[lbo-talk] Bringing Them Home Versus Bringing Democracy

Jon Johanning jjohanning at igc.org
Wed Jul 23 17:30:29 PDT 2003


On Wednesday, July 23, 2003, at 12:31 AM, Bill Bartlett wrote:


> Democracy has to be built on confidence, a trust that those who win
> elections will not use power to oppress those who lose. That everyone,
> including the elected government, will abide by the law and be treated
> equally under the law. Americans don't even understand that themselves,
> or practice it at home, so it is going to be difficult for them to
> teach it to Iraqis.
>
> To sum up, you can lead a horse to water, but can't make it drink.
> Americans don't know what water is, let alone where it is. It follows
> can't even lead horses to it.

Well, I think that's going a bit far, though I understand the rhetorical effect such talk is intended to have. Actually, I think that Americans understand democracy in this sense rather well, and we have proven it by many struggles since the 18th century aimed precisely at getting "equal treatment under the law," some of which we lost but many of which we won. Democracy hereabouts is not completely dead yet, although I grant that the places where it is most alive (especially on the local level) are often not very visible to the outside world.

Of course, if democracy is defined as a form of government built on the trust that the winners of elections will not oppress the losers, this has no relevance outside the citizens of the country in question anyway. No Iraqis (or Australians, either, for that matter) ever voted for any U.S. office-holders, so this definition doesn't apply to them, by definition. And this is certainly what non-U.S. folks bitterly object to about U.S. foreign policy -- it often impacts them severely, but they have no say in electing the officials who make it. But this will always be the case until the day of a true world government comes, if it ever does.

So these non-U.S. folks very naturally look to the more progressive segment of the U.S. citizenry to stand in for them. And unfortunately, when it comes to foreign policy, that segment is not well-placed at present to have much effect on the Bush administration (and foreign policy is usually the least "democratic" part of government policies, if you mean by "democratic" something more or less synonymous with "progressive"). But we're doing what we can, in rather bumbling ways, I suppose I must admit.

But in any case, the whole idea that "America's mission is to teach democracy to the world" is complete BS, as every member of this list certainly understands very well. As the advertising biz people say, "you don't sell the steak, you sell the sizzle," and this "teaching democracy" BS is just the sizzle that is used to sell imperialist policies to the public. Non-Americans are definitely under no obligation to give it any credence.

Jon Johanning // jjohanning at igc.org _____________________________ Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read. - Groucho Marx



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list