Now We Blame, Rather than Praise. It is Still Hubris

It's still all about us, whether we praise or criticize American influence in the world.

Uncle Sam holds the globe

What we called the American Century is over. Perhaps it was always largely an illusion.

But it is clear that this is a new time. And it should be clear that today’s global sufferings and tragedies are not simply the creation of men and women living in New York and Washington DC. 

Those of us who came of age in the middle of the 20th century were brought up to believe the United States was bringing peace and prosperity to a world that saw the United States as “a shining city on a hill.” 

It is hubris now, as it was then, to see the world through American eyes.  Perhaps in the 1950s, after the second world war, such a view could be excused.  It seemed as if the attention of the world was permanently fixed upon the United States, and many did look to Washington for leadership, economic assistance and “the future.”

At that time many of us believed we were only a few elections away from being in fact what we saw as possibility, “the hope of the world.”

We, Kennedy’s “children” would bend the arc of history toward a desirable and obtainable world of greater equality, rationality, peace and prosperity.

Now looking back, we see how self-centered was our belief that “strings,” stretching out from the United States, moved events in every corner of the earth. 

Ironic isn’t it, that today many are just as certain that the future of the world is being dictated by the regime in power in Washington. Only now we see global injustice and misery, climate change, and war as the as the consequences of a new American Century.

This is plain, old fashion, American hubris, still at work. Would that it were so simple.

Whether we believe that American action in the world would be destructive or have decided that our good intentions and valid guidance are impossible for nations not as favored by God, we reject taking a place alongside other nations in the fight for justice, a sustainable future, and peace.

Rejection of a partnership with other nations to address global problems because we believe that the United States is the primary cause of these problems, or they are not capable of receiving such help, is just another form of hubris.