Arrogance

Lost in thought and study, I have found it hard to take pen to paper and scratch out some thoughts. The mysteries of life spread out before me to guess at the right and wrong, endless debates on the world as it exists, or for my not so cleaver friends, or does not exist. These ideas that I have pushed to paper for my new degree have left me with a notion that is so arrogant that only an American could have come up with it. The idea is that it might be our obligation in the world when asked to help, to help with the idea that the American way is the most efficient, and prosperous. That we know best, was the hall mark of the Marshall Plan and the New Deal, both to be considered successful reconstruction efforts. That the American values are good for all is not a new idea. In fact tried and tested in the cold war, winning us the final victory in the end. Well that motto became ashes on our tongues as we realized how arrogant we must have been, how un sophisticated we were. “Democracy and free markets are not for everyone… we shouldn’t force it upon them, might does not make right….” Well, those in the world that have preached this for the last twenty years have won, I will get in trouble for even thinking that we can teach Americanism, or re-educate another society, or reprogram a region of the world. What does that mean, that I cant even bring it up as a topic, even though it is the only strategy that has proven successful. The irony is that when another group of people need help it is usually their own practices and issues that have sunk them to the point of desperation. And, then they ask for help in the form of gifts and money, and say that you Americans are the only ones that can help us please show us how. Yet when we try to show them how, they say it is not our way, just please make the check out to so and so and we will be fine. Our response should be, because you have done such a good job so far with your own resources, so I am going to give you mine so that you may make an even bigger mess. Well screw that, maybe what we need is some mean spirited idealist, the revolutionary like Washington and his band of friends that terrorized and propagandized the rest of the colonies into war.