From Where We Sit
Illogic 101
Spending half my life overseas has afforded me a bird's
eye view of how blind anti-Americanism has become. China promotes economic
reforms and touts its 8% growth rate, then cites Cuba as a model of freedom
in the Americas. The Middle East decries America as anti-Islamic, but America
remains one of the few places in the world where Muslims can pursue their
religion free from government dicta. The African subcontinent plays the
race card and accuses the United States of shortchanging them on economic
aid when, in fact, corruption and tribalism have been largely responsible
for the continent's woes. Welcome to Illogic 101, where the world view doesn't
always coincide with reality.
You would think that these struggling societies would
try to imitate the most successful facets of the American success story.
Certainly a bit more democracy in the Middle East and a tad more investment
and development in Africa would set these areas on a more stable and prospersous
course. But, the problem is, democracy and investment are key features of
a capitalist system, and much of the blame-America crowd, especially in
Europe, is anti-capitalist. So, in this surreal scenario, the only system
that produces capital, which can go a long ways to alleviating ignorance
and poverty, is the system that is attacked and criticized by the protectors/supporters
of the poor, ignorant, and downtrodden.
It even affects America. The anti-capitalists in the
United States are lodged in the left wing of the Democratic party, the party
that most depends on tax dollars for its survival. In a real twist,
it is the anti-capitalists who rely mostly on the capitalists, the wealth
creators, while these wealth creators, like Bill Gates, are busy giving
their money to foundations and creating more wealth. Envision a person whose
life depends on a goose laying golden eggs; then envision this person chasing
the goose around the barnyard, trying to chop off its head with an axe. Got
it yet? If you think logically, you probably won't.
Anti-capitalism, as a movement, no longer has a large
global following, so Trojan horses are used as proxies to level the criticism.
Not so much in China, where "socialism with Chinese characteristics" is
the tongue-in-cheek cover used for the country's embrace of capitalism,
but certainly in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. The Europeans and
Canadians often focus on American culture, the Africans on racism and aid,
and the Middle East on religion. But, none of their arguments hold up under any scrutiny.
American culture, often belittled as plebian and provincial,
is now really a world culture. With a history of welcoming and encouraging
immigration, America is more diverse (at least in an integrated sense) than most urban areas in Europe, Asia,
and South America. In my small town, fully 30% of the people come from minority
ethnic backgrounds--you can be treated by a Pakistani doctor, a Japanese dentist,
you can buy a house from a Mexican realtor or a set of golf clubs from a
Basque sporting goods retailer, you can be taught by a Panamanian teacher.
Europeans and Canadians criticize American culture as lowbrow only because
America is a society which respects freedom of choice, even when many of
those choices don't conform to the socio-political norm.
Most African-Americans prosper in the American culture.
Countless Black lawyers, doctors, teachers, and business leaders have found
success in the United States, and the number of African-American CEOs is growing
yearly, already including Kenneth Chenault at American Express, Franklin D. Raines at
Fannie Mae, and Lloyd Ward at Maytag. The problem in Africa is not race, but
culture, it's not the blackness that scares away governments and private investors,
it's the dysfunction. If a fraction of the money sent to Africa in the last
25 years had been used for infrastructure development and humanitarian aid,
the continent would be a pleasant place to visit or invest in, instead of
what it is, a political disaster.
Meanwhile, in the Middle East, religion, specifically
the Palestinian's quest for statehood and America's support of Israel, are
used to distract attention from the equally pressing problems facing many
Arab states, increasingly restive internal dissent and backward, authoritarian
political regimes. In fact, while most of the Middle East has been searching
high and low these many years for a Palestinian state, one has cropped up
right under their noses--it's called Michigan, a place where Arab and
Palestinian-Americans have been living in peaceful co-existence with Christian
and Jewish Americans for decades. Reform, both political and economic, is
what is needed in the region, not a holy war against the West. The day-to-day
problems on the Arab Street revolve more around grinding poverty and long-term
suffering caused by regional political oppression than by the actions of
America, a continent away. Is the deteriorating plight of the Palestinians
in Gaza and the West Bank really caused solely by Israeli and American foreign
policy, or could the policies of the PLO under Yasser Arafat and the historical
enmity of non-Palestinian Arabs toward Palestinians also be contributing
factors? Regardless of the answer, a more stable, open pragmatic political
environment needs to be created not only to deal with the Palestinian issue,
but to address the Middle East region in general.
The anti-American boo birds would be better off addressing
legitimate concerns, such as America's future in the United Nations, its responsibilities
to the World Trade Organization, and its proper role in global security.
Blaming America for the calamities in Africa and the Middle East is illogical.
August, 2003
© Schackne Online