmental entitlements and government-supported infrastructure.

(3) Abuse of American power abroad

(a) The U.S. encouraged the rise of jihad against Russia, while that was in our interest, but then completely withdrew our involvement in the region.

(b) We moved from an even-handed Middle East policy to an obviously one-sided pro-Israel perspective.

(d) We rejected the Kyoto Protocol.

(4) Collapse of America’s internal social contract

There is now significantly less upward mobility into the American middle class than in other Western nations.

(5) Increased economic protectionism ─ due to complacently unaddressed problems like overly expensive health care that militates against American competitiveness abroad

Why, Mahbubani asked, has this happened?

We listen only to ourselves

[V]irtually all analysis by American intellectuals rests on the assumption that problems come from outside America and America provides only solutions. Yet the rest of the world can see clearly that American power has created many of the world’s major problems. American thinkers and policymakers cannot see this because they are engaged in an incestuous, self-referential, and self-congratulatory discourse.

Our democracy has been corrupted by special interests

It looks more like a government “of the people, by special-interest groups, and for special-interest groups.” In the theory of democracy, corrupt and ineffective politicians are thrown out by elections. Yet the fact that more than 90 percent of incumbents who seek reelection to the U.S. House of Representatives are reelected provides a clear warning that all is not well.

Normally, a crisis provides a great opportunity to change course. Yet the current crisis has elicited tremendous delay, obfuscation, and pandering to special interests. From afar, America’s myopia is astounding and incomprehensible.

Special interests with the most political clout and the most wealth, created (and create) little genuine value

More dangerously, many of those who have grown wealthy in the past few decades have added little of real economic value to society. Instead, they have created “financial weapons of mass destruction,” and now they continue to expect rich bonuses even after they delivered staggering losses.

To survive, sacrifice is required

Professor Mahbubani thinks (as I do) that we cannot solve our problems without embracing personal sacrifice.

For example, in regard to gaining energy independence, it is clear that imposition of a higher gasoline tax (proceeds to be reserved for energy development) is required.

Yet, who will speak for it?

Who will vote for it?

Sacrifice. Duty.

That old-fashioned stuff. The ethos that keeps our combat units functioning effectively under fire.

Too bad that the rest of us have forgotten our obligation to the greater good.

Conclusion ─ our insightful friends abroad remember the ideals of our American heritage better than we do

It is a sad day when our friends in other countries remember what America once stood for better than we do.

Listening to them might save us from our fog-bound selves.

PeteFree.com

Well-Meaning Foreign Critics Could Become the American People’s Best Friends, If We Seriously Considered their Insights