The Reason

Yes, during and after Lawrenceville I've pretty much been trapped in a "white tony enclave" my entire life. It is mildly suffocating, but I've seen so much more of the world that I do not mind the ignorance that I often encounter. The homogeneity of the white culture has actually refined my ability to understand and formulate my own conceptions of their society and the real nature of western civilization....a real asset. The chaos of a diverse environment, with many conflicting and contrasting truths, I think, would have eroded my perceptual abilities before they were allowed to develop. Its like having one big case study to follow. I didn't realize some truths during my time at Lawrenceville and for a while after, but I've come to know that America and to a greater extent Western Civilization are but one approach and outcome to society that is unique to a particular group of people. And because that is true, the veil that America is the world's leader and champion cannot be real.

I think many people in many parts of the world, notably Africa and Latin America, are realizing that America was far too often looking out for its own interests using the disguise and promise of real democracy and freedom. CNN paints Hugo Chavez as a kind of demagogue, a populist rebel or radical, like Castro and Evo Morales, but these men are in reality doing whats best for their countries. They are following the principles of the indigenous Simon Bolivar, of the Bolivarian revolution, with the ideals that natural resources must be used for the betterment of people and the government is the guardian and distributor of that wealth. There is no sham on the part of Chavez and Morales, they are not trying to undermine their peoples or the world. But because they are willing to challenge the status quo, the neo-liberal approach developed and known as the Washington Consensus, they are put under pressure to fail. I just heard these statistics today: Venezuela, despite being the fifth largest exporter of petroleum in the world, has seen a 61% increase in poverty levels since the 1960's. In the decade prior to Chavez's 1999 revolution, 14 million people were economically displaced into the ranks of the poor.

The real reason for the stunning stagnation prior to these new revolutions, which seem to be sprouting all over the world these days, was the ability of the Americans and the Soviets to contain these nations as satellite sources of natural resources. America's real problem now lies in its inability to maintain what it deems is in its best interests for "national security", a concept that many Americans feel to be their birthright. We were all duped of course into believing that one nation could really be a nation for all the world, I for one thought the American way was the best way. Of course when you are living in that society, as I have, that security is your security. The enlightened point of view is to realize where the line of hypocrisy must be drawn, and I think that will be the wake-up call for the next American revolution.

America is dawdling along towards a fat and lazy ending. They have been at the top for so long that they have forgotten how to survive. The aspirations of hundreds of millions of poor people are finally being released and they are hungry for success. Their hunger motivates them and gives them the energy and creativity to hunt for economic power and influence on their own terms. Sadly, this unbridled aspiration, modeled on America, will also be the undoing of these still ignorant and unaware masses, and us the elite as well. Their consumption will pollute the land, waste our water, and heat and poison the air. The American way of life is not sustainable for 6 billion people on a planet so small.

Of course the Americans and the Europeans are a people too, a white people with a clear and distinct heritage that they are proud of and should be, for the most part. It is much easier to understand them when you understand how they look at the world. And to do that, one has to realize that they are not the whole world.