Arrogant Nation
Saturday 4th June 2005,
by Doug Soderstrom
THE arrogance of ignorance, a profoundly dangerous and ill-informed presumption that one’s own people are better (wiser, morally and spiritually ascendant, and more capable) than others, seems rather well entrenched within the American populace. It is such that seems to have created a social-political environment that continues to encourage the American effort to build a World Empire. All of the elements are there, in fact, it seems that at this very moment, at the very dawn of the third millennium, the foundation has been laid. The people have been primed, the leadership (The Bush-Cheney Administration) is in place, and The Great American War Machine is ready to take action.
But how did things get to such a point? What was it that allowed our country to have become so arrogant? Was it our taming of The West? Was it our near annihilation of The American Indian, the original inhabitants of this country? Was it our ability to have been so successful in an enslavement of The African American people? Was it our capacity to have economically ravaged Central America and The Caribbean? Was it our capacity for technological development? How about our having bombed Viet Nam and Cambodia into near stone-age oblivion? Then there was our war with Iraq in 1991, and the fact that we were able to kill 350 Iraqis for every American soldier who died. And what about our ability to have been so good at polluting the earth’s atmosphere setting the stage for a rather tragic warming of the world? Or the fact that four percent of the world’s population has been so successfully able to have consumed 35% of the world’s wealth? And what about the fact that we, no doubt, have the greatest military force in the history of the world, one that could destroy the entirety of the human race several times over? And what about our willingness to have thumbed our noses at nearly every institutional effort to resolve some of the world’s most grave problems (The World Court, The Kyoto Treaty on Climate Change, The Anti-Ballistic Treaty with Russia, The 2001 UN Conference on Racism, as well as other international attempts to resolve pending world problems). And finally, we can bask in the glory of having been so successful in bringing peace, prosperity and security to a democratic Iraq!
So given “such a fine history”…….. what is it about The American Citizen, on the eve of another Bush-Cheney four-year administrative reign, that qualifies him to be a candidate for such a grand design? What is it that seems to have paved the way toward empire? What is it about our own people that have made them so absolutely vulnerable, so inordinately willing to be led down the primrose path of a mad dash toward the building of a worldwide empire?
I would like to suggest that there are eight factors that have moved the American public to such a point. The first of which is an inclination toward ethnocentrism. Americans seem to be wracked with ethnocentric bias, a rather pride-filled tendency to reject anything that is not American, an attitude that leads our people to evaluate that which is American as better than that which is not of American origin. For example, it is common for Americans to believe that capitalism, the free enterprise system, is inherently better (more God-inspired) than any other economic arrangement, especially that of socialism which is, by many, considered to be evil and perhaps even devil-inspired. Also rather endemic is the presumption that Christianity is the one and only “right religion,” the only theological system that will enable an adherent to enter “the pearly gates” of Heaven, condemning all other religions to the category of false faiths that necessarily lead to Hell. And, of course, given our country’s current 9/11-oriented fear of another attack by “the terrorists,” the converse of such a proposition is a resolute hatred of The Moslem Faith as well as those of The Middle East who tend to follow its precepts. Representatives of the conservative-fundamentalist Christian community such as Franklin Graham, Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell have pretty well summed up these folks feelings.
