Ah, the United States of America. One of the most impressive human endeavors in organizing and perpetuating a collective life. The country that has given the world, the light bulb, the telephone, the internal combustion engine (therefore cars), the computer, the internet, the GPS, and a seemingly unlimited list of inventions. It is also the first country that implemented true Capitalism (sorry for the English who consider themselves the founders of capitalism) and has promoted and marketed the “American Dream” around the world. In fact, some people say the promised land in the Bible, Canaan, was meant to be “California” but there was a mistake in pronunciation and people took Canaan. Half of the people outside the US want to live in it, and the other half say nasty things about it publicly, but half of those would not turn down a juicy proposal to live in it.
Yep, The United States of America, the “Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave” as says its national anthem. The country that implemented a seemingly virtuous governance system of checks and balances between the 3 branches (Legislative, Executive, Judiciary) with each one having direct election by people. And if that was not enough, it also created the federal system which balances regional freedoms and a central power. So far so good, yet …
The United States’ foreign policy has directly and covertly overthrown democratically elected governments (Iran 1953, Chile 1973 as the most dramatic examples). It is the only country to have used the nuclear bomb, has done the most massive and continuous Napalm blanket bombing of Vietnam’s rice fields, and used agent orange on its enemies, to a point that its own soldiers sued it for its use. Luckily (if you can say so), these days it does not use these tactics as much, it squeezes economically the countries it does not like (Venezuela, China, Iran, Russia, ….) and it even coerces, through legal tangles, organizations (even from friendly countries) to gain advantages. However, as I mentioned in an earlier post (Why should it be different – May 24, 2021) such policies are those of a superpower and practically all have done similar things (Britain, France, Soviet Union, Roman Empire, Persian Empire, Arab Empire). Not that it excuses them.
Now to Aukus and the US role in this alliance. For that I have inspiration from a close family member who once told me that she sees the Orientals as the grand parents of the world: calm, patient with long vision (they have seen it all). The Europeans as the parents (responsible adults, mature, trying to do things and clarify), and the Americans as the teenagers, with a lot of power and energy, but volatile and an inward-looking vision. “It is all about me”, as you would say. That is why I see the USA as the muscle of Western policy in general and more specifically in this alliance. And that is a scary thing: when you endow a teenage mentality with a superpower might, you must fear the consequences of Lord Acton’s statement who said: “All power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely.” And I am even more concerned because fear, as Yoda said, could lead to Anger, Anger leads to Hate and Hate leads to suffering. I was told, however, that in a parallel universe, fear leads to anger, anger leads to stress (and not hate), stress leads to doobies and doobies lead to Twinkies. I am looking forward to Elon Musk’s SpaceX development for traveling to the parallel universe.
Paris, September 30, 2021,
Zeejay