American Views Abroad

 
A torrid summer sizzles all over. A few days in Wolfenbuettel near Brunswick to visit an old friend brought a brief respite from all media news. Anything new happening in the world was answered with Nothing New, Same Old Thing: wars, bombings, more civilian deaths, you know, the usual. Completely missed the touchy-feely shoulder massage the US President gave the German Chancellor. Nothing surprises anymore. To quote a US professor in the media: 'Almost any male alive today knows that you don't offer uninvited massages to any female, much less the chancellor of Germany.' A number of articles in the US media used this incident to discuss cultural differences, particularly between southern and northern Europe and how the US used to follow northern Europe in leaving things at the shaking hands level, but now has opened up to the warmer climates ideal of embracing and kissing.

There is so little non-depressing news these days that having cultural differences being discussed is a highlight. Last week Robert Wright in the IHT wrote In Search of a Foreign Policy --- Progressive Realism:

America's fortunes are growing ever more closely correlated with the fortunes of people far away. This principle lies at the heart of progressive realism. A correlation of fortunes --- being in the same boat with other nations in matters of economics, environment, security --- is what makes international governance serve national interest. It is also what makes enlightened self-interest humanitarian. Progressive realists see that American can best flourish if others flourish --- if African states cohere, if the world's Muslims feel they benefit from the world order, .... if economic inequities abroad are muted so that young democracies can be stable and strong. More and more, doing well means doing good.
www.iht.com/articles/2006/07/18/opinion/edwright.php.

By coincidence, the same Robert Wright wrote in the NYT Book Review on May 14th in They Hate Us, They Really Hate Us reviewing Friendly Fire by Julia E. Sweig and America Against the World by Andrew Kohut and Bruce Stokes:

Americans, Kohut and Stokes write, tend 'to downplay the importance of America's relationship to other nations.......to be indifferent to global issues.....to lack enthusiasm for multinational efforts and institutions' and in general to have 'an inattentive self-centeredness unmindful of their country's deepening linkages with other countries. ......Americans may be bad at doing what Sweig recommends ----'seeing ourselves as others see us'---- but we're not alone in this. People in general have trouble putting themselves in the shoes of people whose circumstances differ from theirs. That's why the world is such a mess.

Do they ever. Daniel Gilbert in He Who Cast the First Stone Probably Didn't --- retaliation, retribution and revenge gives a fascinating insight into the human mind:

Research teaches us that our reasons and our pains are more palpable, more obvious and real, than are the reasons and pains of others. This leads to the escalation of mutual harm, to the illusion that others are solely responsible for it and to the belief that our actions are justifiable responses to theirs. None of this is to deny the roles that hatred, intolerance, avarice and deceit play in human conflict. It is simply to say that basic principles of human psychology are important ingredients in this miserable stew.
www.iht.com/articles/2006/07/24/opinion/edgilbert.php.
- posted by Gloria @ 6:26 PM