A second factor that seems to have created conditions conducive to “the empire-rization” of our country is the undeniability of how we, as a nation, have apparently normalized the fact of violence, how we have essentially created a “culture of violence” as a more or less accepted way of life in America. I suggest that hidden within the American Mind is a rather peculiar attachment or, perhaps one could say, a kind of fondness for that of violence….. almost to the point that anyone who objects to the use of violence may be considered as either weak, impractical, Un-American, or perhaps even un-Godly. Such a willingness to conveniently disregard, or perhaps even to deny, what used to be the quintessential fact of the Christian faith (that we should not do unto others that which we would not have them do unto us) seems rather commonplace in “such a religious country” as that of America. As evidence for the normalization of (and likely the desensitization towards) violence in our country I offer the following: The fact that The United States is the only developed country in the world that allows the use of capital punishment, and especially that of a willingness to execute children under 18 years of age (sometimes as young as 14 years of age), a willingness to use physical punishment (spanking) as a fundamental aspect of parental discipline, our country’s unwillingness to ban the use of handguns, the legalization of corporate practices that destroy the environment, the bastardization of the democratic nature of our union by allowing those with money to buy off those in the federal government, a general glamorization of violence in the media, the historical use of violence against minority groups (i.e. Native Indian Americans, Afro-Americans, women, homosexuals etc.), the increasing use of litigation as a form of violence, the legitimized use of violence in the advertising industry……… the tobacco company’s efforts to advertise their products to children (in order to replace those they have already killed) along with a willingness to allow themselves to be used as a way of destroying political careers, the acceptance of violence as an essential aspect of the video game industry, an historical unwillingness for schools to deal with the problem of bullying, the belief that war is an acceptable way to deal with international conflict, a general feeling that protest against war (standing up for peace) is an Un-American activity, the tendency to euphemize the killing of innocent civilians (parents, children, and friends) by referring to them as “collateral damage,” a rather confabulated attempt to condone impersonalized violence (killing people from afar…… as when people are slaughtered by missiles having been shot from hundreds of miles away), a rather fatuous belief that “might is right” (i.e. a belief that God has the “almighty right” to send anyone He wants to Hell, The Protestant Ethic’s “damning” of those who are poor, an extraordinary belief that our country along with its military power has been blessed by God), and a tendency for “the conservative-fundamentalist Christian community” to condone violence as an essential religious value (as found in The Old Testament of The Holy Bible). Again the list could go on but I think the point has been made.
Third, there seems to be a rather troubling tradition of spiritual duplicity, a feigned sense of religious piety that has taken hold of The American People. An appalling capacity for Americans to disregard the plight of others, an absence of compassion (empathic concern) for those less fortunate than ourselves, an essential unwillingness for the American people to put themselves into the place of others who, by any objective standard, have faired far less well than those in our own nation. Based upon conversations in my classroom as well as with others “on the street,” it appears to me that Americans are severely limited in their capacity “to place themselves into the shoes of others.” For those of you who are older think about how most Americans felt when they discovered that nearly a quarter of a million Japanese (nearly all of them civilians) died as a result of our country having dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki? What were their feelings in regards to our firebombing of Tokyo in which 100,000 Japanese civilians died, or our incendiary bombing of Dresden, Germany in which nearly 300,000 German civilians were torched? And then more recently, how many of you have run into friends who have anguished over the nearly one million Iraqis (at least 500,000 of whom were children) who died as a result of our twelve-year economic embargo of Iraq, or the nearly 15,000 Iraqi civilians who have been killed as a result of our recent invasion of Iraq? Not to belittle the tragedy of nearly 3,000 Americans having lost their lives on 9/11, but how is it possible that our own people (many of whom refer to themselves as Christian) have such a deep concern for “those of their own kind” while simultaneously exhibiting such a pittance of empathic concern for the many more who have died at the hands of our own comrades? Unfortunately, such seems to be a rather moot point for the Christian community!
A fourth factor that has caused so many Americans to bask in the arrogance of their own ignorance is a relatively profound lack of knowledge in regards to world history. It is rather alarming how very little Americans seem to know about the history of our involvement in The Middle East. Based upon conversations with folks in my own community, it has become glaringly apparent that very few adults understand what it is that The United States could have done to cause their counterparts, those living in The Middle East, to have become so upset. I suppose that it has not occurred to many of these folks that The United States, over the past half century (ever since the establishment of Israel as a nation in 1947), has, along with Israel, a long track record of disregarding the rights of The Palestinian People, forcing them to live in a perpetual state of incarcerated poverty, that America has conspired to set up several “puppet governments” in The Middle East, that America has a history of supporting despotic Middle Eastern regimes, or that our country’s involvement in the production of Middle East oil has lead to the impoverishment of millions of Middle Eastern citizens. Again the list could go on.
The fifth ingredient has to do with PNAC (The Project for the New American Century) that was established in 1997. Its purpose was to create a plan that would guide The United States of America into the 21st century in a manner that would benefit the interests and needs of our country in relation to, or perhaps even at the expense of, those of the rest of the world. According to PNAC’s basic principals found on its official website it is stated that, “we need to accept responsibility for America’s unique role in preserving and extending an international order friendly to our security, our prosperity, and our principles. To be sure it was a neo-conservative plan as Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz. Jeb Bush, Daniel Pearl, among others were signatories of PNAC. The document clearly states that the United States not only has the right to militarily dominate the world, but even more perilously suggests that our nation has a moral responsibility to do such a thing, reasoning that what is best for our country is quite obviously best for the remainder of the world. To say the least, such sounds amazingly ethnocentric if not downright evil!
