democracyarsenal.org: Pogo and the War of Ideas

The more I think about the war of ideas, the more I think (paraphrasing Pogo) that the problem is us. It's not that we don't have something valuable to offer the rest of the world, but we're way overselling. And, to get to the heart of the problem, we don't even know it.

There's an inherent contradiction (or at least tension) in presenting oneself as a representative of ideals, but such a virtuous representative that you are your own ideal. We may say that American ideals are universal, but what comes across is the converse: universal ideals are American.

The International Herald Tribune op-ed page had an interesting round of exchanges on American ideals, launched by Anne-Marie Slaughter (who has a new book on the subject), and then continued in a forum of other specialists. For the purposes of that debate, I side with Slaughter and Moravcsik; the US not only has a valid claim on idealism, but our idealism is a key pillar of the international order.

My point has to do with how we stake that claim. We all know how much work must be done to reclaim American moral authority. But there's more. It is often said that becoming an American is open to people regardless of where they come from -- inclusive rather than exclusive. Judging from recent demagoguery over immigrants, that's another bit of moral credibility in need of refurbishing. But it's that very idea of inclusiveness that will be essential at the international level in order to strengthen the "universal-ness" of universal values. Other nations should not have to become American to align with the ideals of the international community.

What it's going to take, is self-awarenes. Some very smart people have already written about what that will involve. Minxin Pei of Carnegie Endowment had an article on the Paradoxes of American Nationalism in the May/June 2003 issue of Foreign Policy. Anatol Lieven of the New America Foundation published a book on US nationalism, America Right or Wrong, in 2004. And Andrew Kohut, Bruce Stokes, and the Pew Center have a more recent book out, America Against the World, that focuses on global public attitudes and opinion research.

June 04, 2007

Pogo and the War of Ideas
Posted by David Shorr

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June 04, 2007

Pogo and the War of Ideas Posted by David Shorr

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Pogo and the War of Ideas
Posted by David Shorr