Imagine a country where the people and the government view themselves in such high regard that they felt morally obligated to impose their culture on other nations.
Imagine that this country produced discourse on these victimized nations. The discourse represents the citizens of these nations as savage, inferior, inhumane, illogical and unusual — which would legitimize to its citizens the need to save these nations from their own demise.
Now envision that this country, in efforts to help these countries and their citizens, occupied these lands for months and years. In the duration of their stay, countless innocent men, women and children were seized, killed, policed and beaten by this foreign intruder.
Their lives are in shambles as this country continues its mission to provide a better model with which these people can structure their lives — their model.
Are you thinking of America yet? Well, you should be. It appears that America has reestablished colonialism in what is supposed to be a post-colonial world.
By stationing American troops in various parts of the world to rescue people from their own ignorance and savagery, sprinkling democracy on international governments and using its ideology of being morally and technologically superior to these nations to legitimize it actions, America has all the historical markings of colonial Europe.
How many of us have actually considered how we as Americans would feel if troops from a foreign country settled on our soil and told us that the way in which we were living was wrong? How would we feel if our cultural practices were not understood, but deemed bizarre and unacceptable?
My guess is that we wouldn’t be too pleased about it. So why are we expecting inhabitants of other countries to be? Why are we expecting them to invite us into their countries, homes and lives if our ultimate message to them is, “We’ve come to fix you?”
In one of Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul’s campaign videos, titled “Imagine China Invades America! (Fight for Freedom),” viewers are asked to imagine a scenario in which Chinese troops set up a military base in Texas.
Viewers are also asked to “imagine that thousands of armed troops were patrolling American streets in military vehicles” and that “they operated outside of U.S. law and the Constitution did not apply to them.”
Toward the end of the video, the narrator says, “The reality is that our military presence on foreign soil is as offensive to the people that live there as armed Chinese troops would be if they were stationed in Texas.”
It’s the truth.
As citizens of a country whose motto is “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” we shouldn’t be depriving people of those basic human rights on their own land.
Just like theorist Edward Said asked of Europe, the citizens of America should be asking their leaders what authorizes them to occupy these lands and kill innocent civilians for the sake of progress. We should investigate their actions and demand the truth be told to us.
If we never stop to question how American ideology shapes our perception of ourselves and of people around the world, we will never realize that the values we’ve internalized have actually taught us to dehumanize others unless we see some bit of ourselves reflected in their culture.
America, it’s about high time that you reflect on your recent foreign policy procedures and reevaluate your position as a shining star on the world’s stage. The resources and manpower to assist other countries which may lack those necessities does not give you the authority to play God with the lives of innocent foreign civilians.
If we consider our treatment of other nations and their citizens now, perhaps we won’t have to worry about our grandchildren reading a chapter in their history books titled “When America became the new Europe.”