Post-American World
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Thanks to evil_FUX for posting this excellent article. Discuss here or in the forum. It’s good to finally hear some good news or positive outlooks coming out of the media. God knows that we need some encouragement after 7 years of Bush and a tanking economy. Zakaria is right. We can all thrive. Billions of people leaving poverty is a good thing.
My favorite part of the article is the pro-American part:
More broadly, this is America’s great—and potentially insurmountable—strength. It remains the most open, flexible society in the world, able to absorb other people, cultures, ideas, goods, and services. The country thrives on the hunger and energy of poor immigrants. Faced with the new technologies of foreign companies, or growing markets overseas, it adapts and adjusts. When you compare this dynamism with the closed and hierarchical nations that were once superpowers, you sense that the United States is different and may not fall into the trap of becoming rich, and fat, and lazy.
Though the system has its faults, Zakaria is right on about the openness. One of the hard issues that the U.S. faces less than other countries is the problem that Zakaria mentions–other societies are not as open. I know someone who lives in Thailand, for example, and he has told me stories of people pissing off the government officials or rich people and then just disappearing. When it happens, people don’t ask questions. They pretend it never happened. People don’t feel free to ask questions.
This lack of openness exists even in other fully industrialized countries. Look at the problems with the Japanese educational system. I have Japanese friends who were surprised to learn about Japan’s war crimes only after they traveled to Australia. Because few people question the system in Japan, few people change the system. Moral and political questions will hopefully become more open in the future–as some mentioned in the “few children” post, openness to new ideas and people can save some of these countries (though, in some cases, not right away)–but for right now, it’s the American advantage.
For Asian Americans involved with culture–as we are–this should also be an advantage. We can question colonialism and racism. We can question why things are the way they are. We don’t have to take the world as it is. The capitalist systems and those who run it may balk at allowing our viewpoints in the mainstream media, but we have the freedom to share them. We can publish these views on the internet, and we can talk about our ideas with our friends and family. This is privilege. In this case, I think we should take advantage of it.
(Disclaimer: When I say that our viewpoints are not in the mainstream media, I only describe the system today. We’re right, and if we organize efficiently, I don’t think they can keep us out forever.)
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evil_FUX
3:41 am | May 13, 2008I have to agree I dug that part of the article as well. Overall I liked the article because it was to put into perspective the fear mongering people might be feeling as well open up the idea that other countries reaching higher standards of living is a good thing. The latter I liked the most because it reminded me of an aspect of integral theory, an idea D has reiterated several times, regarding how diversity is a good thing.
nightshade
11:29 pm | May 13, 2008The US is hardly open. When I used to live in New York, I was photographed and fingerprinted every time I crossed the border. This wasn’t supposed to happen–I’m Canadian and there’s supposed to be a visa waiver for students–but customs ALWAYS stopped me for special treatment. I never questioned it because I’ve known people who have disappeared or been deported by the American government. It’s hardly the bastion of rights and freedoms for the poor or illegal aliens.
The entire time I lived there, I felt like I could not voice my opinions. I spent the entire four years worried that I was going to be deported before I finished my degree. And the government was forcing me to pay for the privilege of Homeland Security tracking my time at school.
zhangfei
10:40 am | May 14, 2008hey, nightshade, maybe we just don’t like Canadians.
“A nine-year-old Canadian boy has been released along with his parents from an immigration jail in Texas where they were detained for six weeks. Kevin Yourdkhani and his Iranian-born parents arrived in Toronto last night. They had been held in a controversial privately-owned jail in Texas where the U.S. government is holding up to 200 immigrant children. They were detained after their flight to Canada was forced to make an emergency landing in Puerto Rico. The family was fleeing political repression in Iran and were trying to seek refugee status in Canada where their son had been born.”
“Rice was speaking before the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Later in her appearance, Rice was questioned about the rendition victim Maher Arar. Arar is the Canadian citizen seized on a stopover flight to the US and sent to Syria where he was jailed and tortured. Rice said the Bush administration had mishandled Arar’s case but stopped short of an apology.”
And what’s up with the torture watch? you know better not to mess with us.
The Canadian government has removed the United States and Israel from a watch list of countries where prisoners risk being tortured, after coming under pressure from U.S. and Israeli officials. The Canadian Foreign Minister is now claiming that the United States and Israel were wrongly placed on a list that also included Syria, China, Iran and Afghanistan. The original document cited the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay and lists U.S. interrogation techniques including “forced nudity, isolation, and sleep deprivation.” Amnesty International Canada said it was disappointed by the Canadian government’s reversal. Amnesty’s Alex Neve said, “When it comes to an issue like torture, the government’s main concern should not be embarrassing allies.”
jaehwan
6:04 pm | May 14, 2008Reappropriate Jenn voices her opinions REALLY loudly, and so far INS hasn’t done anything with her.
nightshade
9:36 pm | May 14, 2008haha, zhangfei, if I saw a Canadian anywhere in the world, I’d mess with her or him too. We’re a country of self-satisfied fools who think that we’re somehow morally good simply because we’re not American. How pathetic are we? We are just as morally reprehensible–we just don’t have the funds to be big assholes.
I get a super privileged vibe from her. She acts like she can afford to be a shit disturber.
Everyone I knew who couldn’t afford to be kicked out of school kept their mouths shut. I wasn’t about to flush a one hundred thousand dollar investment down the toilet just so I could rant about the Patriot Act or the stupidity of the American president. And seriously, while I was there I didn’t think it was particularly kosher to bitch and moan about the American system beyond privately saying that customs was incredibly racist.