In Germany, American pop songs are all over the radio. My new friends from Slovakia and China picture the U.S. as the land of freedom and a great role model. There is little doubt about the U.S. influence and leadership as a symbol in the world. But as far as domination goes and whether the U.S. wants to continue leading the world, there are several things America may want to reconsider.
Throughout this historical presidential campaign, I have observed some American traits — arrogance, the domination of individualism — and what they contribute to: a narrow mind.
Why does being moderate and humble imply weakness? And why does being aggressive mean competence and righteousness? Even making jokes can be a powerful argument. What’s wrong with America’s rational thinking? Just like many other nations, Americans prefer to hear voices that make them feel comfortable. But when it comes to the opposite voices, they choose to ignore them more often than not. Maybe it’s easier to disagree with a very different opinion, which often reflects some value in your own argument. But if a voice makes you feel half right and half wrong, would you become a zealous supporter of it?
It reminds me of a scene in the movie V for Vendetta when revolutionary V, disguised as William Rookwood, told Inspector Finch about how the dictator, Chancellor Sutler, rose as a political superstar: “The more power he attains, the more obvious his zealotry, and the more aggressive his supporters become.”
Resembles some reality, eh?
If finding a common ground — or if you prefer, compromise — is really viewed as dissolving one’s own stance, would moderate people move to one extreme just to claim that they too have an opinion or to prove they are just as competent? It comes down to your gaming strategy: If you stay neutral, you would seem to have no thoughts and lose support from both ends and even people in the middle would find it difficult to support you; if you go to one extreme, you’d win that side and probably wouldn’t lose the whole middle ground. Then how would you choose?
I’m less concerned that people are going for the extremes, but rather that people are making choices based on their peers’ perception of them and therefore not following their own heart.
“This is America! That’s what we do!” If you don’t like football, then you’re not an American? If you don’t believe in Christianity, then you’re dangerous? America is the best country in the world, so if you don’t love every part of it, then you’re not a patriot? If the Americans’ self-identification is this narrow, isn’t it too easy to “be” a patriot?
Take a look back in history. Americans were immigrants from Europe, South America, Africa, Asia, etc. To unite those many nations and shape an American identity was indeed a hard task. So Americans started to pick some unique tags to distinguish themselves from their origins and build their new styles. Crazy football fans (don’t like the other football), loyal Christian believers (don’t like the Muslims), you name it. And by the way, the rest of the world calls the sport, which uses feet to score, “football.” Only the Americans call it “soccer” and name another sport, which basically uses hands to score, “football.”
We know what happened to the empire on which the Sun never sets, the Spanish Armada, the Qing Dynasty. When a superpower becomes too arrogant, it can be blind to other nations’ sparkles and reflect its own flaws and in turn, kiss goodbye some opportunities to improve. After all, we are not always right.
I met a Spanish woman here in Germany. She said the world is now gushing into China for jobs and chances and was concerned that China would be blown into a huge economic bubble and become other countries’ reliance and then — poof — explode, just like the U.S. She likes China, so she wouldn’t contribute to this tendency.
She is among many broad-minded youngsters I met recently from all over the world. They take other countries’ trouble as their own responsibilities. They make me realize that we are all in this together — if you are hurt, I would feel the pain with you.
Now that a man with a humble personality and a broad vision has been re-elected as the U.S. president, I hope that Americans would start to reconsider something through some still-heated debates. I hope the U.S. can truly become a land of freedom and a great role model for the world — even as a foreigner.
Bingxin “Sophia” Huang is a master’s student at Ohio University who is studying at the University of Leipzig this semester and a columnist for The Post. Send her your thoughts at bh586611@ohiou.edu.
