America’s Retreat

“The end of the Cold War was…a unique moment in America’s relations with the world.  It was at the peak of its moral authority.  Almost all countries looked up at America.  And…America had accumulated enormous reservoirs of goodwill around the world.  With so much accumulated moral authority and political goodwill, America could have done so much more for the world.  Instead, it chose effectively to retreat and disengage from the world, especially from many of the burdensome commitments it made during the Cold War.” — Kishore Mahbubani, Beyond the Age of Innocence, p.28

Being Anti-American Vs. Being Critical of the U.S.

“There is a big difference between being anti-American and being critical of the United States….critiques are appropriate and necessary, provided that they rest on facts and address real abuses, real errors and real excesses–without deliberately losing sight of America’s wise decisions, beneficient interventions and salutary policies.  But critiques of this kind–balanced, fair and well-rounded–are hard to find, except in America herself…” — Jean-Francois Revel, Anti-Americanism, p. 143. 

No Moral Standards?

“Muslims may be hypocritical and support censorship, but these facts provide no basis for a defense of Western or American cultural depravity.  An accusation cannot be refuted by pointing out that the accuser is guilty of the same offense.  Moreover, the Muslims are not guilty of the charge that they launch against the West.  Muslim societies can be faulted—I would fault them myself—for being excessively harsh or repressive in the enforcement of their standards….Traditional societies can also be exposed for failing to conform to their own standards.  But they cannot be accused of not having standards.  Muslim leaders charge that Western culture—and specifically American culture—has no moral norms that it is willing to defend or uphold.  In this view, the offenses of Western culture are especially frightening because they have no built-in remedy.  Many people in traditional societies regard Western culture as a kind of malady for which there is no antidote or cure’” — Dinesh D’Souza, The Enemy At Home, p. 125.

What Kind of Freedom Do We Want Them to Have?

“We have heard a great deal from critics of globalism about how America is corrupting the world with its multinational corporations and its trade practices.  But surveys such as the Pew Research Center studies of world opinion show that non-Western peoples are generally pleased with American products.  In fact, the people of Asia, Africa, and the Middle East want more American companies, more American technology, and more free trade.  Their objection is not to McDonald’s or Microsoft but to America’s cultural values as transmitted through movies, television, and music.  Huge majorities of more than 80 percent of people in Indonesia, Uganda, Kenya, Senegal, Egypt, and Turkey say they want to protect their values from foreign assault.  The Pew study concludes that there is a ‘widespread sense’ that American values, often presented as the values of modernity itself, ‘represent a major threat to people’s traditional way of life.’  These sentiments are felt very keenly in the Muslim world.  As an Iranian from Neishapour told journalist Afshin Molavi, ‘People say we want freedom.  You know what these foreign-inspired people want?  They want the freedom to gamble and drink and bring vice to our Muslim land.  This is the kind of freedom they want.’”  (Dinesh D’Souza, The Enemy At Home, p. 121).