america vs the world
Nick has a good post on Click Opera today. He hits the issue of America's tendency to pass itself off as "the norm" head on. I've been thinking of this issue a lot recently, and how Americans are just completely unable to understand how their actions are impacting innocent people in other countries.
The other day I was listening to a news report on the radio and the host was defending America's torture practices. Another commentator made the point that the host wouldn't be so flippant if he had to spend a day in a torture chamber. This was immediately ignored by everyone on the panel as it seemed like such an un-American thing to do, to put one's self in the place of someone less fortunate. After all it's every man for himself, it's unseemly and weak to imagine the suffering of others.
But, to Nick's post, I would add that there are pockets of sanity in places outside of Berlin. While Berlin may be a "laboratory for future ways of doing things" there are those of us in other places in the world working on the same questions, trying to imagine a world without cultural Darwinism, determined to live life without adding to the social toxicity that already exists. It's too easy to say Berlin is good, New York is bad, it's more complicated than that. There's a lot of good being done in New York. And those people who are able to work on making the world of the future, while living in a harsh environment, deserve extra applause, not broad generalizations.