November 6, 2024
The Case for an Overhaul
Some myths that are especially attractive to Liberals need to be dispelled.
Some myths that are especially attractive to Liberals need to be dispelled.

Here in Switzerland, your correspondent likes to say that the sign of a Great Power is that its internal affairs take precedence over foreign policy considerations.

By this standard (and some others), America is certainly such a power. One might add that prioritizing local matters over world politics is paired with a neglect of world affairs about which general ignorance prevails.

Abroad, especially in Europe, America’s economic weight is generally recognized, but her foreign policy is not taken seriously. Where this applies, the U.S. is belittled as a hulk with much muscle and little brain.

On the whole, the prejudice of inborn superiority betrays a somewhat surprising condition. Facetiously put, it is that here in Europe, the public has not yet become fully aware of a development that commenced when the U.S.A. entered World War I.

That decisive intervention of a committed neutral determined who the victor would be. It also revolutionized global affairs. America’s growing might has shifted; a remote observer became an active participant.  Since then, the reluctant newcomer could not avoid involvement in the contests by which Europe’s and Asia’s states attempted to assert their real or fantasied interests.

All along, the U.S.A. has been a rather unusual Great Power. This is so even if the culturally related Continent is inclined to project its own ways and goals on its remote relation. That inclination reflects errors in the thinking within the Transatlantic Alliance. Indeed, America’s partners like to view their ally as a larger and uncouth offshoot of themselves that shares their craving for power. By this thinking, quantity is on the side of the Americans but quality, savoir vivre, and culture are a European domain. That way, it is possible to use the big guy as a bodyguard without impairing the proper relationship between the brain and the knuckles.

[Interesting Read]

See Also:

(1) While Americans Fiddle, China Wages “Unrestricted War” on U.S.

(2) Defenders of Civilization?

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