This isn't going to be one of my best posts, for I have been quite ill for most of the last two weeks.
One of the things I have been saying consistently is that the United States would eventually reach a point at which the rest of the world will say "Enough!" I suspect that with the Wall Street Bailout that day has come.
At the UN recently, the man the US insisted become Secretary General over the world's choice (Ban Ki-moon, that is) had this to say: “We need a new understanding on business ethics and governance, with more compassion and less uncritical faith in the ‘magic’ of markets.” President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil and German Chancellor Angela Merkel made remarks critical of George W Bush's lack of economic stewardship. The foreign anger is so palpable that Bush's French Clone, President Nicolas Sarkozy, is insisting that all of the usual suspects be rounded up for punishment.
Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann of Nicaragua, President of the General Assembly, denounced the US over our irresponsible spending: "More than half the world’s people languish in hunger and poverty while more and more money is spent on weapons, war, luxuries and totally superfluous and unnecessary things."
“There is clear evidence that many of the standards and much of the scrutiny that are applied routinely to smaller countries were not applied to some larger countries which actually pose much greater systemic risk,” noted President Barrat Jagdeo of Guyana.
The worst betrayal of the Bush World Order came from President Nicholas Sarkozy of France, who declared: “Let us rebuild together a regulated capitalism in which whole swathes of financial activity are not left to the sole judgment of market operators,” Mr Sarkozy said.
The sharpest sword is often wielded by those we love. Robert Skidelsky, a member of the British House of Lords and professor emeritus of political economy at Warwick University, waves Farewell to the Neoclassical Revolution in The Moscow Times.
The world's monetary sharks can smell the blood in the water, especially after the Germans launched a critical torpedo which hit the US Ship of State square amidships. German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck said "The United States will lose its superpower status in the world financial system. The world financial system will become more multi-polar."
Dispassionate observer Kari Huhta, writing in Finland's Helsingin Sanomat, notes that this process is underway in economics, along with many other areas of concern to the world's communities.
I had warned repeatedly that the US would lose the world's respect if we abused it enough. As bad as this is, I had also asked those who can think to visualize what would happen when we lost our good credit rating with the world's lenders.
Article comments
1 - troll
nice job focusing on the international nature of the situation - thanks for the footwork gathering links as usual
2 - bliffle
Thus Right wing orthodoxy is destroying USA status in the world, category by category.
Is there anyplace left where the neo-republicans haven't disgraced us?
If there is, then 4 more years with McBush should ferret it out and complete our infamy.
3 - jamminsue
Thank you Realist
4 - Joanne Huspek
Yeah... Depressing in its reality.
5 - Lisa Solod Warren
Wonderful.... wish I could have written this but doubt I could have done such a thorough job!
But then, dear Realist, haven't you heard? We don't care what the rest of the world thinks of us, do we? It doesn't matter one whit that the rest of the world thinks that Obama would make a better president or that his temperment is far better suited to diplomacy or that he actually BELIEVES in diplomacy.....
Or that the world is very suspicious of another Republican president...
America doesn't give a damn. We still operate as though we aren't dependent on the rest of the world, or as though there isn't a global economy or as though we need to rely on others and they on us, and as though there is a general moral responsibility to all the world's peoples to operate in a way that is best for all. Oh NO! That smacks of some sort of socialism, G-d forbid.
So, how DO you change our nation's worldview so that they get it? And don't think of themselves, ourselves, as a country only and solely responsible to and for itself?
6 - Cindy D
Excellent article. Thank you Realist.
7 - jamminsue
Lisa:
"So, how DO you change our nation's worldview so that they get it? And don't think of themselves, ourselves, as a country only and solely responsible to and for itself?"
I believe the kind of mind-set, you are asking for, adhering to ancient ideals like Areté, Giri and Dharma is something that takes a seminal event (Pearl Harbor), as most people are taught from the cradle otherwise (Thanks, Freud and Spock).
It seems a change will not appear for a long time, as the events of 9-11-01 SHOULD have done this, but if it did, it lasted about a nanosecond.....
At the university I attend there is a religious refugee from Iran who spoke to my class, and said "beware fundamentalism." Her story is frightening, for instance she was imprisoned for wearing her hair loose, and forced to leave her children behind, yet those in the class that are fundamentalists were totally unmoved.
Unfortunately, we seem to be in the midst of a resurgence of fundamentalism, so realists are a minority. As realism requires accepting responsibility for ones' actions, which has not been generally taught to our children for a number of generations and fundamentalism allows one to abrogate that responsibility to a higher power, there you go....
I think a change in basic mindset will have to wait until it is shown (again) how bankrupt fundamentailsm is; hopefully it won't take as long as the last time.
8 - Dave Nalle
Resurgence of fundamenalism? Are you in the US, Sue? They're at their lowest ebb of political power in years. The McCain nomination has dealt them a near death blow and marginalized them within the GOP as never before. It's time for a celebration, really.
What I find interesting is that despite having had a victim of muslim fundamentalism speak to you, it seems like you're as untouched by it in your own rigidity of worldview as the christian fundamentalists are. They don't see the parallels between their fundamentalism and islamic fundamentalism and you don't see the very real threat that islamic fundamentalism poses to the liberal worldview which you claim to adhere to.
Oh, and as to Realist's article. When the US begins to base its national policies on what other countries think of us we might as well just burn the Constitution and call off the great liberal experiment we've been conducting for 220 years.
Dave
9 - Lisa Solod Warren
Dave, where are you from?
McCain's nomination dealt fundamentalism a near death blow? What planet do YOU live on? I mean, really?
Bombings in Pakistan, Syria this past week? Afghanistan deconstructing before our eyes? The world making fun of us for what we can't seem to do over and over again?
Take me to your leader!!!!
10 - Kevin Freitas
I had the opportunity of living in France and Belgium for several years, notably in Brussels, in a predominately Turkish and Marocan neighborhood as an American with my French wife and two children. I can tell you, having lived between those two countries for over 13 years, there was never a moment missed that I didn't get an earful - a European perspective - on what was going on in America and particularly, about Bush politics. Right or wrong, it had an impact on my own world perspective.
But alas and sadly, the twin towers fell, as I stood alone and isolated in my Brussels home, watching my once calm neighborhood explode in anti-American and anti-Semite riots that threatened, on several occaisions, the safety and well being of my family. Again, right or wrong, it had an impact on my own world perspective.
A bit of empathy and humility goes a long way to a larger understanding and open minds - not to sway and bend like some willow tree - but to make better decisions based on other's needs and not just our own.
11 - Lisa Solod Warren
I lived in France befor and during the fall of the towers and before and after the start of the war (two years, 2001-2003). Right after 9-11 the French and Spainards and Italians, etc were right with us all the way. Bush totally fucked that up by going into Iraq..... everything changed. No one hated the Americans individuall per se, but the government was loathed for its cowboy mentality and bush was exposed for what he was (and still is). How to fuck up foreign relations in one fell swoop. Just ask Bush/Cheney. They are the masters.
12 - Ruvy
Bit by bit, the disaster in its immensity begins to sink in. This is not an issue of left or right, or liberal or conservative, but of an elite destroying its own temple of greed - and killing everyone forced to worship at its evil altar.
The story of Samson has applications here.... A blind man pulled at the foundations of the pagan temple - and down it came!
What fun!
Realist - refuá shlemá may you see a full recovery from what ails you, and may you see a stable and healthy 5769.