The Wake

Have you ever gotten the feeling that your young American life, with all of your hopeless problems and confusing issues, merits more significance than your international counterpart’s frivolous existence? Maybe it stems from your folk’s overly gratifying parenting style, calling you princess and mistaking mediocrity for excellence. Or perhaps it’s our consumer culture. You have more useless stuff than everyone else, so surely your life must be more important. Whatever the reason for your ethnocentric worldview, you are undoubtedly right. As unworthy as it may be, what our American generation thinks, believes and ultimately does with our lives will have a far greater impact on the world than any other group of people.

America is currently basking in the glow of the post-Cold War power shift to the West. We invade who we want, trade with who we want and usually get what we want. In the eyes of the international community we are those rich snobby kids at school that everybody hates, but secretly wants to be. Unfortunately, we haven’t used our power wisely.

By extending our influence to areas of the world best left alone, extending our economic empires throughout the world, and failing to extend our power to those most in need, we have created a fickle international political landscape that has ripened anti-American sentiments and promoted short-term economic gain over social and environmental justice.

The result is negative for both congenial and opposing nations. We now have countries like the U.K. and Australia compromising their citizen’s desires in the name of staying on America’s good side and hopefully a little oil. Australians, for example, are overwhelmingly against the Iraqi war, yet recently re-elected the man who took them to war, John Howard (Bush’s third-order bitch, just behind Tony Blair), because they can’t afford to lose America as a trading partner and strong ally.

On the other end of the spectrum, countries like Iran have perceived America’s actions in the Middle East as a threat and have responded with upgraded weapon systems and possible nuclear facilities. Our current neo-conservative, make-a-dollar-at-any-cost policies are forcing most nations down the same perilous road as us, and pitting other nations against us, spawning a global society of megalomaniacs. This pattern of ass kissing and ass kicking will eventually prove to be far too turbulent in the nuclear age, and, if the present course is not changed, will end with the fall of the United States as a world superpower and many lives needlessly lost.

To understand how we arrived in this precarious situation and where it is taking us, it is helpful to look to the past. Since the Industrial Revolution our world has seen unprecedented technological advancement and economic growth. And while many of these developments have proved beneficial for some, the long-term consequences of diminished resources, climate change, and exponential population growth are alarming. The human population is now doubling every 40 years, stretching our food supply and resources to arduous heights, and detaching us further from the natural world. Despite these imposing issues of our time, no one seems overly concerned. Perhaps we can learn something from the live frog jumping out of boiling water, but calmly dying when dropped in tepid water that’s gradually heated to a boil.

Our current circumstances have warranted blame anywhere from the Industrial Revolution to capitalism to Christianity. But no one is more at fault for the direction our world is heading than the United States.

As the leader of the free world it is our obligation to conduct sound policy that will steer the world in the direction of justice, peace, equality and sustainability. But instead of responsibly acting as a role model, we have promoted isolation and dominance by failing to cooperate with the international community on pivotal issues such as Iraq and the Kyoto Protocol. And because we are alone at the top, we are being held unaccountable for our actions and see no need to take responsibility for our blunders.

Despite this seemingly grim scope of the world, there is hope. Young Americans, as a generation, need to take initiative and start holding ourselves accountable for our nation’s impact on the world. This begins with questioning authority, from our parents to the media to the president, and always searching for the motives behind our actions abroad. There is a reason Americans are stereotyped as being ignorant.

Next, we need to change our entire state of mind, culminating in a collective shift in worldview from perceiving ourselves as dominators of people, nations and the environment, to a commensurate player in the global community. Only then will America realize its full potential and begin to influence other nations positively, treat its people fairly, and protect the environment wisely. But remember, changing our ways is optional and strictly up to you. You are just that damn important.

Nick Bengtson is a University student studying in Australia. He welcomes comments at office@wakenews.org.