The Arrogance of Power [Kindle Edition]

This book should be required reading for all Americans, written by a man who, as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during the VietNam War period, can write with some authority about international affairs. Fulbright's thesis is that Americans have two sides, one that is humanitarian and one that is puritanical.

While we may want to see others enjoy the virtues of democracy and freedom (our humanitarianism) we tend to approach them with an air of superiority and an inability to see that there are many cultures in the world and that of the U.S. is only one.

How accurate Fulbright is when he says that unilateral aid, either military or economic, can evoke anger and resentment by those who, Americans feel, should be grateful and eager to receive what we have to give.

Fulbright asks Americans to reflect on the fact that ours is a profoundly conservative society which abhors radical change. Others in the world are impatient with the lack of change and can go to extremes that would never be considered in the United States. Fulbright sees this in the discomfort Americans have with revolutions, being good only if they follow the path of our own. Any route that differs from American experience is suspect.

Fulbright rightly sees the strength of American society in the freedom to dissent and laments the fear and approbrium that dissent often receives. Humility is definitely in order instead of loud boasting and self-righteous denunciations (heard any of that lately???)

Tocqueville said of American democracy..."the smallest reproach irritates its sensibility and the slightest joke that has any foundation in truth renders it indignant; from the forms of its language up to the solid virtues of its character, everything must be made the subject of encomium. No writer, whatever be his eminence, can escape paying this tribute of adulation to his fellow citizens."

This book is Fulbright's effort to speak the truth. It's good to read at a time when we daily hear from powerful politicians who are never wrong and who seem to feel the amount of truth in a statement comes from the number of times it is repeated.

Fulbright's description of the use of fear to drum up support for foreign intervention is exactly to the point in the 21st century with talk of unilateral interventions. Having members of the United States Congress with the author's courage to speak out would simultaneously benefit the prospects for democracy and the image of the United States worldwide.

At a time when there were no heart transplants and America had yet to put a man on the moon, one man wrote a book that speaks of our country today as much as it did when he wrote it in 1966.

It is a reflection on what we have become, and the choices we make for our future. There are two competing forces for the direction we take, what the author Senator J. William Fullbright calls two Americas: One is the America of Lincoln and Adlai Stevenson and the other is of Theodore Roosevelt and the Superpatriots. They are two distinct sides of the American character. The character of Lincoln is rooted in humanism and assumes that America's greatness is its recognition of its imperfections. The character of Roosevelt is rooted in American Exceptionalism, or what the senator refers to as an arrogance of power.

The dominant strand of the American fabric is the democratic humanist one. It is rooted in the principles of our Founding Fathers, humanism, tolerance and accommodation. The coexisting strand is that of Theodore Roosevelt's belief in America's superiority, or what Fullbright sees as intolerant Puritanism. It is the belief that America expresses its cultural superiority through its wealth and dominance, that superiority is measured in military might.

According to Senator Fullbright these forces of the American body politic have been at odds for years with the belief in America's superiority dominating foreign and domestic policy. This is the strand the senator contends must not prevail. This path follows previous empires that failed because rulers did not rule wisely or well. He profoundly states, "power tends to confuse itself with virtue and a great nation is peculiarly susceptible to the idea that its power is a sign of God's favor, conferring upon it a special responsibility for other nations to make them richer and happier and wiser, to remake them, that is, in its own shining image." (Does this sound familiar)?

This superpatriot model is moralistic as well as it is imperial. It demands conformity on its citizens for whatever foreign policy it embarks upon. It fails to recognize that American values are not tied to it but separate and distinct. Fullbright contends that the very light and vibrance of a democracy can be found in its dissent; it is its greatest example of freedom and energy.

Noble intentions are not an example of a nation's greatness, as the author shows that historical interference in the affairs of others were all done with excellent intentions. This becomes a drain on a country's power that leads to political insignificance and irrelevance. Even our benevolence can be seen as humiliation, as our assistance is an embarrassing loss of face, and as we tell other nations what they should do to improve their economic or political circumstances. We are baffled by their lack of gratitude.

Just as the most effective leadership is by example, other nations will be influenced by us by the way they see the welfare of our citizens. America's greatest influence on others is the level of education, health, and standard of living we provide our citizens. They will not be influenced by our military might, a policy of solitary interest, or our "arrogance of power."

Our country is now at the height of its American Exceptionalism, which means it is at the depth of its greatness. Our continuation on this path will lead to our downfall. Our recognition that we are a partner in the family of nations and not its parent, will enhance our stature, not diminish it.

Senator J. William Fullbright died February 9, 1995. This book is one of his legacies. As long as people read and cherish this book that legacy continues.

I was no fan of Fulbright's in the '60s but this book opened my eyes to the startling parallels between then and now, forty years later. It's a "must read" for anybody who wants to put today's global events in perspective. And that his widow, Harriet, was a childhood friend of mine, does not skew this review! I read the book with an initial bias against his views but was completely converted by the end.