A sixth factor that seems to have prepared the way toward empire is the infamous, 9/11 (September 11, 2001) attack upon New York City and Washington D.C. At such a point in time the American public was pretty much absorbed in a domestic struggle as to what to do about a failing economy. But then came 9/11, and everything changed! The precipitous economic downturn was causing a great deal of fear and anxiety. However, after that fateful day in September, panic began to take hold. If the stock market decline was “a left hook to the stomach,” then 9/11 was, no doubt, the equivalent of having received “an absolutely crushing blow to the head” as this is the first time that the American People have been “brought to their knees” since the December 7, 1941 affair in Pearl Harbor. The result: A profound sense of insecurity that has seemingly swept the American mind. Consequently, the American public is being pressed to decide if they have the inner strength, essentially the moral courage, to move on, or are they going to allow themselves to wallow in pity? Are they going to allow themselves to become so terribly vulnerable, so distressingly dependent, so unashamedly weak that they will demand a leader (a strong man), someone to whom they can turn, someone they can trust to save them from ruin?
Seventh, the 9/11 event has seemingly moved our country into a time of great national peril, a time of immense fear, a fear of the death of much that we value; a fear that our economy is no longer under control (especially our country’s ability to control the lifeblood of our economy…. the flow of oil), a fear that we, as a country, are not as safe nor as strong as we once thought, that we are no longer in control of world events that could well plunge our country into another world war, a fear that we may have reached the end of an era……. an inability to maintain our present standard of living, à la The American Dream, and the never ending hope for a better, more stable, world. All said, as a result of 9/11, The American Mind has a received a severe blow, one that, unless we are able to find our bearings, able to “get back on our feet,” may have left us open to be manipulated by those who would very much like to use our insecurity as a launching pad to create a sense of safety that an American empire would seem to provide. Many have indicated that the need to be free is the driving force behind humanity. But I disagree. The one thing that no doubt trumps the desire for individual freedom is survival, the desire for just one more breath, the need to stay alive. As occurred in Germany in the years leading up to the beginning of World War II, the people were more than willing to shed their civil rights in exchange for a promise that they would be well taken care of by “their savior,” Adolph Hitler. A question for thought: Could something such as this be occurring in the United States?
The concluding factor that seems to be moving our country toward empire is an apparent need for someone who might be able to save us from destruction. In the 1930’s “that someone” was Adolph Hitler. However, in the year 2004, I believe “such people” to be George W. Bush and his neo-conservative companions. But why would I say such a thing? Well, in the 1930’s, the German people were looking for (perhaps even begging for) someone who would be able to “save them” from disaster? It is my opinion that The United States, because of an insecurity-driven sense of fear, has allowed itself to be propelled into a rather similar situation in that of today’s world. In attempting to link himself with that of the conservative-fundamentalist-evangelical Christian community, in wanting to convince these people that he is a true man of God, this community has come to accept George W. Bush as “their man,” the one God has pre-ordained to lead them through “this time of great trial,” the times leading up to Armageddon and the eventual return of Christ (The Rapture of The Church). Such has created conditions conducive to the rise of a neo-conservative power structure (exemplified by folks like George Bush, Carl Rove, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, John Ashcroft, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, and others) that seems to be using the federal government as a means to a rather precarious end……. that of wanting to take possession of the American Mind, to be able to control The American People, in order that they might be used as pawns in their march toward world power.
It is the same group of despots who very methodically laid plans for that of The Homeland Security Act, Patriot Act I, Patriot Act II, and the once infamous Total Information Awareness Program…… all in order to protect us, The American People, from being destroyed by our enemies. However, what most do not realize is that the enacting of such legislation has lead to the destruction of many of our hard earned constitutional rights such as the government’s right to: monitor religious and political institutions without suspecting criminal activity; to secretly detain people without charges; prosecute librarians as well as others who keep records for having informed someone that their records had been checked by the federal government; monitor federal prison conversations between attorneys and their clients; deny Americans accused of crimes the right to retain a lawyer; search and even seize citizen documents without probable cause; jail an American citizen for an indefinite period of time while simultaneously denying him the right to have a trial; and to jail a citizen of this country, without the right to confront his accuser, even though he has not been officially charged with a crime (ReclaimDemocracy.org). At this point it seems pertinent to ask; who is the enemy……… “the terrorists” or the federal government itself?
