U.S. political elites are the inheritors of a package of influences which range from the flight of the pilgrims escaping religious persecution in Europe to the concept of America's 'manifest destiny' to transform the world into what is blithely assumed to be its glorious self. Added to this are concepts surrounding concepts regarding idealistic notions of a Manichaen universe of simplistic black and white, good and evil where their god is almighty and commands Americans to do His will. This rather racist concept of all-encompassing superiority is largely what fuels U.S. foreign policy along with the desire of the companies that make up the North American military industrial complex, their lobbyists and the collective influence of sponsorship and easy access to decision making in each successive government. The rest of the world pays the price in terms of death and destruction, the fragmentation and weakening of their nations and economies and much else besides that stymies all efforts by others to create a multipolar world where tolerance for other forms of governance and not one single concept can prevail whereby trade and relationships of mutual respect can be grown toward something akin to global peace and freedom from the blackmail, threat and warring from the USA. One of the single most important changes to any further U.S. intervention outside of its borders ought to be an effort to explore nuances within the cultures of nations in which it wishes to intervene. The simplistic nature of U.S. thought as it has been seen in the past through an ideological lens has reduced a great many issues and thus actions to either-or questions of good and evil. Much of this is underpinned by an over-the-shoulder look at what will sell well among the North American population, a population whose long-term media has conditioned an extremely simplistic vision of a world that can ALWAYS be reduced to right and wrong, good and bad, virtuous and evil. Within this overall context we find that western audiences are thus conditioned to believe that the U.S. and its allies are always right, and at worst merely mistaken. Good remains on those intervening on behalf of the "best" nations against the extremely dubious if not outrightly bad, or evil and eminently untrustworthy other ones. Other ones that need disciplining, manipulating, threatened, cajoled or invaded into being good (though never quite matching those in the saintly West. The economic rise of China is seen as a threat to the USA but is not communicated in this nuanced way as a spur to greater efficiency in competitiveness but is left hanging in the air to allow an inference of the possibility of violent attack. North Americans are so primed by successive usage of the fear spur to gain consent to indulge in war that the knee-jerk reaction to such breast-beating is inevitably positive. The ideologies behind this state that the USA (or rather its elites) are without doubt good people trying to do their best and would never stoop to tricking them in any way. Despite all the evidence which is clearly visible regarding the influence of the military industrial complex and a massive army of lobbyists and sponsors seeking influence it seems the foreign policy decisions which result are by and large considered virtuous and tending toward bettering the world. Until the population of the USA becomes as cynical concerning the geopolitics concerned as it does about the politics I can't see this ever standing even the remotest chance of changing.
No comments:
Post a Comment