Politics

Defending America: The Land of Ideas

BBC News has an excellent and insightful article by Matt Frei, defending the existence of America. For every supporter, and critic of that nation, it is worth a read.

In America the idea was ragged, rough and imperfect but it kept growing, it kept evolving and, if this isn’t a vote of confidence, it kept attracting people, millions of them – Dutch pilgrims, Russian Jews, persecuted Egyptians, hungry Mexicans, uprooted Kurds, homeless Armenians, unloved and underpaid British film stars, now luxuriating in Hollywood. Ask them if they regret the founding of America!

As one that is, at times, both, it reflects my own mixed feelings for America – a disappointment at its current state of affairs that encouraged me to leave 3 years ago, and a healthy respect for its self-deprecation and for its obsession with the desire for equality. For more on America, I recommend learning a little about Alexis de Tocqueville – an insightful social observer, whose Democracy in America remains “one of the world’s least-read classics“. As he said:

“I have often seen Americans make large and genuine sacrifices to the public good,” he observed, “and I have noted on countless occasions that when necessary they almost never fail to lend one another a helping hand.” At the same time, he went on, “Americans are taught from birth that they must overcome life’s woes and impediments on their own. Social authority makes them mistrustful and anxious, and they rely upon its power only when they cannot do without it.”

Having grown up in India, lived in America, and now Europe, the differences are evident, particularly the preference for collectivism in Europe and the desire for a level playing field (consider the large social safety nets in Europe). But this is of more than academic interest. Because India is still evolving as a social system. It remains to be seen which way it will go, even if some signs are there.

I hope to write more on this subject soon.