Rather than having created a need to protect ourselves from such governmental intrusion, it seems that our response has been one of mindless complacency, an almost “do whatever you want to do” attitude. Such seems reminiscent of the people’s response to Adolph Hitler’s seductive invitation to the German People, “Give me your minds, and, in return, I will take care of you, I will make you safe.” So this is the question that we, as a people, must be prepared to ask ourselves: Are we willing to lay aside the fact of our hard-earned constitutional rights, the fact of our freedom, the fact of our integrity, even more, the fact of a moral responsibility to think and decide for ourselves………. or would it be better to settle for the pittance of a rather hollow Bush-Cheney promise that “the government” will take care of us, that they, just like some kind of gods, will protect us from being destroyed by our enemies……… A question not to be taken lightly!
So what does the foregoing mean? What does it mean that we have become so ethnocentrically arrogant, so open to the use of violence, so religiously crippled, so pervasively ignorant of our impact upon the world, so terribly frightened and insecure? Such I believe means that we, as a people, have allowed ourselves to have been set up, to have become rather ripe for the picking, to have become very ready and extremely well-prepared to be led by those in power (The Bush-Cheney Administration) into a jack-booted, goose-stepped march toward world empire, a determined attempt by our own country to dominate and to eventually rule the world.
But how could such a thing have happened? Much like the proverbial ostrich that stuck its head into the sand in order not to contend with reality, the American populace seems to have done much the same. Given such an arrogant ethnocentric orientation, we have come to believe that we are somehow superior to those of other nations. Through generations of conquest and appropriation we have been led to believe that our own understanding of world history, our interpretation of world events, our own rendering of our country’s involvement in The Middle East is The Truth, the one, and only, correct explanation of what has occurred. And just imagine…… all of this in light of a rather profound degree of ignorance regarding what has really gone on in relation to our country’s continued interference in Middle Eastern affairs. Given such an incredibly outrageous belief in our superiority, mired as it is in a sea of historical ignorance, it is no wonder that we, as a people, have become a living example of “the arrogance of ignorance.” […]
If I have learned anything it is the fact that “pride always cometh before the fall.” It happened in Greece and then again in Rome. The consequences were similar for that of the French Empire as well as that of England. Then there was Hitler’s Germany and that of the Russian Empire. Eventually, everyone of these nations, each one an aspiring empire, wanting to rule the world, folded like a house of cards giving way to the enormous weight of the ignorance of its own rather arrogant pride.
Consequently, I think that it is incumbent that we, as a people, ask ourselves if we might not be moving in such a direction, if we might not be moving in a direction similar to that of other nations that aspired toward that of world empire. Considering the pronouncements in PNAC that clearly indicate our country’s desire to become the world’s next great empire along with that of The President’s policy of military preemption, a declared willingness to preemptively destroy anyone who is willing to challenge our authority to rule the world, the answer should be clear.
I suggest that there is only one thing that stands between what seems to be a rather mind-numbingly subservient willingness to surrender our civil rights to those in power, only one thing that could clear the way for an unimpeded grab for power, an outright takeover of our country by the neo-conservative power structure, and that is………….. a cataclysmic event such as a major chemical and/or nuclear attack by “the terrorists.” Such, I believe, would be sufficient to frighten, sufficient to create the insecurity necessary for the masses to relinquish their right, even worse their moral responsibility, to run the country. Such a crisis might perhaps be enough for the people of our country to go on ahead and give “the green light” to the neo-conservative power structure to extend their efforts to establish a world empire……. and, of course, to do such a thing all in order to protect us from our enemies! However, there is little doubt that such a move would destabilize and thus inflame the world to the point that war, perhaps even an all out nuclear war, would become an inevitability!
I suggest that we, as Americans, had better think about such matters before it is too late. Think about what the world might perhaps be like if we abnegate our personal as well as collective responsibility to think and choose for ourselves by allowing “those in power” to do the thinking and choosing for us. We must remember that “those people in Washington” are not Gods, rather they are fallible human beings just like you and me…… people who, if we allow the arrogance of their ignorance to take charge we may well be led into the vast abyss of a third world war. We, as a citizenry, have a morally bound duty to demand that those who we have given the power to rule in our stead do so in a way that might serve the best interests of humanity, rather than the mere interests of any disparate nation or that of a conglomerate of multinational corporations. It is time that we, as citizens, stand up and take charge of our nation and do so in a manner that might enable our country to become a harbinger of peace, love, and justice; a beacon of light, an example for the rest of the world to follow.
