America?

Do you think America has an outstanding human rights record and stands (in that regard) on higher moral ground?

Hi Arthur,

Sorry about the interruption, I hadn’t seen your post.

I wish I could answer even half of your question but I am very ignorant about American history. I probably know just an inkling more than you know about Colombian history and that is because in my youth I studied in an American School for a while but still let me tell you what I’ve felt.

On the dark side America seems to be walking into fascism and a very particular kind of fascism that is not imposed by the government but by the way people are living with themselves. The cult was an extreme vision of the “American way of life” but beyond the cult, people, young and old, don’t know how to live. To live to work, to work to make money, to live to be useful, to perceive one’s self as the center of the universe, to carry the load of life all on one’s shoulders without allowing life to express itself in our hands, is a form of fascism in our own lives. We cannot experience life or love if we are so proud that we think we are inventing it. We cannot experience grace or gratitude if we are our selves the creators of each day but miss it because we are too busy working on it!

I think Steiner was not off when he placed America’s role as the necessary step towards strengthening our sense of our selves as individuals but that’s a moment in the history of mankind, that period in which young people feel the power of being alive and ready but that we all tend to abuse more than we could help before we are already too invested in the loss. The greatest realization I think we can come to, is the understanding that all the suffering that we’ve caused each other and our selves was part of the deal of our innocence and ignorance and that we need and can move on with our selves. The issue is not the suffering we’ve caused but the suffering we can continue to avoid. Americans are people from everywhere in the world. There is no such a thing as more “Americans” than “humans”. Anyone today who is more identified with being American than human, cannot respond for the needs of the times. How much hatred could we still justify against each other if we were fixed on looking at America for what it has and continues to do in other countries? When other nations overcome the economic power of America, will they look to harm it as it has harmed them? Nothing good could come from that. An abusive youth defending itself is no guarantee to anyone, least of all, his or her own self.

Will you allow me to go on even though it is long?

Having said that, I think “Americans” have a “human rights record” by the simple fact that they have “been” and have had the courage to “be”. What more can one ask of anyone? I believe that the fact that they went out and searched the world for its goods the way they did was not only because they were Americans but because they had the connections in other parts of the world that helped them to get the goods out, so we cannot really talk of “Americans” alone in the imperialist race. American imperialism is different to English, German or Spanish imperialism. If we look at it more precisely, we can see humans from all nations allowing these exploitations to take place unfortunately, in most cases, for the great benefit of America and the loss of the other nations but still, who would we blame when a silly innocent girl allows for a teenager to put his hands down her pants?

Today the teenager is almost Robert’s age and the innocent girl has already been raped too many times to be worth the trouble so the problem is not what is left to abuse but how do we bring back some dignity into the scene and protect the little humanity that is left?

I guess the Arabs are a full grown woman with dignity so it isn't surprising if they are less willing to allow for the rape without protesting more vehemently.