May 16, 2002
WHEN THEY LOOK BACK
What will the world think of us?
Our reaction to the shocking events of September 11, 2001, I fear, will seem too severe to many if they are in a mood of being a people facing toward a time of peace and international well-being. The same records of our actions, will seem to have been far too weak for those who think they face a future of war and strife.
Those in the first, or peaceful group will blame us for whatever happens in their time which they cannot control. Those in the second or warlike group, will also point to us and our actions as having caused whatever their troubles might be, too. Neither group will see us in a positive fashion, I fear.
Much of the fear and hatred of the United States which is current around the world today might be eliminated with a conscious effort on our part to be to more honest, above-board or out-going in our various relations with the people involved. How can we expect to develop first-rate friends if we treat them as second rate trade partners, for instance, or as second class citizens in other aspects of life?
It may well be too late to completely erase some of the lasting damage done by our mistakes of the past, so we should not expect one hundred per cent acceptance of anything new we might suggest.
We need to show ourselves as we really are and actively confront the widely exported Hollywood version of America which guides and controls so much of overseas thinking, speaking and writing concerning our way of life.
We have gone so long without sensible control over what we “ship” overseas in the way of esoteric treasures and culture that foreign nationals and many have a wildly imaginative and untrue picture of the in which we live. I was seating an a well-know hotel southwest of London one evening and the “telly” was doing a wild west show from America. A grown man came over to ask me, quite seriously, too: “Is it really like that in Nevada and Wyoming?” He was sincere about it, even concerned. I assured him it was not like that at all, but that it might well have represented life there a hundred years ago and tried to reason with him that the trains were of an ancient design, for example, but I don’t think I convinced him at all. There it was on the screen, not quite as big as life and only half as ugly, perhaps, and he wanted to believe that such a life of carefree abandon to the lusts of life were still possible somewhere. The average person overseas has little idea of the physical size of the United States, just as the average European citizen readily accepts the idea that everyone here lives the versions of American life he sees on the screens.
Our “cultural exchanges” have been woefully inadequate in many ways. We need to approach the problem seriously without simply letting Hollywood and the entertainment agencies re-sell their wares in the foreign markets and to think we are doing a good job in the sheer bulk of our exports.
A.L.M. May 16, 2002
