Friday, December 1, 2006

Pragmatism or Kabuki


As an American now living in Europe, I had spent the summer in a complete frenzy. Reading the news and blogs on the Internet, one would think that Chicken Little really was right, the sky was falling. I was appalled at my friends’ and families’ apparent disinterest in what I perceived to be whole scale assaults on personal freedoms, the erosion of American goodwill in other parts of the world, outright war mongering and the use of fear to control the citizens of the United States and the use of torture to “protect” a United States of America I no longer recognized. I should have paid more attention to my e-mails from the States and the media coverage here in Europe.

After just returning from a three-week stay in the States, I’m happy to say the Americans that I met are not immune to what is happening. They, and I suspect the vast majority of their fellow citizens, are just a bit more pragmatic. They know what the deal is, and when the bullshit meter reached a high enough number, they reacted and responded accordingly. It had started about a year ago, when the polls began to show the growing dissatisfaction with the war and then the free fall drop in the President’s satisfaction levels. It should have registered with me that when anybody, President, corporation or movie star is only found to be doing positive work by less than 35% of the populace; it’s time for a rethink of one's ideas. In fact, if the President were a new sitcom, he’d be cancelled by now.

The Swedish press, which I can understand a little bit, has always delegated the Bush/American foreign policy as flawed at best and completely boneheaded most times. They view Mr. Bush as out of his league and a threat to world stability. Though the violence in the Middle East garners the front page occasionally, Bush and the United States are usually found buried in the news section. Based on performance over the last few years, that’s closer by a few pages than the local news from Valby. The only news from the U.S. that makes the front page consistantly is the economic news like the Dow Jones and the exchange rate. That is important to the Swede.

The American media, scrunched into the metro areas of New York City and the Washington, D.C. Beltway, would have we observers believe that there are no other issues of interestbut the semantic debates over whether it is a civil war or a melee between differing factions. Or is it al-Khida or the Hezbollah? Use the Bible or use the Koran to take an oath. Is this what most Americans worry about?


Most Americans, I think, are concerned with their own welfare like health care and making a better life for their families. They are concerned with the fact that 3,000 young people have died in what they perceive to be a losing situation. Not like losing a game or losing face. More like a business that is not making a profit. Time to close the doors and reorganize.


And what exactly did the pragmatic American do? He bided his time, waited for the vote and told the pundits and pointless prattlers on the TV screen, in the words of Howard Beale, “We are mad as hell”, and we’re cleaning house. And if the situation doesn’t improve, we’ll clean some more out. And that non- performer in the White House, what about him? Well, in a little over two years we’ll be rid of that guy. And if he gets worse, well, though severe, there are ways to deal with that.

I’ll be paying more attention to those e-mails and Swedish papers from now on. And I’ll enjoy the show on the web for what it is. Kabuki Theater.

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