Land of the Mythmakers and Their Followers
This is election season in America. It is the time when the modern day Shamans come out of their spells and talk to their followers about visions, wisdom and knowledge that they came across when they were in the Shamanic state in their cave dwellings. When the Shaman speaks there is silence in the air and a sense of hope and excitement among those gathered.
We are slowly transported from the real world to the mythical world of the Shaman. This is a world where there are constant battles between good and evil, right and wrong and heaven and hell. America is always the underdog struggling and fighting for what is rightfully ours. We are good people and we worked hard to get to where we are today. How can anything bad happen to us? Fortunately the Shaman is on our side.
Our wandering mind comes back to reality as the Shamans speech starts winding down. We then see the stretch limousines take the Shaman and his entourage and security back to their caves. We are left wondering about what just happened. Can this dream be true? Is this the American dream that our forefathers so often talked about?
As a long time resident of the United States and somewhat of a history buff I am absolutely convinced that the ability to create myths and believe in myths is very critical to the creation and sustenance of an economic and military empire. Why do you want to leave Americana and then risk losing your life in the mountains of Afghanistan or Pakistan unless you believe that something good can come out of it for yourself or your country?
Speaking at a rally in Seattle, Washington, President Barack Obama said “We did not become the most prosperous nation on Earth by rewarding greed and recklessness of the sort that helped cause this financial crisis … We did it by rewarding the values of hard work and responsibility. We did it by investing in the people who have built this country from the ground up – workers and families; and small business owners and responsible entrepreneurs. We did it because we out-worked and we out-educated and out-competed other nations. That’s who we are. That’s who we need to be.” This is mythmaking of the first order. These statements can be true only if you are willing to neglect what happened to the rest of the world in the past 70 years.
America’s “competition” for the past seventy years was mostly Western Europe (which was completely dependent on the United States for trade and security after World War II) and the defeated Japan. The rest of the world including two thirds of the world’s population was slowly getting their act together after long periods of colonial rule and having forced to do the brunt of the fighting on behalf of the “Allies” in WWII.
There is no question much of Western Europe would not be where it is today economically without hundreds of years of colonial rule. There is also no debate that Allies would not have had the success they had in WWII without the 4 million or so soldiers from India, Africa and other colonies who had no option but to fight for their colonizers. These are the people that America supposedly out-worked, out-educated and out-competed immediately after the war. It sure sounds like a wide receiver celebrating after a touchdown in a pre-season game!!
How times have changed. Now comes the real competition. Literacy rates all over the world have gone up (India’s literacy rate at the end of WWII was 12%. Today it is 65%). Nationalism is on the rise. People are well aware of their rights and know exactly what it takes to be successful in a “material” world. America, the voice of the capitalist world and the main proponent of “opening” up economies is now backpedaling. The recent government bailout and the expansion of the government under President Bush and Obama is a clear indication that the United States is moving towards socialism (40% of US budget goes towards paying for Social Security and Medicare). Social Security and Medicare are two of the biggest socialistic programs on Earth.
Granted there is still some fear and apprehension among countries like India and China when it comes to American military power. But none of the major nations have any fear of an America that is suddenly going to educate itself, work hard and compete even harder. These are not American characteristics but human characteristics.
President Obama also said “The United States does not play for second place. We play for first. We are going to rebuild this economy stronger than it was before. And at the heart of this rebuilding effort are three simple words: ‘Made in America. Made In America. Instead of giving tax breaks to companies that are shipping jobs overseas, we want to cut taxes for companies that create jobs right here in the United States of America.” This is election time Democratic Party mythmaking.
It is the ability of the American corporation to invest in foreign countries and employ thousands of people in other countries and also sell their products in those countries that is one of the key reasons for American economic success (IBM is India’s second largest private employer). Gone are the days when you can manufacture something in the United States and sell it to the rest of the world for a premium. If America wants to benefit from the growth of India and China then America has to be willing to invest in those countries and employ people there.
America’s problem is not outsourcing, immigration, taxation or work ethic. The real problem is the culture of excess (personal and government). It is about people living it up without worrying about the consequences. It is about debt and the real consequences of debt. More importantly it is the inability of the government and the people to face the facts and being able to make the hard but painful decisions that are necessary right now.
“We must not be hampered by yesterday’s myths in concentrating on today’s needs” – Harold Geneen
Related posts:
- Shared Legacy: George Bush and Manmohan Singh
- India-US Strategic Dialogue is a Waste of Time
- United States Installs another “Leader”
- Barack Obama: Inspiration From Mahatma Gandhi?
- Welcome Back President Bush
Category: News & Government
This is really good one on phenomenon of mythmaking. I wish for more power to your writing now…
Thank you. I am experimenting with my writing. I would like to one day be a part time writer or something …