The myopia of the hedgehog underscores the hubris that
permeates American society. Nowhere is that more obvious than the
drivel daily spouted by the elites that “we will be greeted as
liberators” whenever we wage war. The sentiment is probably best
expressed in “ the famous thesis of Francis Fukuyama that there
was only one historical road to follow.” That of aping the
West in general and the United States in particular, naturally.
“What we may be witnessing is not just the passing
of a particular period of postwar history,” he
opined, “but the end point of mankind's ideological
evolution and the universalization of Western liberal democracy as
the final form of human development”. (1)
We learned from the failed prognostications of Karl
Marx, another hedgehog who extrapolated his one obsession upon the
universe, that history does not end. In any case, as James Baldwin
once noted, “If Eden ever existed, it certainly never existed
here.” (2) So there is no reason on earth to demand that the
rest of the world replicate our experience; nor should it.
Indeed, hubris runs rampant, finding
representation in both political parties. From Dick Cheney
ignorantly claiming that we will be welcome as liberators in Baghdad,
to Bill Clinton explaining why China's admission into the World Trade
Organization would translate into “political liberalization. This
hubris is shared by George W. Bush with Hillary Clinton going
a step further. “According to her, by persisting with Communist
Party rule, the Chinese 'are trying to stop history, which is a
fool's errand. They cannot do it. But they're going to hold it off
as long as possible”.
“It is worth considering the conviction of American
policymakers that they could so confidently dispense political
prescriptions to China”, writes Kishore Mahbubani in Harper's
Magazine. “No other empire, of course, has accumulated as much
economic, political, and military power as the United States has.
Yet, it has still been less than 250 years since the Declaration of
Independence was signed, in 1776. China, by contrast, is
considerably older, and the Chinese people have learned from several
thousand years of history that they suffer most when the central
government is weak and divided, as it was for almost a century after
the Opium War of 1842, when the country was ravaged by foreign
invasions, civil wars, famines, and much else besides. Since, 1978,
China has lifted 800 million people out of poverty and created the
largest middle class in the world.” (3)
Indeed, the Chinese remember the West insisting on free
trade as a justification for the Opium War as well as the later
Boxer Rebellion. Much of the world, Asia, India, Africa,
Latin America have entirely different experiences with Western
ideologies, being on the receiving end of Western imperialism. That
we would sanitize the historical record of the slave and drug trades,
the genocide in the Congo and Australia and North America betrays the
fraud and dims the luster of our shining light; our City Upon The
Hill.
Political leaders, and the chattering class that molds
public opinion, would view the world as a choice between the
enlightened path of our liberal democratic tradition and
authoritarian failure. But, observes Mahbubani, “To neutral
observers, however, it could just as easily be seen as a choice
between a plutocracy in the United States, where major public policy
decisions end up favoring the rich over the masses, and a meritocracy
in China, where major pubic policy decisions made by officials chosen
by Party elites on the basis of ability and performance have resulted
in such a striking alleviation of poverty.” (4)
I'm not suggesting that change in the regime is not
possible, nor is it undesirable. What I am criticizing is the hubris
that the economic and political systems should be ours to
determine in the first place. China isn't the only case in point.
With the fall of the old Soviet Union the West, prodded by idiotology
instead of careful consideration of Russia's political, social and
economic traditions, demanded that Moscow adopt a stark model of
capitalism that even most of the West finds repugnant. The result
was wholly predictable. Skyrocketing inflation, unemployment, the
savaging of the working class, leading to the present kleptocracy.
And, because they failed to closely hew to their assigned tasks,
retribution followed further alienating what could have been a
serious rapprochement with Moscow and the integration of the
Russian Federation into the Western community. American hubris
has its costs, the blow-back from which echoes down to Brexit,
the 2016 American elections and beyond.
John Bolton, the current National Security adviser to
our present Caesar is, perhaps, the quintessential example of
American Hubris, scouring the planet for places wherein he can
wage war in order to shape the world in our image. As in Iraq, where
the government had the temerity to nationalize the oil fields, Bolton
is now rumbling about possible military action in Venezuela in order
to topple the government and put an end to Hugo Chavez' revolution.
Bolton is also leading the charge against Iran whose violations of
the multilateral nuclear agreement are not to be found.
Nevertheless, the United States withdrew from the agreement, as the
ReSCUMlickan senators promised we would—and this was before tRUMP.
One expects to hear Bolton, any day now, telling the country that we
will be welcome as liberators when we enter Tehran.
This is what happens when you are taught in school that
we are simply realizing our manifest destiny; that the hand of
providence guides our every move; that American Exceptionalism
justifies our every atrocity. This is Hubris.
An Br'er Putin, he jus' laugh and laugh
Impeach and Imprison.
______________
- Op. Cit, see previous post, May 15, 2017. Reference to an article by Kishore Mahbubani. “What China Threat/” in Harper's Magazine Page 40
- Op. Cit. See previous posts.
- Mahbubani, Page 40
- Ibid. Page 40
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