Looking at the whole

Submitted by Lindsay
Melbourne Australia!

In order to properly understand the big picture,
everyone should fear becoming mentally clouded and obsessed
 with one small section of truth. - Xun Kuang

(7/2021) Just over thirty-six years ago one of America’s most influential and capable people died. Born in Arkansas in 1905, J. William Fulbright had a vision of the way America could maintain its position in the world while forging coherent relationships with other nations, yet allowing a reasonable standard of living at home.

He may be little-known today, but his legacy remains the template for these current times, as his brilliant assessments of both politics and power still have much say.

You can find his details in Wikipedia, and they are well worth reading, but I want to bring his vision applied to the current international situation.

One quote, courtesy of ‘Foreign Affairs’, to begin: ‘Remaking U.S. internationalism will require that Americans bridge the old divide between committed globalists and concerned localists.’ That task, as Joe Biden has often said, is more complicated than leading through the ‘power of example’, especially when that example includes an organised effort to upend electoral democracy.

Better that Americans should start practicing sober self-awareness, something Fulbright claimed was critical to living, and which allowed the development of a path between ‘illiberal nationalists’ on one side, and ‘braying chauvinists’ on the other.

But self-awareness is a rare commodity, especially in presidents, as the role of leader demands only external awareness. Everything is ‘out there’ demanding action, answers, and assumptions. And, until now – at least, since Lincoln and FDR – that is what you have had. When you compare their approach toward international affairs, then look at the stance Biden is taking, you will a similar way of addressing these issues. And these, today, are far more critical than ever before.

But in domestic politics, Biden departs radically from Fulbright, who was a racist, a bigot, a patrician schooled in the superiority of white Anglo-Saxon men. Fulbright redressed all these now unacceptable beliefs with one that has to put him on the top of the tree: He got rid of one of the greatest scourges in American politics: Joe McCarthy.

You remember that the senator took on the role of cleansing society of Communist sympathisers, (a terrible parallel of the Nazi’s getting rid of Jews), and became paranoid in his cross-dressing fury.

Your new president is not only aware of his own limitations, but of his strengths and ability. He is thus able to see the middle road, the one that threads the tortuous path between left-wing socialists and far right exclusionists. He has so much experience that he is making progress, and one can see the cracks in society slowly closing. From illiberal, paranoid posturing to balanced sanity, Joe is wiping the orange hair from the billboards.

Domestic policies play a vital role in everyday matters, and his newly announced crackdown on crime show how timely and adept he in this area - but no matter how much things like this matter to citizens, they do not determine a nations future. That is ultimately down to international relations and the perceptions others have of you.

And in that area, a faint light at the end of that dark tunnel has appeared. The cult of personality has gone, and reality has returned. Friends are supported and acknowledged; enemies are told they will be held to account.. A ridiculous and greedy war has ceased, and supposed allies who last year were ignored at best, and denigrated as normal - remember Germany, Europe, England? - are now being consulted.

Before, real enemies were embraced – remember North Korea and Russia were the good guys, China was bad, so had to be controlled by tariffs?

Now, the UN, NATO, are back doing what they were intended to do, while the real baddies are being met and some kind of dialogue begun. The scariest is, of course, Vladimir Putin.

He, and the nation he rules, are very different to you in so many ways: Dictatorship versus democracy, iron fist but no true election.

So, to get a sense of one of the most fundamental of differences, lets explore the differing views of history.

Russia sees history as a living presence, an active reminder of what has happened to the country, its peoples and its leaders. It has an active role in both the picture it paints to the citizens, as reminders of their heritage, and in determining foreign policy. Since 1917 slights and insults have not been forgotten, but stored up as the reason for policy decisions and actions. This may not be obvious to the president at the time, but it is like background colour, a kind of ‘Slavic-motif’ where victories are recounted with glee, defeats brushed off but never forgotten.

Gorbachov was a traitor, America demolished the union by bribery, Stalin was a hero, and Putin is the carrier of the Soviet flame. So he says.

America, on the other hand, tends to see history as something in the past. It is the present and the future that is more important, and how it can be made to shape the future.

This has caused more problems than anything else in all of your history. Yes, commerce is the life-blood: The strong rule because they are strong, everyone can work to make a living, and it is your own fault if you don’t.

This is, and has always been, the reason America sees itself as great. More than race, justice, or equality, it is power. Real power that brooks no interference.

But this prevents the question ‘why.’ Why 9/11? Why terrorists? Why did we not succeed in Afghanistan? Vietnam?

The answer, of course, is that you did not step back and take a long hard look at yourselves. Missed recognising your weaknesses, seeing possibilities as sure things, relying on military might instead of diplomacy.

THESE are the things that Joe Biden is bringing to your country. Harmony and détente, reality and a ay forward. He has taken Fulbright’s message and run with it.

The world has become a far better place that it has been for many years. The wrongs and terror that are rampant will not stop, but resistance to dictators is growing. People are willing to die for the freedom of others.

Biden’s legacy will, I believe, be ‘Look at the whole picture.’